Kayak Cross Sections Complete!

After a week of a little work here and there, Paige and I finished the cross sections for both kayaks. It's been fun so far, and I've been able to include Paige in some way with each step of the process:

• She helped saw with Japanese saw;
• She helped squeeze the trigger and steer the jig saw;
• She's sanded;
• She's filed;
• And finally, she's swept & ShopVac'd.

With each task, we have discussions about the dangers of using tools and how to manage the risks by using safe practices. Of course, as the typical 5 year old does, we had our couple of moments of distractions. Each time, we've had frank discussions on what wasn't done safely, what she needs to do right and what the consequences are. In all- she's been spectacular and quite focused on what she's doing.

Our shop rules are that if a power tool is being used, then safety goggles must be worn. I bought her 2 different pair of goggles, to ensure that (at least) one fit comfortably; AND- to cover the case where she misplaces one. There were a few instances, she wasn't allowed in the garage until she located a pair of glasses. I've also had her (and I) wearing the safety glasses if we're actively participating or assisting in sanding, filing, etc. So far so good- I've been a good role model; I've only caught myself once or twice with working without my safety goggles on. (She even wore them while using the ShopVac.)

The cross sections have come out nicely. My biggest issue is lining up with the drill bits. With the wood boring bit, I just wasn't able to fully grasp exactly where the holes would be. With the regular bits, I found they slipped out of position much more than I care to admit. I also found, that I'm horrible at judging depth of the holes - once or twice drilling straight through the wood backing I'd clamped onto the cross sections.

One comment/tip/thing that helped me- I do not have a Forstner Bit like Tom suggests, so I used a regular wood boring bit. I was having issues with the back of the wood tearing out as I punched through. I tried taping the back and it helped a little. Bryan suggested a few things - 1, the obvious, being gentler; and 2, clamping the cross section to a piece of wood backing. These helped tremendously. There's still a bit of tearing out, but it's quite manageable and almost presentable.

For the cross sections, I took the time to first file any edge that skin (the paddler's OR the covering) may come into contact with. I took the major edge off with the file and then used sand paper to clean up the file marks. This took me quite a while (20-30 minutes per frame), but I think that's a combination of: I'm spastic and not very good at this stuff. However, the end results looks and feels wonderful. So, I'm glad that I did it.

And, speaking of clamps - thus far, I've gotten away with a single spring clamp. I'm sure that I am going to need more, in fact, with the next step of building the strongback, I'm going to borrow a couple of my father-in-law's quick-clamps.

Sea Flea Cross Sections	#1	#2
	#3	#4

Sea Tour 17R Cross Sections	#1	#2
	#3	#4
	#5	#6
	#7

---

View Pictures Gallery

---

Cross Sections Cut Out & Started a Kayak for Me

On the weekend, I had the cross section blueprints printed out at Staples. Paige and I cut them out. I had her do the rough cut outs and I finished them to the exact size.

To transfer the templates to plywood, I first tried taping down the paper (on the interior cutout area) and going over a corner edge with a black magic marker. My thought was that the paper would block the ink and leave me with a clear indication of what should be cut (the where the marker was on the wood). I didn't count on the ink spreading and seeping through the paper. I next simply drew along the edges of the paper. As much as I could, I held the paper down and tried to keep it as tidy as possible. Pulling up the paper revealed that it worked out pretty well.

I marked each cross section in the middle and along the top edge to indicate which kayak it was for and which cross section it was (e.g. "Flea 3"). Comically, I ended up with two "Tour 3" cross sections. I had to go back to my original print files to figure out that I mislabeled #5. Oops!

Together, using my pull saw, Paige and I cut the plywood down to a smaller size. Before turning in for the evening, I got each of the cross sections rough cut-out using the jig saw.

The next day, I started in on the finer cutting of each cross section. My plan for Paige was to keep her busy with some minor sanding. She did good and only lost focus a few dozen times! I decided that I'd brave having her help by squeezing the jig saw trigger and got bravery by letting her (help) steer it. There were lots of warnings and a few heart-stopping moments, but she did well. We did have to stop once and have a long and fairly excited talk about not putting her hand below the wood while the saw is cutting. But, in the end- we still both have our 10 fingers and both eyes.

I got far enough that I started drilling out the interior of one of the Paige's forms. I'm using a 5/8" wood boring bit (because I don't have the recommended 5/8" Forstner bit) and found that I'm tearing out the back of the wood. Taping up the backside and being gentler when punching through has helped a bit, but it's still not ideal. I swapped e-mails with Bryan a bit and he suggested maybe clamping the wood to be drilled to a scrap piece of wood. If I can scare up some clamps, I'll give that a shot.

I also took a wood rasp/file and rounded the edges anywhere that the skin would touch or rub and anywhere that Paige would come in contact with. After I filed down the edges, I took some course sandpaper on a sanding block and cleaned up the edge a bit. Officially, I have 1 cross section complete!

---

View Pictures Gallery

---

And, in other news- the references above to the "two kayaks" and "Tour 3" mean that while I was in my Visio-mood, I went ahead and drew up the cross sections for the Tom Yost Sea Tour 17R. While I have the plywood, jig saw and whatnot out, I've gone ahead and started the cross sections for a kayak for me.

• Offsets converted to millimeters
• Cross Sections Blueprints on 36" x 48" paper
• List of Costs for project
  (I'm keeping this specific to purchased made solely for the Sea Tour 17R; anything that was purchased jointly is going to the Sea Flea 11 cost.)

Cross Section Blue Prints

Being geekly is wonderful. Seriously- if you haven't tried it, break out the inner pocket protector-itude and give it a shot. As I laid out the cross sections for Paige's Sea Flea, I couldn't help but think that I could layout the cross sections in Visio. I knew that the large-format printing would be an issue, but I gave it a shot for grins and giggles.
(The "T" in the picture is for Tom Yost. We had a "Y" too, but it didn't turn out as well.)

Layout in Visio 2007

To do this in Visio 2007, I started a new drawing using metric units. For simplicity in the math- I used the lower-left corner (coordinates: 0, 0) as my center and baseline. This means that all of the Y (vertical) points matched the height at baseline (HAB) values. The X (horizontal) points matched the left and right points of the half breadth (HB) values; negative values were to the left of the center line and positive values were to the right.

To make things simpler, I sketched out a form and drew intersection horizontal and vertical lines through it. On the left-size/vertically, I drew in the HAB/Y distances. Along the bottom, I wrote in HB/X distances. Using this, it was easy to draw each line. The start of the first line's X point was at 0 (the paper edge) and the height (Y) was at the HAB for the keel. This line ended with the X/Y of the chine's HB/HAB. The next line started from here and is drawn to the gunwale's HB/HAB. For the deck ridge, if there is only a HAB provided, then the HB coordinate would be zero (0). Once you've done one side, you can either continue using the measurements/coordinates for the other; OR- you can copy & paste the lines and then flip it horizontally.

For precise placement, I used the "Size & Shape" window in Visio-- this allows you to enter the exact millimeter coordinates into the X/Y positions.

To draw in the locations of the stringers, I used the square and rectangle tools. In the Size & Shape window, you can put in the inches units and Visio converts it for you. Then it's a matter of dragging it to the correct location and rotating it as needed. If you zoom in, you can get much finer rotation to get the lines to line up.

For the curves, I used some trickery, but I essentially used the "Line-curve connector". You draw it from the starting point to the ending point and then are able to drag the middle to the desired arc of the curve. For me, I used a temporary square placed in the middle to properly measure the 1/2" the curve should be inset.

For the internal cut-out area, I used a set of appropriately sized blocks (1 1/2" at the top and 1" on the sides & bottom). I then drew out the internal area using the line tool.

How to Print

Most printers will print 8 1/2" x 14" without issue; some printers will go up to 11" x 17". A handful will print larger than that-- in fact, I'm lucky enough that my work has a plotter that will print 22"-wide on a roll of paper. Still, I wanted to go larger and Visio was there to support me. It had paper sizes of 22" x 34" and 34" x 44". I found that the Sea Flea fit nicely on a 22" x 36" sheet of paper and that the Sea Tour 17R fit onto a 34" x 44" with no problems. My quest was to find somewhere that could handle the printing of these (inexpensively!). I found that Staples will print a black & white blueprint at 24" x 36" for $2.99 and a 36" x 48" for $4.99. By using the "Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for 2007 Microsoft Office programs", I was able to generate PDFs of the Visio diagrams. I used Staples online interface to upload the PDFs and specified that I'd pick up the prints the next morning. There was an option to "Scale the file to fit the paper" to which I said NO. And, spastically, I added a note that the files were smaller in size and should not be scaled. I went to the Staples store armed with my ruler and list of offsets; I double-checked a few of the measurements and found that they were correct.

What's next...

The next step was to cut out the forms from the paper, transfer them to plywood and cut them out. But, I'm getting ahead of myself for this post.

---

• Sea Flea 11 - Cross Sections Blueprints on 22" x 34" paper
• Sea Tour 17R - Cross Sections Blueprints on 34" x 44" paper

---

View Pictures Gallery

Foam Cross Sections Complete

I cut out the finished cross sections for Paige's kayak last night. I ran out of time the prior evening, so I had to wait. I wasn't sure what would be best for cutting the foam board - my thoughts were either a Xacto-type knife or using a good ole utility knife. My concern was that the foam board would be too much for the Xacto, but I wouldn't have the precision and control using the utility knife. Ultimate, I used both - the Xacto for the curves and the utility knife for the straight lines. My wife does a lot of scrapbooking, so I used one of her cutting mats to protect the floor and table where I cut.

Each of the cross sections turned out pretty well. Looking back at them now- I can see a billion things that I don't like about them. In my picture gallery, I have individual pictures of each.

I can honestly say that I'm not sure if doing the frames in foam board has helped or hindered the process. The cut outs were not nearly as clean as I was hoping- the sandwiched foam itself tore out a handful of places. And, note to self- work on cutting perpendicular to the table top (most of my cuts were at an angle, sometimes significantly). I've seen that most other people draw the cross-sections out on paper and then transfer it to wood. If you've done it this way, could you add a comment for how you transferred the layout from paper to wood? If/when I build the next one- my idea (probably stolen from somewhere) is to draw it out on paper, glue it to the wood and cut it out that way. No matter, doing this on foam board has been a good experience.

As I was drawing the cross sections, #2 seemed impossibly small for her legs to fit through. Once I cut it out, it seemed comically large for her legs. And, giddy with excitement- I had to have her try on the cross section for fit. I even propped #1 up against her toes for a full look. (I thought briefly about setting up #3 and #4 behind her and having a "full" kayak... but, Mom was calling that it was time for bed.)

I'm SUPER excited to start the cross sections in wood. As with everything, my ignorance has me concerned. Everything that I read says that I need "exterior grade plywood"- but, a quick glance while we were walking through Lowes says that there are a handful of different "exterior grade plywood"s. So again, any specific input is greatly appreciated (he says begging-ly)! And, I've confirmed with my father-in-law that he can rip a 1x6 into 3/4"x3/4" strips. It'll just be a matter of buying them up near him and bringing them home one weekend.

---

And finally, I got e-mailed by Kelly T in Canada. He sent me links to a post of his on WestCoastPaddler.com that has pictures of his 2nd Sea Flea build. He built one for both of his kids - they look great!

Another Sea Flea build

I was just sent this link to another Sea Flea build from Australia: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/mafm22/SeaFlea

Finished Drawing Cross Sections

Paige and I finished drawing up the 4 cross sections for her kayak last night. It was grueling work for the princess, but she got it done in the end. Once I had my question answered regarding the location of the keel stringer, drawing them out went pretty quick - a measurement to make sure the stringer location was a 1/4" below the keel and trace my stringer square. For most of them, I held the stand-in stringer (a piece of cardboard cut to dimensions) and Paige did the tracing.

The next step was to draw in the concave sides and internal cut outs. I referred heavily to Tom's example.

I measured out the 1/2" concave between the keel and chine on each of the cross sections. For this, I marked 1/2 way between the two points. I'd then measure 1/2" in from that. To keep my mind straight, I drew in light dashed lines to track where the curve started and stopped. Later my wife and I used the cardboard backing of a yellow pad to draw the curves.

Once the curves were taken care of, the next step was to draw out the internal cut outs. This went pretty quick - the top is 1 1/2" thick and the bottom and sides are 1" thick. For the tops, I used the ruler and drew out lines. For the sides, I cut out a 1" strip of cardboard and used that as a quick ruler. These came together pretty quick.

---

View Pictures Gallery

---

And, a side note- when I first bought the yard stick, I was surprised to see that it also had metric gradations. I have found that I use metric (versus imperial/inches) for a majority of measurements.

Cross sections started

Over the weekend, I worked on getting the cross sections drawn onto foam board. I'm glad that I did, I had to rework a couple of minor things. I found ways to have Paige help - I had the offsets plotted out and we connected them together. Our first session was to get the main outside dimensions drawn up. I squeezed the second session into a small 20 minute window between other stuff; but, we got started on drawing the stringers in-place. My next step is to draw the concave edges and internal cut-out area.

I'm at a place where I have a question about the keel line- in Tom's example pictures, he's using a 1" x 5/8" stringer for the keel. He has a 1/4" overhang off of the bottom of the cross section. I need to find out if I need to have a 1/4" on the Sea Flea's keel (or less, if appropriate).

Update: I posted on the Kayak Building Bulletin Board and got a response from Tom Yost that indicates that a 1/4" is required for skin to cross section clearance. Well, that was easy.

I've also added a chalk line to my list of tools. It was free via our local Freecycle group, so my project total cost stands as it is. Though- I just saw the Veritas cornering tool on Bryan's blog. I'm watching one on ebay that I'll hopefully be able to win. But, we'll see.

Happy Yew Near, offsets & more buying

First and foremost- Happy New Year!

Today I took my first baby step at getting Paige's kayak started. I took the offsets for the Sea Flea, laid them out in table-form and converted them from feet to inches and millimeters (we'll see which I find more useful). My hope was to take advantage of a quiet workplace and layout the actual cross sections on foam board- but so far, that hasn't happened.

Yesterday also yielded another trip to Lowes for a home/bedroom remodeling project. While there, I took advantage of it and picked up a couple more supplies:

Category	Item	Price
(See entire list.)
Supplies	8" Cable Ties (100 pack)	$4.88
Supplies	Fine cut/Metal Jig Saw Blades (3 pack)	$4.97
Tools	Sanding Block	$2.28
Misc. Fees	Tax (from Lowes)	$0.73
Lowes Total:		$12.86
Project Total:		$113.87

Truth be told, the cost of tools has added up more quickly than I expected. But, my goal is to build myself a kayak - if that happens, then it'll all be worth it. If not, well- I hope I enjoy this build.