I made a box beam following Nick’s book. I did use an inferior quality of underlayment 19 mm thick. The result is a box beam that is not complete linear. Therefore I made the openings in the frame 1 cm wider then the prescribed 2 by 4 inch.
I draw a straight line on top of the box beam and centered the frames on that line. The rest went as described in Nick’s book.
The box beam is placed on an external strong back. This gives place for equipment like staplers, saws and heatgun.
I used the method described by Björn Thomasson (http://www.thomassondesign.com/building/building_manual/preparations.aspx). At first I prepared my circular saw with a wider foot plate and a longer fence.
I thought it worked reasonable well but I payed not enough attention to the strip width. Now I have strips with varying strip thickness. I think the sawdust coming between board and fence caused the difference. I tried hard to keep the fence against the board but sometimes there was a little gap which i could not pull tight.
So now I have to use strips with different thickness and that will give a lot of extra work in sanding.
Next time I will make my strips on a table saw.
After long years reading, lurking Nicks website and waiting, I started making the boxbeam. I hope it is not too flexible. I read that after the first strips on both sides it will be much stiffer but I know that will only be in the horizontal plane. Off course is the beam much stiffer in the verical plane but not as stiff as I expected.
It is made frome underlayment ply 19 mm (3/4″) thick and I followed Nicks book.
Second I made a copy of the frames from Nicks drawing because I did not like setting the siccors in the original. It did cost almost € 20,– but it saved a lot of work. At first I planned to use carbon-paper to make a copy on the wood.
To morrow I start glueing the frame plans on a piece of A-quality underlayment and I will cut it out with a saber-saw. I will use a saw with teeth in the opposite direction to prevent lifting of the glued paper.
Ten years ago I did build the Guillemot Stich and Glue and it has been my favorit since then.
Seven years ago I ordered the plans for the Expedition Single and the Night Heron. I wanted to build the Expedition Single first but I could not get Western Red Cedar cheap enough so I will build it from Poplar. Normaly that wood is not used for boat building, but it is lighter then fir and I could lay my hands on a few boards very cheap.
The Expedition Single is more difficult te build because of the hollows at the bows so I start with the Night Heron.
In this weblog I will try to give a journal of my kayak building project. I started the project in September 2009. This blog started end October 2009. The first photo’s were made when the sides of the kayak were already planked.
