Success... of sorts

On getting home yesterday afternoon I inspected the previous day's work to see how my first lot of panel-joining went.  All of the joins were bonded strongly enough to remove the weights, though some were still a little tacky and needed another day or so to finish fully curing. As is stands, I think I've joined together about 40% of the pieces now, and managed to glue another 4 together last night, so I think I'm sitting at a little over 50% completion for this stage of the construction. With a few warmer days on the way I should be able to get the rest of the joins finished by Friday and then they can fully cure while I'm away at the Hawkesbury on the weekend.

The lessons keep on coming however. In the manual it instructs to look over the wood panels to check for stamps on the timber put there by the mill, plus any stickers, marks etc. I did this previously when setting up and checking off the panels, but looks like I either did it in the dark or with my eyes closed, as on turning them over to check the underside of the joins that were among the first I set, I found these:

I had successfully epoxied over two mill stamps with expert precision. I figure I will possibly be able to sand through the epoxy once it's fully cured and remove them. The reason I didn't see them is that they were on the other side of the joins I was doing, and hence on the outside of the boat. If they were on the inside I don't think I would really care too much, as they'd work like an identifying mark of sorts, but I don't think I want them on the outside of the hull. After much colourful language and profanity, I also found two other stamps that I'd previously missed, and sanded them off. To quote George W. Bush "fool me once, shame on you, but... ahhh... fool me twice... you can't get fooled again".

Here's how sneaky they can be, this one was right on the join, and I wouldn't have seen it unless I was looking for them on the joins. Hence, here's Tip #3 on kayak building from the book of Coho: Check both sides of the joins before you let epoxy anywhere near them. It's like letting a dog run around unsupervised near setting cement - that mess is gonna be there for a while unless you catch it before it happens.

I guess if I have to leave them there it'll bring life to the notion that this boat will be personalised and I'll know each and every piece of it. In the scheme of things it probably won't be that visible, but it's annoying nonetheless.

Structurally, the joins are fine, hence the title of this post. And in that respect things are coming along swimmingly. I'm getting more confident using the epoxy, and starting to get a picture of the hull as it all comes together. If there was a Masterchef for kayaks, I reckon I'd still be in the competition. The taste is there, it's just that the presentation is lacking. Plus, Matt Preston is a jerk and I wouldn't take any of his crap.