Kayak Build pt. 2

Some more crappy photos of the build.

We explored the idea of roller stands to feed the lumber (2"x10"x20' cedar) through the table saw, and then subsequently through the planer and router. Ended up devising our own system. Mounted some 2x4s to the beams in the ceiling and fastened them to the floor. Then we mounted a horizontal piece of 2x4 with some pieces of ultra-high molecular weight poyethyene atop them. Very slick, and with a chamfered edge along the side the lumber would be coming from, it worked perfectly. Rather than screwing the wood together, we just mounted it with a clamp to accommodate the different height of the different tools. If one was slighty higher or lower than the other, we could adjust and drive on.

Some UHMW tape on the surface of the table saw also helped with getting the wood across.

Ripping strips. And making sawdust. Lots of sawdust.

First cuts. These will then be down their lengths into even thinner strips.

But before that could happen they needed to be planed. Four planks side by side to make the process a little faster.

And a little more sawdust.

Then the ripping into thinner planks could begin.

And just because I love the stuff so much, we produced a bit more sawdust.

The strips were then planed again. And, yes, some more sawdust for good measure. 6 garbage bags full in one day.

Table full of strips.

Stinking hot attic, lots of sawdust....not so fun. Oh well. Just wait till the sanding portion.

Wait, let me just sweep up a little more sawdust.

Go here for part 3 of the build.

S.o.t.D. - Halcyon – Workbench

Halcyon – Workbench

Soundtrack to a really epic event in ones life.

Bob Kramer Damascus Kitchen Knives

I’ve been a happy user of Zwillings knives for 25 years. While I’m not in the market for these knives, I thought they were nonetheless very nice, and enjoyed seeing a little bit of the manufacturing process.

S.o.t.D. - Future Funk – Bill Riley

Future Funk – Bill Riley

Heard this a long time ago on a mix tape that Jarkko gave me, but never knew the name of it. Playing some random tracks recently I discovered it again. Still super duper good after all these years. Bouncy roller.

The LEGO® Story

Being the dork I am I already know the story of Lego, but for anyone not quite so obsessed, now you too can learn the story of the most bestest toy, ever!

S.o.t.D. - Tears Will Fall – Yagya (feat. Ellen Kristjánsdóttir)

Tears Will Fall – Yagya (feat. Ellen Kristjánsdóttir)

I know that in an alternate universe, this gorgeous track will be a huge hit, selling millions of records, with the creators mobbed by legions of rabid fans.....alas, in this universe, this will not transpire.

S.o.t.D. - Ice Forming On Glass – Bluetech

Ice Forming On Glass – Bluetech

Can’t even begin to describe how stupendously good this is.

S.o.t.D. -E.S.T. (Trip To The Moon) – Alien Sex Fiend

E.S.T. (Trip To The Moon) – Alien Sex Fiend

Absolutely loved this band when I was a teenager, and this song especially. There isn’t much in the way of clothes I had many years ago that I miss. My Alien Sex Fiend T-shirt is one such garment. Need to get myself another one.

S.o.t.D. - A Day Without You (Will Sonic Edit) – Osunlade

A Day Without You (Will Sonic Edit) – Osunlade

This is what house is supposed to be: funky and soulful.

Bibliophilia: Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites by Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson

Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites – Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson

Terrific read! A cast of dogs (and a cat) investigating and battling nefarious, supernatural goings on in the sleepy town of Burden Hill. Geared towards kids in some respects, but maybe more for kids a bit older. Liked the art, liked the stories.

S.o.t.D. - Boxing Day – Lojik

Boxing Day – Lojik

Smooth as silk.

S.o.t.D. - Experience – Textural Being

Experience – Textural Being

If this track doesn’t make you move there is something wrong with you. Sublimely awesome.

S.o.t.D. - La Mer – Lemongrass

La Mer – Lemongrass

Image suits the music perfectly. Babe lying in a hammock on a beach.

Bibliophilia: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

The Forever War – Joe Haldeman

Allegorical tale about Vietnam, and an interesting counterpoint to Starship Troopers by Heinlein. A war that because of jumps through temporal portals, lasts for hundreds, thousands of years. Presents an interesting conundrum in that the main character is fighting for a people and a culture that have changed so drastically that none of the motivations seem to make much sense any more. Kind of spoiled for me by the knowledge that now a country has a hard time mustering up public support and resources for a low intensity conflict that lasts a decade, let alone an interstellar conflict that lasts for millenia.

S.o.t.D. - The World (Is Going Up In Flames) – Charles Bradley Feat. Menahan Street Band

The World (Is Going Up In Flames) – Charles Bradley Feat. Menahan Street Band

On the great Daptones label. This whole record, No Time For Dreaming, is worth checking out if you’re at all into funk and soul from the 60s and 70s.

Speed Archery

Either we have to ban high capacity quivers, and deadly automatic assault bows....or I am completely smitten by this lass.

S.o.t.D. - Marbles – Plastikman

Marbles – Plastikman

For all those who claim that techno is soul-less and boring, a track like this proves them wrong. This totally takes you on a journey.

S.o.t.D. - Escape – Bluetech

Escape – Bluetech

More sublime perfection from Bluetech.

S.o.t.D. - Jeep Sex – Akufen

Jeep Sex – Akufen

Oddly random, but the picture of Meneer de Uil from the Dutch kids show De Fabeltjes Krant made me smile.

S.o.t.D. - Twist Another – Alkahest

Twist Another – Alkahest

A tight little groover from Burlington Ontario’s finest, Legion of Green Men, in their techno guise.

Bibliophilia: Information is Beautiful – David McCandless

Information is Beautiful – David McCandless

Yes it is, and not only were there lots of inspiring examples of data visualization and information graphics, but I also learned a bunch of neat little factoids from it.

Kayak Build pt. 1

I guess it has officially begun........

We got CNC cut molds - saves a lot of time and probably more accurate than we could do. But they were made from particle board - easily damaged, especially if bending stems around them. Using some ½" plywood we copied them, cut them out and shaped them with a sander. Rather than risk damaging something that we’ll need for two builds right out of the gate, it was worth the effort to make a copy to bend the stems over. The size and the outer curve was the only part we needed to be persnickety about. The holes are for the clamps, and those could be as rough as they are. This is the bow mold. 

Stern mold copy.

Bow mold copy.

Stern mold copy.

Planed very thin cedar. Bear Mountain was kind enough to give us a pair of stems for free, but we needed more than one set.

We didn’t use steam to bend them either. The piece with the knot hole was left till the last. If we needed it we could use it and fix the hole with epoxy and cedar saw dust paste. But since it was the stem that would go inside, it didn’t matter much. We achieved the thickness we needed without it, so it was put aside.

Work table at just the right height.

Dampen one side of the cedar slats, Gorilla Glue on the other side of the next slat, form a laminate and then bend and clamp. Worked very well.

 Stern mold all clamped up.

You can never have too many clamps.

Clampification.

Kayak attic as we’ve taken to calling it. With the most important piece of equipment of all - a rotating fan. Makes it somewhat bearable in this heat.

Go here for part 2 of the build.

S.o.t.D. - Hope For Us – Deep Spelle

Hope For Us – Deep Spelle

Nice deep house track, with a picture of the Kate looking particularly fine.

Bibliophilia: Just My Type: A Book About Fonts – Simon Garfield

Just My Type: A Book About Fonts – Simon Garfield

I admit to being a type geek, but even someone who knows nothing about the subject will enjoy these bite sized sections about the surprisingly involved world of typography. Great cover too.

S.o.t.D. - Nothing To Fight About – Zero One

Nothing To Fight About – Zero One

Attic Renovations

As mentioned in my last post, the cedar strip kayaks we intend to build, will be built up in Hank’s attic.

It’s 80 feet long and it is in a 150 year old sail loft. Up till this point it has just been a storage space. Quite a bit of work needed to be done before it could be turned into a workshop to build kayaks in. 

(And I have to apologize for the mostly abysmal quality of the photos, which are pretty crummy even by my standards. With sunlight glaring through a window at each end, and crappy bulbs hanging from the beams, the results couldn’t be great given the camera I have. But it will give you an idea of what we’ve been doing.)

This is pretty much what the attic looked like from one end to the other. 150 year old planks on the floor, broken and missing in places, with a lattice work of odd sized pieces of plywood to cover them and a lifetime of accumulated stuff. This is the back portion looking towards the front.

After moving stuff from the front to the back, we hauled plywood up.

A good sense of what the floor looked like.

 Put up a wall along one side.

After laying down a new floor, the next task was hoisting all the tools into the attic.

We built a beam out the attic window. This is the way it’s done in our mutual homeland, and just a smarter way to get heavy loads up. The first load caused some creaking so we added more wood to the beam, and that worked fine.

Ratchet strap for tying around stuff.

One of several ridiculously heavy things to be hoisted up. In the process of removing the motor to make it a little more manageable. Damaged leg that will have to be fixed.

Several components removed from the table saw already, both to reduce the weight and also to make it small enough to  fit through the window. (The red gas tank was brought down from the attic to give to someone.)

All the stuff that was hauled up. Work bench, table saw, table planer, joiner, scroll saw, grinding wheel, tool chest - that one was a killer.

The hatch leading up and down.

Tool chest.

Work bench put back together.

Table saw put back together.

Strongback being built atop the work bench.

19 foot strongback with a stack of molds underneath it.

Another improvement was to rewire the attic and install better lighting and also to build a work table on casters. 

So in two weeks, we went from a dusty, dilapidated attic to a functional work space. 

I am stoked!

Go here for part 1 of the build.

Building a Cedar Strip Kayak

Little quiet around here because I’ve been a very busy lad.

A friend, Hank, called me up recently. He built a cedar strip canoe about a dozen years ago, and knows of my interest in making one. “My son is the same size as you and I was thinking that I would like to make him a cedar strip kayak.  There’s no way I can do it by myself, because the one I’m looking at is 19 feet long. And I intend to do it up in the attic which is going to take some renovation before it can be used. So I could use some help with that. Now, I figure that if I go to the trouble, get the plans, the molds, rip and plane and router all that wood, I may as well build two. One for my son, and one for you. You pay for the materials for a kayak, and we build two of them together.”

“Uhhhmmmm.......okay!”

His son is the same height as me, with about an additional 50 pounds, but with size 15 feet. Kayaks to fit mutants like us are a bit unusual. Custom built is likely the only way to go.

Building a cedar strip canoe or kayak has always been on my list of things I would love to do, but space has always been an issue. If an opportunity presents itself, someone who has the space, tools, some experience, and a desire to do it, I’m going to seize that opportunity. It wasn’t necessarily on the top of the list of projects I planned to tackle, but it is now. 

Besides the fact that this is a really cool opportunity for me to learn some new skills and get a useful and beautiful item out of it at the end, I also thought of it in terms of taking my nephew up there once in a while and let him witness portions of the build and learn some stuff. 

Oh and the kayak we’ve opted for after a whole lot of looking and comparing is a Bear Mountain True North XPD 19/3. 

And if you want some fun eye candy to look at, check these out. http://www.redfishkayak.com/customers%20gallery.htm

I would like to incorporate some of those curvilinear designs into the deck of mine. Or something a bit oomphy to jazz it up and make it personal. Also thought of maybe doing some marquetry for in the deck hatches (or maybe just in a deck hatch - let’s not get too ambitious.) Compass rose maybe or a spiral. I’ll see.

I will try to do my best to chronicle the builds as they progress, but it’ll be tricky trying to juggle photographing and building.

I haven’t been this stoked about anything in a long time.

Go here to see the attic we’ll build it in and the renos we did to it to make it usable.

Ray Mears Builds A Birch Bark Canoe

I have the book that accompanies this series, and while it is cool to see a pictorial depiction of the process, watching the whole episode and the entire process is both incredibly inspirational and dare I say, quite a spiritual thing to witness.

S.o.t.D. - Reflection (feat. Karen Gibson Roc) – Lemongrass

Reflection (feat. Karen Gibson Roc) – Lemongrass 

The more I hear Lemongrass, the more I love them. Trip-hoppy breakbeats with great vocals over top. Mmmmmm...mmm. This reminds me a little of a track or two off of Two Pages by 4Hero, which, considering it’s one of my favourite albums, is a good thing.

S.o.t.D. - La Rue En Verre – Textural Being

La Rue En Verre – Textural Being 

Bit dubby, bubbles along nicely.

S.o.t.D. - Night Song - Crest – Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan with Michael Brook

Night Song - Crest – Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan with Michael Brook 

N.F.A.K. is one of those artists I should probably take the time to listen to properly at some point. Only familiar with a tiny amount of what he did. This record being it. Got it mostly because I’m a huge Michael Brook fan.

S.o.t.D. - Forgotten Horizons – Two Thirds

Forgotten Horizons – Two Thirds 

Snappy.

Bibliophilia: A Devil Is Waiting by Jack Higgins

A Devil Is Waiting – Jack Higgins

Lord knows I loved The Eagle Has Landed and maybe a few of his other early ones, but the last few of his I’ve read are getting a bit goofy now. The characters and circumstances are just getting loopy. His insistence on somehow tying the IRA into everything comes off as hanging on to a formula that worked at one time, but now just needs to be ditched.

S.o.t.D. - Copenhagen (Claimin’ Respect) – The Boulevard Connection

Copenhagen (Claimin’ Respect) (Instrumental) – The Boulevard Connection

Copenhagen (Claimin’ Respect) (Street Version) [12"] – The Boulevard Connection 

Two versions of my favourite hip-hop track ever.

S.o.t.D. - Beatport (Beat Pharmacy Deep House Mix) – 1st Class

Beatport (Beat Pharmacy Deep House Mix) – 1st Class 

The picture is kinda cornball, but the song is some good, deep house.

S.o.t.D. - Breathe – The White Birch

Breathe – The White Birch 

A very sparse song, with ethereal vocals. Random discovery that I’m glad I found.