Bmac

Back at it. I've done about as much research as I could do. Now it's time to put things on paper. Started with a flat line representing a flat surface the legs will sit on. From there I transferred the heights of all the significant parts to the chair- seat, arm, and back of chair. These heights are marked in relation to the line and this is where I start.

I also have lengths for the back leg/arm support, front leg, and backrest support. Also have the angles, from there got to this;

A few key measurements here- you want the backrest to be parallel to the front leg. You can do that but having the joint surfaces (front leg and backrest joints, not armrest joint) of the backleg/armrest parallel with each other and cutting the same angle into the joint surfaces of the backrest and the front leg. Here's a pic of the backleg/armrest piece, notice the joint surfaces are parallel;

So once I've got the right width and parallel sides I cut the arm rest joint surface;

Next is cutting the correct angle and length in the backrest and front leg pieces;

Side pieces all cut and patterns drawn on blanks;

Confirming all matches with drawing;

And finally bandsaw used to develop rough shape;

Gluing up sides and fitting arm is next.

Thanks for looking.

This chair has always interested me, a true Danish MCM classic. It's a chair that has been in the back of my mind to tackle and last Jan when I moved my son into his new apartment, a number of remakes of this chair occupied the lobby of his complex. I was so happy to get a chance to sit in and inspect one. It's a comfortable low slung lounge chair that I think could be made with loose tenons (domino) as long as I could figure out the angles and dimensions. I've quietly been researching this chair for the past few months and I think I have enough info to jump in. Finding the plans and details of construction has been a challenge, but I've gathered up enough info to give this a shot. Here's the objective;

I'm really excited to get back to working on a chair. I plan to make more than just one of these. I will start with a pair made out of cherry and may make a second pair out of walnut.

Here are some links I've found to help me along the way;

https://www.skyecooley.com/single-post/2016/04/24/Selig-ZChair-Prototype-1

https://www.lumberjocks.com/RossL/blog/series/22825

These are the most detailed links I could find, but I know some of you have better web searching skills than me. You guys were a huge help when I tackled the Maloof Lounge chair. So if any one has or can find any info to help me along the way I'd be greatly appreciative.

Thanks for looking.

Well @Mark J, you asked for on the water pics, so here goes;

"Yours truly" on the maiden voyage;

Some appropriate pics waterside;

The kayak handled well, was a complete joy to use. It was well worth the effort to make and I can't wait to make another.

Thanks for looking

Alright, I have not been hiding, I've been varnishing my a*% off. Four coats top and four coats bottom after a lot of fairing and sanding of the epoxy base. After varnishing, on went the additions that make the boat complete. Here are the pics;

Ready for the water, fully rigged and set up, just need to add the float bag for the front compartment;

Handmade walnut handles drilled thru hull;

Front bungee cords, left them a little long to see how it goes;

Bungee cords again and hatch behind the cockpit;

Hatch in place and off, you can see the foam seal, takes quite a bit of force to latch down, expect that to improve as the foam compresses;

Cockpit set up and ready for the water;

And some pics off the sawhorses;

I will have to say this was a really fun build, a complete pleasure. Fortunately my past experiences with glassing were a big help. I think I'll be building more of these, but for now I have to run this one through it's paces. This is a wider beamed boat more for recreation, will see how I enjoy this before making another. May go longer and skinnier for speed, may go with a sit on top version for a great fishing platform, or I may go with one just like this if my wife wants one. Or maybe I should just make them all.

Thanks for looking.

Another big milestone, for the most part all the pieces of the kayak are together and glued in place. I still have little stuff like the seat, backrest, tiedowns and toggles for the hatch to put on the boat, but that will be after finishing.

So after glassing the deck I got some of my parts epoxied on for the cockpit and hatch opening;

After that I cleaned up and feathered the hull area where the glassing draped over on to it. You can see a few drip lines and the edge of the glass. Epoxy should fill that in.;

 So on to another coat of epoxy over the glassed deck, and I also epoxied the hull where the glass overlap was, you can tell it's starting to blend in nice;

After that coat and a complete sanding I added the last piece to the cockpit combing, and a small sill rim for the hatch. You'll notice a small area in the first pic just behind the combing in the walnut section. I got a small bubble under my glassing, to late to do anything about that. ;

Here are a few pics after sanding the first epoxy fill coat, you can see in this pic the shiny spots are low spots, so I'm not quite level. But I'll stop here and add another coat before I sand through to the glassing;

Here's an area where I'm pretty level with hardly any shiny spots. You will also notice something in this pic, you'll see a clear almost chaulk like material under the top of the combing. This is thickened epoxy, thickened with cell-o-fill, a silica powder, and it is filleted in that area to add strength to the cockpit combing;

And here's another area to point out. In sanding I got very close to the glassing and started to expose the weave in one area. It should be fine and will disappear with the next coat of epoxy, but you need to watch out for these areas as you are sanding;

So here's the deck sanded and ready for another layer of epoxy;

Epoxy added and also coated the bare wood in the hatch area and the cockpit;

So the deck should be ready for varnish after another thorough sanding. Before I varnish the deck though I need to flip the kayak over and prepare the hull for varnish. The hull has been glassed and has 1 epoxy fill coat already added, and the area where the glass overlapped from the deck has had a second coat. So the hull will be sanded and one more coat of epoxy added before final sanding. I'm so close I can just feel the kayak slicing through the water. Whenever I get to this point in a project I tend to get obsessive and can't wait to wrap it up, but I need to be patient as the varnishing will be long and tedious.

Thanks for looking.

A couple of big steps toward the finish line. I now have the deck attached to the hull. To start the process I attached the deck via packing tape and then it was turned on it's side;

I mixed a thickened mixture of epoxy and had to basically crawl into the kayak. Here's a look at the joint prior to filleting with epoxy;

Here are the tools I'll use;

This is the epoxy fillet placed;

After the fillet is placed I wetted glass tape and I'll be rolling this into the seam;

Here's a few pics with the tape in place;

After 24 hrs the packing tape was removed and a lot of sanding to get ready for glassing the deck;

Glass in place prior to wetting, I'm going to wrap the glass from the deck to the hull to reinforce that joint;

After wetting with epoxy;

And I can't forget the hatch cover;

So these steps just about conclude the construction phase. I have a little to do with the cockpit combing and hatch area. After that it will be a lot of sanding and finishing.

Thanks for looking.

12 hours ago, pkinneb said:

Looks great Bmac!!!

I tell you what you and a few others on this form (@Chesnut comes to mind) can really make a guy feel like a slug  

Paul

Looking at your basement journal shows you are anything but a slug.

Picture heavy post as I'm paddling toward the finish line construction wise. 

Deck underside was cleaned up and before glassing I ran a bead of thickened epoxy at the junction of the combing and the deck. This creates a smoother transition for the glassing but also strengthens this mostly end grain glue joint;

Glass laid out on the underside;

Epoxy applied;

Just behind the cockpit, they recommend you place an extra layer of glass, as this is an area you will sit on to enter the cockpit. Extra layer placed and then saturated with epoxy;

Next comes the cutting out of the hatch behind the cockpit. They give you a template and this template will eventually be glued on tne underside of the hatch. Two holes placed by their CNC router machine help you find the centerline;

Place it on and trace using the inside of the guide as your line, midline also marked on the kayak deck;

Well I wasn't happy that first the circle looks off because of how it hits the walnut feature, any number of things could have thrown it off, but the walnut feature really makes it obvious;

So I fiddled with the location some and drew a few guidelines;

Settled on this one because it preserves the sharp walnut contrast;

Small drill bit used to open up a slot for the jigsaw blade;

And very very carefully, with a fine toothed metal cutting blade I cut out the hatch;

Next, while the deck is off I wanted to secure the bolts that hold on the foot supports. The plan calls for this to be done after the deck is put on, but I saw posts where guys did it before, and it seems a lot easier to do that. Here's the kit I will use;

The bolts need to be epoxied on perfectly, or the foot supports won't fit, so I want to tack them in place while they are in the foot supports, but I can not, under any circumstances glue the foot supports in place. First set up looked good, but the spring clamps put a little too much pressure on the supports. I didn't want to squeeze out all the epoxy;

So changing it up a bit I worked out a clamping arrangement that applied less pressure;

You can see packing tape in place between the bolt and the support, and here's the glue up, used thickened epoxy, thickened to a peanut butter consistency;

Preparing a piece of glassing;

Once glue is tacked up, but not hard, I removed the supports and placed the glassing, pushing it into any extra epoxy;

Then added some more thickened epoxy to the glassing over the collar of the bolt and finally wetted the glassing completely with unfilled epoxy, supports will stay off these bolts until everything else is done so the tape will also stay in place to protect the threads;

So there I am for now. Next step is a big one, attaching the deck to the hull. 

Thanks for looking.

I know @Chestnut, I'm dragging on this build. Actually been pretty busy cleaning up around the house after a near miss with a tornado. Fortunately for us we weren't hit but high winds still did some minor property damage. Also, it was tedious putting together the strip decking. I think if I do another one of these (perhaps not if, but rather when), it will go better. Took me a while to get the feel of it and the process down. But nevertheless, I'm now done with the top deck. Did a little cleanup of the surface, but will wait for the final sanding and finishing of the topside after I glass the underside of the deck. So here's where I'm at;

Pic from the bow;

From this pic you can appreciate the sweep and curve of the deck, this made it a little challenging putting the deck together;

I struggled here where the deck meets the cockpit combing. This is my best area as far as results are concerned;

You can see in this pic I didn't do as well here as some strips aren't as tight to the combing as I'd like them to be. I plan to run a bead of thickened epoxy on the underside of this joint prior to glassing to fill in any gaps.

So after I was done gluing up the deck I removed the nails that were holding it in place on the forms and took a deep breath before I teased the deck off the forms and hull. This was stressful as I was trusting I didn't accidentally glue it down any where. My packing tape did it's job and I was able to carefully pop the lid off. Here's the deck sitting with the underside exposed;

At this stage I need to clean up the joint between the combing and the deck, I need to remove excess glue and clean up the underside of the deck, and then I'll need to glass the underside of the deck. 

Thanks for looking.

Quick update, the strip deck is just about completed. A lot of fiddling to get the pieces to fit and you really can do all of this by hand. I've been using a handsaw, block plane and rasps to fit together the strips. 

Here's were I'm at right now, hope to finish up the deck by the end of the weekend.

Stern is pretty much done, 2 very small sections need to be filled in but I'll do that once I take the deck off for glassing;

Bow is coming along;

To fit together the pieces you need to cut your angles and make a cove where one is needed, rat tail rasp works great;

Or make a bead where needed;

That piece will fit here;

Another neat tool is to use a small piece of stripping wrapped in sandpaper to help shape your coves and beads;

Thanks for looking.