End of Season Canoe Build

I put two layers of bias cut s glass on the stems. This didn't turn out so great colour wise. S glass doesn't seem to wet out as clear as E glass plus I got some air in there despite trying not to. Durability has a cost I suppose. I'll go scrape off what I can of the excess while it's still green but will be waiting on cleaning it up until the inside is done.
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I should have added that it looked a lot worse when I first applied it. I used my gloved hand like a squeegee and forced out as much of the grey air trapped epoxy as I could. I then added fresh over top and carefully worked it in. This helped a lot in removing the grey but it left it looking pretty rough. The carbide scraper is doing a fine job taking it down though today.
 
Thanks David, luckily the epoxy was still quite green and shaved off easily. Those thin shavings love sticking to things.
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When unscrewing everything I discovered that I slopped epoxy into a 3" screw head.
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The boat turned over well, a few forms fell out. The center ones stayed so I think I'll leave those in while I do some sanding. They only needed some gentle taps to remove most of them.
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Now that the boat is the right way up the yellow cedar is growing on me.
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I only got a little done today. I had to fix our snowblower since no one likes shoveling. I planed down the bow stem and really should have started in the stern. Get it figured it out in a less obvious spot. I started with my 6" plane but that made a few contact lines in the cedar. I switched out to the micro plane and it didn't take long shaving it down. I used the long board with some 80 grit and knocked the glue down before switching to the random orbital with an interface pad and some 80 grit. I just went light until the glue disappeared.
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I planed down the stern stem today then did a little grinding with a burr and a stone. I want to round out the stems so the glass lays in there nicely without me having to add an epoxy fillet joint. It will take a little more work yet.
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I finished rounding out the inside of the stems. I ended up using my Dremel in the end to finish it up. The pencil grinder was a bit too big. I've been using the random orbital with interface pad to sand the inside but broke out the long board again for the inside of the tumblehome section. I've mostly finished the rough sand on the inside now. Standing the boat up to sand it it's crazy light right now. Sadly it's going to get so much heavier. I've been very careful when sanding to just sand enough until the glue is gone. I'm concerned about sanding it too thin.
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Got the fillet joints done and the seal coat completed. I used my wife's icing bags and the disposable wooden spoon again for the fillets. I only mixed up 2 pumps of epoxy this time instead of 3 when doing the seal coat. It allowed me to get it on thinner by getting it all on before the pot life timed out.
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In the spirit of full disclosure I should share an oops I had. I was using my random orbital and interface pad cleaning up around the bow inside stem. I had my headlamp on which while it gives great light you miss details sometimes when it points straight down. In the first picture everything looks good but in the second with the light at a different angle you can see I've removed way too much material and am dangerously close to sanding through. I'll be adding an additional patch of glass there to strengthen that bit.
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When setting up for glassing I used foam cradles out near the stems where the boat is already tough. I didn’t want to risk the hull deforming from it’s own weight and then me glassing it permanently to that shape. I masked off the edges and pre-laid the glass. I would just pull it back to wet out the overlaps. I tried using 30” 60z s-glass sideways since I had the material on hand. It’s finicky getting your overlaps looking good and keep them straight when glassing. It did allow me to save a big enough piece of 60” s glass though to do my son’s boat so that’s good. (I have an Arctic Tern kit I picked up from John for him) I did a butt joint in the center of the boat so I wouldn’t have a crease underneath me but otherwise did a 1.5” overlap on the other joints. There is a transverse piece of 60” 6oz s-glass over top of that butt joint to tie it together and help keep the cockpit smooth and tough. In the stems I laid a couple of pieces about 6” x 30” that I tapered the ends on. They sit in the bottom and I cut a couple of pieces 24”x 18” for the top. I folded those to 12” and trimmed the corners to match the stems. They overlap the bottom and then are overlapped by the last piece of 30” 6oz s-glass. That last tranverse piece of 60” I put on last was a right pain. I waited until it was almost tacked up but there were still sticky bits. I fought that piece for about 2 hours. Re-wetting the sticky spots and fighting wrinkles. In the end it looks ok, still some wrinkles and a small ridge at the butt joint. My sharpie markings for the overlaps also ran down onto the yellow cedar on the inside with the epoxy, stuff happens. I have one more fill coat to put on tonight.

I forgot how forgiving fiberglass is with your wood work. All the gaps seem to disappear nicely. Even the all the rough bits in the ends were substantially muted. Not the most fun day.
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It looks really good. When I built some canoes, I left the interiors a bit 'rough' (cloth weave texture) to make it a bit less slippery. It did collect dirt more easily though, so there's always a tradeoff.
 
It feels like I have been doing nothing but shoveling the driveway here. All that snow made for an amazing deep day at the ski hill though so it's a worthy trade off. The ski people will likely appreciate this picture I took of my daughter showing the conditions. Over a foot of fresh on top of a few feet of fresh'ish fluff.
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The kids have both gone back to university now and Christmas is mostly put away. Time for me to get back to the garage. I was working on the float tanks today. The taper is different front and rear on a Kite and I want to have the carry handles near the end of the float tanks. I put my MEC Scully bag and bear barrel in to get an idea where to end the tanks so things will still drop in without the thwarts being in the way. In the end I made the bow tank an inch longer. Hopefully sand and shape the tops tomorrow.
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Today started well, I sanded the pieces then taped the templates to them and cut them out. I sanded them to fit below the walnut allowing room for the plate and a filet joint up to the walnut. I planed down some bead and cove scraps to and hot glued them in place bead side up on both ends. I was just finishing the stern and looking back at the bow I realized my mistake. I intend to have walnut in a T shape on the upright potion of the float tank. I wasn't thinking about that when I was fitting the top pieces. Looking to the bow while working on the stern I saw the walnut line that runs along the tumblehome wasn't going to meet the top of the T with how I glued the support pieces in. I need to raise the top piece up to flush with the walnut so the top of the T makes a uniform line otherwise it would look wrong. Not sure how I forgot that part of the plan but it seemed a good time to stop for the day.
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Not much of an update. I planed the strip of walnut down to 18mm to match the inner stem and shaped/trimmed a few pieces before tending to household chores. I didn't want to be the neighbor out too early running the snowblower. We have a lot of standing snow and are just starting a week long chinook. I had to clear the snow away away from the house and shovel some weight off the deck before work tonight.
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Finished the wood on the front tank, just needs a little sanding then glassing.
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I took advantage of the weather window and was hoping to get the gunnels cut to length. Since they're 18' I have to open my garage door. Turns out they are pretty tough to get on there. The only bit that went on easily was the bit I'd stuck a 1/4" strip in. I marked and cut the end I'd got on with a zip cut then pulled it off. I used a gasket scraper and stuffed pieces all the way along to flare it. I'll have to knock down any excess epoxy too before trying again. Hopefully that will be enough flare.
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I spent a little time getting the gunnels cut to length outside before it gets cold here again. I had left them overnight with the wood bits in there which did help a fair bit. The best way to get them on ended up being getting them started, lining them up then whacking them into place. They are a very tight fit made worse by the curve of the hull. You kind of had to let it twist then pry it open and give it a whack further back to seat it deeper. I was using a mallet and a piece of wood to distribute the force. I tried padding but wound up leaving some small dents on the top of the aluminum. Part of me says to buy a new one, the other part of me says oh well now they've already got their first dent. On the positive side they slide all the way down to the yellow cedar.

Later on I was planning to mount them, drill them, remove them to drill the wood holes a hair larger, seal the holes then remount and rivet. Considering the difficulty getting them on I'm wondering if I should just drill, seal, put the rivet in with the epoxy wet?
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