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Manual is now in print

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Been working on this for a few weeks. Our assembly manual is now in a printed and bound book. No more CD’s!

I much prefer anything technical to be on paper than the in digital format. After publishing my book and learning the ins and outs of publishing a book I decided to print the assembly manual.  I wanted to make some updates and tweak it a little bit. That has taken a little while.

I just placed the order for the first copies. Starting around February 1 if you order a kit or a plans you will now get the printed manual instead of a CD with the manual on it.

 

Shad is finished and photographed

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A few photos from the second time out with Shad. Foggy and rainy but a great day to do some photography. Just posting a few here.

My buddy Phil out on Short Creek.  Further down the river I gave him my camera and asked him to snap away. Gave me a chance to see my boat on the water.

I need to paint my logos on there and this one is done!

Kudzu Craft nuclear green

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I got my green! Well not exactly but this is pretty close. A tad yellower than I had in mind but it is as close as I can get. After all searching I found this at of all places my local Ace Hardware. The paint stores couldn’t mix it but the hardware store can? Really? Well if the quality of the paint is there, they have my business.

Anyway, check it out. It’s not finished but it’s close. Look at those lines, even if I do say so that is a good-looking boat. Now if it just paddles as good as it looks.

Now, with these you can see why I call it Nuclear Green, I think it may glow in the dark! 🙂 Anxious to get the rigging  on the boat, that will help by breaking up all that green. So stayed tuned!

Tool cabinet * An about face!

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Hate to waste all that work but I scraped the idea of making the cabinet from oak. I had the carcass finger jointed and ready to glue up yesterday but I started to realize that it was just a problem in making. The oak was  heavy, it was warping and being solid wood I had to allow for expansion and contraction. The more I thought on it I decided ‘the look’ didn’t outweigh the problems and extra work I was creating. After all this is all about function, not looks.

I finally decided to save myself a lot of headaches so this morning I started over. I went to the building supply and picked up some birch plywood. It may not look as good but at least I know I will not have the problems I was going to have with the oak.

It’s also a heck of lot faster to build. I started this morning and it was glued together awhen I left the shop. I will start on the doors in the morning. I think I can finish them tomorrow. Then the slow stuff starts, deciding on how I want the tools arranged and building all the brackets and fixtures to hold them.

When I went to pick up the plywood I was surprised to be asked if I wanted the good plywood or imported stuff. One of things I really like about this supplier is they keep quality supplies, so this was a rather big surprise. But I was really glad to see that they were offering both.

Since this was just shop cabinet I went with the import after being warned it wasn’t very good. But it was $20 a sheet cheaper too. But you get what you pay for! I am not complaining, but compared to the what I have been getting this stuff is cheap! Lot of voids inside. poor quality surfaces, Not flat and I didn’t check but I don’t think the edges were square or straight.  No way would I want my house cabinets made from this stuff!

Day 12 Finished (for now)

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Still not had a chance to go the water but I wanted to wrap this up and show you the finished boat.  This is going to be rather long post, but I have a bit of surprise to tell you about.

All the rigging is done, the back band installed. Nothing left to do. I kept track of the hours and I was very surprised that I came in just under 60 hours.  That doesn’t include the coaming though. There is probably 6-8 hours in a coaming, but those hours are spread over several days work.

This photo (below) is Shad sitting on the scales! I was surprised by this. 31 pounds on the nose.

Now for some photos of the rigging. I like to keep this simple. I don’t carry much with me so I don’t need much on the deck.  I did realize when I was taking these that I don’t have a forward loop to stow a paddle  under so I will need to make a change for that.

Now, for the surprise.  As I said from the beginning, this is a prototype boat. Building prototypes give me a chance to find any problems and make any changes before I release the plans. This boat has some problems and I have decided to change it  so it is not going to water any time soon.

If you look really close notice how the curve of the sheer line changes. Up to the arrow it has a nice up-sweeping angle and just about the arrow it starts to flatten out. Look at this image and you will see how it is supposed to look

The sheer should curve upwards all the way to the ends. Instead, it starts to flatten out on both ends of the boat. I had problems putting the frame together but I convinced myself it was OK. I had to force the boat into shape and thought it  would look fine once it was skinned. Well it didn’t and the boat has started to ‘hog’ a little. Meaning the ends are lower than the middle, just a little but it doesn’t look like the drawing and I am certain it is not going to paddle like I want either. I don’t have to go to the water to test it, I know I am not going to like it.

I read about people pre-bending the stringers before assembling to prevent this problem. Seems to be an issue certain boats from another designer.  I have never had faith in this method, it just asking for the boat to distort because wood will often try go back to its original shape.

I have been looking at a way to solve this for a while now. I have been toying with an idea and this boat has shown me I was on the right track and I know why it did what it did. BEst of all I know how to fix it.

The fix will require ripping the skin off the boat and replacing some of the existing frames But that is why I will not release a new design without building it first. I want to find any problems and fix them now.  You don’t want to build a bad boat and I don’t want a reputation for designing bad boats.

So Shad is finished but Shad is going to be taken apart too. I may wait till after Christmas but I will document it all till she is on the water and I am happy with it.

Jeff

 

 

 

Day 11

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You have to love the fact that you can build a boat from start to finish in two weeks just taking your time!  I don’t have the hours in front of me but I before I wrap this up I will give you the total time.

As you can see I finished up the cream on top. All that is left it put a little black on the coaming and the fabric inside the coaming so it looks better and add the deck rigging.  I had to order the perimeter line. I didn’t have enough on hand. Tomorrow afternoon I will make the fittings and install them along with the bungee and backband. When the cord comes in I will just have to tie it on the boat.  It will still  be ready for the water Saturday without the lines.

This photo makes the hull look really funny but it has a deeper V shape than it appears  here.

Day 10

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Today was one of those days. I got an education in paint and still have a lot more I want to learn. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I wanted the hull was  painted black and for course it is easy to find black paint.  I flipped the boat over on a set of saw horses, grabbed my HVLP spray gun and started spraying.

No real problems but I hate black and wonder why I use it every time! Always hard not to have some flaws in it. It shows EVERY flaw.

I also picked out a green yesterday when I picked up the black paint, but once I saw it on the fabric I hated it. I wanted a bright green, something like this and what I had was not even close. So I headed back  to the paint store, actually two paint stores because I did not like the answer I got from the first one. I got educated on paint.

Usually I use an oil based porch and deck enamel. It’s reasonably priced and you can buy it at most any home building supply and of course it works well on the boats. If I want a special color they mix it for.

This time it seems I chose a color that people don’t use on their houses. 🙂 No one could mix anything anywhere close to this color. Even if they could they said it would probably fade out really quick. The problem is the base color paint they start with. I can’t explain it but I did grasp what they were saying and that they just couldn’t get to where I wanted with house paints.

Both places suggested I go to the automotive paint supply and they could mix any color I wanted.  But I don’t much about automotive paints and they are expensive too!  Before I walked in I wanted to educate myself a little bit about what it available. For now I wanted to stick to something I knew. Time to pick another color but what? I already had the black on the bottom.

To keep this short I picked up a quart of Hunter Green and I  knew I had two more quarts in the shop. I painted some scraps, placed them on the boat and stared at them for while. None of them impressed me honestly, but I had to make a choice.

I narrowed it down the Hunter Green and the Almond. I decided to use the green, at least it was green as I had planned. But I kept going back and forth…… I couldn’t make up my mind.

The almond won out.

It doesn’t look that good in the photo but I am impressed and almost glad I couldn’t get my green I wanted.  I expect to get two coats on tomorrow and then I can take the tape off and see what it really looks like. If all goes well, should launch it this weekend.