01-28-13 Outdoors in Oklahoma

Well they have been saying for almost a week that it may get up to the 70's today. Knowing that I had planned to pull off the High Capacity Great Auk build and go enjoy some time in the woods looking for some trees for my next Yak Build.

We decided to take Pete out and ride her for a while. We did come across a couple of trees I think will work perfect on the next yak.

I hope you were able to get out and enjoy the outdoors sometime today, we don't get too many days in January in the 70's.

I have attached some photos of Pete as well as some of the trees I will harvest for the next yak on my list.

As always,
Get out and enjoy some of the beauty life has to offer.
Team Frazier

01-26-13 HC Great Auk Build

The hull is getting closer and closer to be completed. It's to a point I can only do about two strips preside each day since the area is getting smaller and tighter.

I am thinking I have just about 4-5 more days working a couple of strips per day to get the hull done.

Here are some pics from today.

01-24-13 Strip Built Fishing Kayak

I have been steadily working on The High Capacity Great Auk in my free time.

I am down to roughly 9 strips on both sides of the hull.

I roughly sanded the keel strip where it meets the stems at the hull as well.

I hope you all are having an awesome day.
Team Frazier

North East Oklahoma Kayak Anglers Fishing Tournaments

For those of you who may be interested in Kayak Fishing Tournaments, NEOKA posted the 2013 fishing trail on Dave's business page on Facebook. It is an event sponsored by OKC Kayak.

Be sure to tell Dave Dale sent ya if you stop in to look at his new kayaks also. That's where we have got out last four kayaks from. He has a great business and customer service is amazing as well.

Back to the kayak fishing tournaments.

Here is the link that Brent posted on Facebook.

http://freepdfhosting.com/43195a6c2c.pdf


I'm ready for spring time fishing.

Have an awesome day..

One of the many reasons I am building a kayak

01/21/13 High capacity Great Auk, Keel Strips.

It is going to be chillie out this morning. Morning temps are 25. :)

I am going to go out and start the heater and get the barn warming up. I will drink another cup of coffee and go and and lay on more strip down, and then start working on the keel strips.

Ill post more after I get the keel strips laid.

I have not been to a boat building school, I am reading four different books and the best I can tell there is no magic number to putting on the keel strips. When it gets to a point that they lay right, on the Hull strips, that is when the keel strips need to go down.

I have re read the chapters on hull and keel strips, as well as I have also looked at several blog post, and it appears to be like anything else with strip building a kayak, there is a hundred different ways to do the keel strip, but basically when the side start rolling up and in, when it fits, put it on.

The one major difference is, the last little bit of the keel strip will have a much great bevel to the keel strip as you try to fold the two strips together and down a hair. I will also say I have seen one last night on a boat builders blog and it appears that guy used a single piece on his keel, but the bottom of my yack has a bevel to it from stern to bow. So I will be using the two strips laying in the previous post.


I took my time on the keel, I wanted to triple be sure it went on straight, I also second guessed myself 8-9 times trying to figure out the best way to get it all contacted up front even knowing it will eventually be covered by the outer hardwood stem.

Working on the football tomorrow.

01-20-13 High Capacity Great Auk Build starting the Keel Strip

After church today we had to run some errands. I knew we was not going to get much done when it was almost 2:30 when we got back home. I also knew I was close to needing to put the keel on. So I got up early before church and glue enough sticks together so I would have some long enough to reach from one end to the other.

I needed some more tape, glue and staples. I am using 9/16th inch staples, they seam to be about the right length. While we are talking about staples and glue, go ahead and save yourself some money and buy a gallon of glue. It is much cheaper than the littler bottles and you will end up going through quite a bit of glue. It didn't take long to go through three normal size bottle of glue. The good news it, I have three I can refill now. I leave one at each end of the kayak and one over to the side.

Also, it has been getting below freezing temps at night almost the entire month, so I bring my glue inside each night. If I glue late in the day I will leave a couple of heat lamps on, in under the kayak to keep temps decent mouth the glue cures instead of freezing, so far it hasn't been a problem, but Febuary in Oklahoma normally brings on some fierce temps.

I have some images attached to this post, the keel strips are cut a hair long for length and after I got them up there on the boat, I worked on the rolling bevel and for it very close to the right fit. I am still one stick low for the keel to line up properly, so I left the keel stick laying on top and called it a day. I was a little unsure how the keel strip was going to attach so I also needed a break to re-group, study it some more, and do some pondering to come up with a solution that would not only work, but I want it to look good as well.

After stopping to re group and think about it, I am positive it will go smoothly when I get started back on it Monday morning.

Jackson Cuda, Rudder and Pockets install

While waiting on glue to dry and working on my new wooden strip built Kayak, I worked on finishing up the rudder and installing the side pockets on the Jackson Coosa,
Dad bought this from OKC Kayak back in late summer. Between us moving and getting the new houses and barn built and everything else going on we did not even get to take it out this past fall.

Pops, has mentioned a time or two that he still needs his kayak put together. When he came out to the shop to see how the yak was coming, I had him pull his truck out and we sat up his Cuda on the rack.

While stripping the hull of the High Capacity Great Auk, I worked on putting in the side pockets and installed his rudder kit for his Jackson Cuda.

I still need to install another pocket and put the anchor trolley on his yak. He liked how I had set mine up so he will have a Twinkie set up to mine,

Stripping the Hull, High Capacity Great Auk

Saturday 01/19/13,
It was a pretty productive day in the shop. I worked on finishing the cheater strips at the front of the fishing yak and stripped up almost to the keel line.

I figure some time Sunday after church I will be starting the keel.

I also figured out yesterday while the heater was going that it was much easier to bend the strips as they start getting verticals neat the stern and bow that heating them with the heater works pretty good to help loosen them up for the bend.

I ran out of staple and glue about the same time. So today after church I will stop by and get some glue, 9/16" staples and some more blue painters tape.

After getting all the cheater strips in I have one little spot about 1/16 of and inch that I will need to shave a piece of wood to fill in. I will do small work like that when I am waiting on glue to dry.

I had built an extra set of kayak Horses when I built the ones for the kayak. They work great as an extra set of hands when ripping wood and I also put the Jackson Coosa up on the rack yesterday and started working on getting it ready for spring fishing as well. See other poster.

Have an awesome day, its suppose to warm today.
Thanks
Dale

01-18-13 High Capacity Great Auk

I was off today and was able to work on the Kayak today.
I think I got three or four strips done and some cheater strips put in as well.
At the end of the day, I worked on sharpening up my plainer.

I doubt you can tell from the pics I have posted, I am working with straight strips. I did no do the cove and bead strips because I wanted to give the straight strips a try. Running a bevel down both sides of the strips is going faster than I had thought it might, but it is still time consuming,

It was 32 when I went out in the shop today, so even if it takes a little while to bevel the sides of the strips it's too cold to do anything else outside.

So far this has been one of the best winters yet, I can't see getting cabin fever, when I can go out and work a little each day on the fishing kayak.

Thank you Angie for getting me the plans for my new kayak..!

I will say this for those who may be thinking about building a kayak and wanting to know the pros and cons of using staples to hold the sticks in place or the clamp method. I assumed before I started that I could staple the strips and just keep going and knock them out a lot faster. Since I am not building a show kayak, instead a fishing kayak, I opted for staples and thought it may be faster. I am not sure it is any faster, I have only been able to finagle a couple of trips per day anyhow.

I do have several splices in each board right now. My average length board is only about 6-8' so by the time I make a skarf joint and clamp it and keep on going down the side of the yack I am stopping and waiting on the skarf joints to dry before I add another strip.

I worked on smaller projects that needed to be done while I waited on glue to dry. Oh another big perk I found out today, the shop heater will run on diesel so no more $12 a gallon kerosene. It makes the $3.60 a gollon diesel seam cheap, that is sad to, it isn't worth but the same ole 1.50 a gallon it used to be,,

Anyhow, hope you all have an awesome day.
Dale.

Working on a Paddle

Some of my down time has consisted of me working on a paddle.

I am using a draw that my dad let me barrow. It was his dads and his dads before him.

I wonder if it was ever used to make a paddle in the past.

Just FYI, the top image is a small hand paddle. I use one very similar while fishing out of my Cuda, it make a great little paddle while fishing, you can make small adjustments when the wind is blowing etc while fishing.

I will work on them as I continue to strip the yak.

Have an awesome day everyone.

Team Frazier.

I am going to have to figure
Out how to upload videos.
I have a few videos of this process as well.

High Capacity Great Auk, First Two Strips

I had the day off and had been looking forward to get started on stripping the hull.

Pops got his new AT&T Internet Bo's and signal booster, so I went over to help him after I started I heater. My lap top crashed after getting it started at his house. Another reason, I have been switching to Mac, Mac works. Long story short, I didn't get his Internet hooked up and I only got two strips put on the high capacity great auk.

I will post pics this morning.

I hope you all have an amazing day.
Remember to get out and enjoy what the outdoors has to offer.

Have an amazing day.

Team Frazier.

High Capacity Great Auk

Everyday this past week has been in the 20's when I would wake up and go out to the shed to work on cutting out the firms etc. I got all the forms cut out and put on the sting back. Took some final measurements, made the final adjustments and cut out the keel for the bow and stern and put them on the appropriate forms etc.

My form number 8 was the one I will refer to as my "rogue" form, all the others only needed a little adjustments and en they were true. I had to play with form 8 quite a bit but I finally got it where it lays fair with the rest of them. Oddly enough sitting in the chair listening to K-love, and the idea for taming number 8 came to me. :) Handle form 8 like anyone else coming at you in a fast hurry, use their weight and speed to take them down. :) she is playing nicely now.

I had originally bought an extra 2X4 and 4 1X4X8 to use as mini work benches attached to the saw horse. I ended up cutting up all the 1X4 to make braces to screw e forms to the strong back. The book calls for T shaped braces, I made U shades ones, and to be honest, don't waste your time with the T shaped. The U shaped ones give you something to screw to on both sides of the forms. Even using a chop saw set on 90 degree cuts and all the U shaped pieces being set up square, I used both side of the U to screw to the forms down straight with the Strongback.

I know I spent extra time ad care on the forms and set up then the book describes, but I want my yak to go straight in the water when it is suppose to.

I also screwed some of the scrap plywood I had left over to the top of the Strongback to use to put clamps, bottle of glue etc on while I am stripping the hull. I will take these off and put them on the deck side when I get to that point.

Here is some photos of e forms set up on the strong back.

This morning it is a balmy 35 degrees and I have my glue inside keeping it warm. We are fishing to go out and lay the first strip down today. I don't picture getting much more than the first strip done today. Pops has some things he needs help with next door and I know I will take my time on the first strip, just like I did the forms. The first strip is the starting point, which will define how all the other strips will go on.

Getting all the forms cut out and put on the Strongback was a nice accomplishment. All with in a few days of receiving e plans.

But again I had been doing prep work and organization stuff awaiting them so when they got here I could press on with this build.

Again thanks for stopping by
Enjoy the outdoors.
Dale
Team Frazier.