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.