Building End Forms for Great Auk

Submitted byMichael74 onFri, 05/10/2019 - 19:21

I could use a little help building my bow end form for a Great Auk.  In the picture, how do I attach the side form as positioned to the bow end form?  Do I cut out the middle portion of form 1 and glue the sides to the end form, or is it better to notch a section from each and slide it on?  Do I position the side form to line 2 or line 3 in the picture?  Finally, I will cut off the dotted section of the form to use as a template for my internal stem, but am I supposed to remove the dotted section along line 1 too?  Thanks a ton for your help....its my first time.  I finally finished attaching and aligning the middle forms to my strongback...what a job!Alignment along bow end form

Welcome to the world of building kayaks.  If you are not careful, it will become an addiction.

I am not one of the experts and have not built that design,  but am working my third strip build so I think I can help.

1.  You will want to cut form 1 in half and glue to the sides of the bow form.  Nick draws the forms full sized so you will need to subtract the width of the bow form from the middle of form 1.  If the distance between the outer dashed lines in the center of that form is the same as the thickness wood you are using for the bow form, then just cut on the two outer dashed lines.  If not, you will have a little math to do.

2.  It is a little hard to tell from the photo without more info, but it looks line the form should align with line 2.  You will know that it is in the correct place if the top, bottom and reference lines on both the side and bow forms line up.  Remember that in the front half of the boat, you will want the paper side of the form facing forward and the form place so that its front (paper) face is along line two.  This is opposite of what is in the picture.  On the aft half of the boat, the paper faces aft and the forms are placed forward of the reference lines.

3.  Yes, you make the inner stem template by cutting along the front dashed line.  When you get near the bottom and the line starts to turn horizontal, you will want to leave the dashed line cut down to the bottom of the bow form.  This will leave you with dashed lines on both the top and bottom of the bow form.  These are bevel lines.  With a plane, bevel the top and bottom on each side back to these lines.  If you look through Nick's recent video series documenting his Bootlegger Sport build, he demonstrates the entire inner stem process.  

Pictures show the bow form for my Mystery build.  Ignore the extra pencil lines drawn on the form.  I was considering reshaping the bow a bit but decided not to.form