> Hi All,

> I have been having fun preparing what I can in for the building of one of
> Nick's beautiful Guillemot kayaks in the spring. At 15 degrees below Zero
> Fahrenheit it is a "bit fresh" to be working in an unheated
> garage at the moment :-(

> Just wanted to share a couple of things that may benefit others in this
> stage of building.

> I will be building my Guillemot from regular spruce lumber and red cedar
> decking. I found some very good quality spruce and cedar at the Home
> Depot. Four 2x6" x 10' of spruce and two 2x4" x 8' cedar have
> yielded enough 3/16" strips for a kayak with a reasonable margin.
> Cost of materials - about $40.00 CNDN.

> A bit of lumber mill etiquette: When searching for that perfect board, be
> sure to leave the pile of lumber as neat [or neater] than you found it and
> don't interfere with other customers - that way when you return for more
> wood you will be welcome. Kayaks strips and paddles require the "best
> of the best" materials - don't loose the PRIVILEDGE to search for it.

> Ripping the strips went well. The Freud, 24 tooth, thin kerf, 7 1/4"
> blade that was recommended from Home Depot leaves a very smooth surface.
> The feed rates on a 1 1/2" thickness of cut are good and the blade
> runs cool.

> I made a set of in-feed/out-feed extensions for the table saw from
> 9/16"x12" x8' white particle board shelves with 2x2" x8'
> spruce mounted on each side as guides/stiffeners. Having good support for
> the long pieces of wood made cutting them much easier. A bit of furniture
> spray wax [Pledge] gives a nice slick surface. Thinking back over the
> times I have struggled with long cuts makes me wonder why it took me so
> long to get around to making these extensions.

> I made several feather boards and found them useful for cutting the
> perfectly flat wood - should be great when routing the beads & coves.
> The wood that had a bit of a twist was cut without the feather boards by
> keeping the cut surface tight to the fence by hand. The free hand cutting
> went well and eliminated to reset feather boards for each time.

> Paul's suggestion to rip the 2x6 into 2x3s was very helpful as was his
> suggestion to flip the board end for end every couple of cuts. The
> narrower pieces were lighter and easier to keep in contact with the fence.
> Flipping the wood helped to cancel any cutting inaccuracies I introduced.
> Wedges were also very useful - I had made half a dozen and they were great
> for keeping the kerf open when ripping the 2x3's. Cutting the strips
> didn't require the wedges - the kerf opened buy itself (once I had fixed
> my fences). I set my fence to a bit over 3/16" to give me a bit of a
> tolerance until I get some more experience/confidence in milling
> consistent thickness strips. They turned out OK actually.

> I played around with various fence setups for ripping and settled on a
> 18" spacer mounded on the saw fence just forward the blade. The wood
> was not perfectly straight to start and as strips were removed, the
> stresses in the wood caused more "bowing". With the bowed wood,
> the in-feed fence caused problems with guiding and the out-feed fence
> interfered with the kerf opening up and caused the back edge of the saw
> blade to score the strips - I adjusted both of them so that they did not
> touch the wood any more. It was very easy to keep the wood in tight
> contact the short fence on the saw although the last inch or so of the cut
> was unguided and a bit tricky. I set the blade to minimum height and used
> push sticks. Gotta use caution working that close to the blade!

> Next operation: Bead & Cove the strips.

> As always, suggestions, comments and questions are welcome.

> Hope this is of interest.

> Hank

I built a fence with a zero clearance insert for my router blade. MLCS also sells combination flute and bead router bits for about $32.00. If you are interested in a picture of the fence write me. The fence also includes a feather board.

Walter H. Klaus