JEM Watercraft

jem wrote:very clean and meticulous work.

And very fast too Looking great

Mike

You did a beautiful job on cutting the hatch. And the boat looks beautiful as well.

Coaming is finished:





Loops for holding rear hatch down are in:



Now there's sanding and hatch seals to do. Sounds easy but I am unsure about what to do next. The surface after what seems like some hefty sanding is still mottled with many small glossy low areas in amongst the flat areas.
I am intending to do another coat of epoxy but should I keep sanding until it is all flat or apply another coat of epoxy now then sand again?
Hopefully you can see what the finish is like in the next pic. Have already sanded down to the glass in the areas where there is overlap but this is OK as it is only the top layer and the final coat of epoxy will cover it.



Starting to get frustrated now as it's so close to finished and I just want to chuck it in a river and go paddling!

Starting to get frustrated now as it's so close to finished and I just want to chuck it in a river and go paddling!

That's what I did. I felt it was well rewarding.

Don't rush it , take your time and when it is together then try it out. The epoxy needs to cure for about 30 days before varnishing it so in that time have some water fun with it. About a week after the last coat of epoxy is a good time to have some water fun.

The scratches it gets will vanish with a light sanding and then the varnish for the final step. After then any scratches ... some varnish will take care of them.

Chuck.

Bob;
I think I am going to get you to cut out all my hatches, nice job.

As for sanding, if you are going to varnish, sand the entire boat, then if you have low spots, squeegee on another thin coat of epoxy to try and fill those low spots, then sand, or get a carbide scraper, with a two inch wide blade and go over the entire boat with that before sanding. The scraper can remove local high spots easier than sanding (my opinion). Use a ROS sander if you got one (Random Orbital Sander).
Ideally you want the entire boat to have that dull color, low spots now will just be low spots in the varnish. When it is all dull looking, wipe it with a damp cloth to get a preview of what it will look like varnished.

DM

Thanks for those replies.

I will give it a bit more sanding then a coat of epoxy and squeegee off and see if that helps. Early attempts at using a sqeegee gave poor results but it might be worth trying again at this stage as the roller leaves an orange peel texture - thanks for that tip DM.

I do have a ROS but always worry about going too far with power tools - mostly done by wet sanding so far, although I have done a fair amount of scraping too.

Hi Bob,

Looking great mate. Hope mine looks as good as yours when it finally gets finished. Ordered up plans for Okwata yesterday that Matt got in the mail today. Thanks Matt!!

When I am finishing furniture, I usually sand as much as I feel I can safely do without going through the finish but those little shiny spots are always still there. After final wet sanding with 400 grit wet/dry paper I rub the entire surface with 0000 steel wool and wipe on a coat of good quality solid furniture wax and those slight irregularities are no longer visible and the surface is smooth as silk. I will do the same thing with my Laker only substituting a couple or three coats of varnish; instead of using wax of course, lightly sanding and using a tack rag between coats. I expect it will look super fine with that treatment.

I know you are eager to get that baby out on the water.

Bruce

Did some more sanding ten rolled epoxy on and squeegeed. Fiddled around with a few different methods in different areas eg roll/squeegee/light roll. Finish is definitely better although not perfect. I still think it comes back to the quality of the wet out.







I consider the hull ready for water trials now and want to do this before permantly fitting the seat and foot braces.

Problem is I only just remembered the other thing I need.......a paddle! Didn't want to buy a cheap one just to try the hull out so decided to start making one even though I know it will take a while.
Got some things coming up that will put me on hold for a while so now I don't expect to get much done for 2-3 weeks.

Chuck

I was just ordering some more epoxy for my Lakers and was asking about how long you have to wait until you can apply a varnish coat as it's been so long since I've done a kayak I couldn't remember , the people from Bote-cote epoxy reckon that as soon as you can sand it and have it sand to dust instead of rolling into balls [ about 20 hours at my climate with the tropical hardener ] you can varnish , but it's not the same with all epoxies

Bob your Laker is looking great , the finish is going to be much better than mine will be , I was originally going to try for a show room finish on mine but after spending the first 1/2 hour every morning after applying a coat of epoxy scraping off flies I've sort of revised my expectations

David