JEM Watercraft

Hello all. A South Louisiana guy here and I have gone crazy. Technically this will be my second build, the first being a painted plywood Cajun pirogue built many moons ago. She is no longer with us but there is no love lost as she was a bit tippy. I recently decided that I "needed" a kayak. Since I like to make my own stuff I chose a Sabalo 12. Also, I am not a 1950's housewife, no offense to them, but Tupperware kayaks just never gave me that warm fuzzy. The build may be slow at times, but I told Matt I would get him build pics of a Sabalo, although there are some really nice ones already here, just too many old links, thanks to Photobucket. Just letting everyone know I will be kicking about here from time to time, and hoping this post keeps me honest to see this project through to the end! I hope to meet some of you on the water one day and hopefully I am paddling a Sabalo 12 SOT!!

I am really looking forward to your build!
I believe that I will be building one for myself soon.
Tom

Well, now I know why people pay extra to get the pre-cut wood kits. Maybe I layout and measure slow, but it took me several hours to work through it all, not counting a couple of the parts that require a mirror image of another part. I don't know why but those frame layouts were the worst. By the time I did the last one on sheet 4, it went smoothly with only one eraser destroyed in the process. Did most of it on the kitchen island because of its width!! The wife was THRILLED, but she drew her own lines and did not allow me to perform any cutting there. I will post pics when I figure out how.

Hopefully the following pics post.

I realized I didn't want to build this thing on the floor, so the first order of business was to build a table. It is two feet wide by 11 feet long. The underside is 2 x 4 supported with about a 2" plywood overhang for clamping ability. This all rests on 2 or 3 sawhorses. All of it was scraps I had on hand except a box of screws(it really didn't take many) and the plastic. All of the surface screws are countersunk to keep a flat top.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14ObrEw ... p=drivesdk

One of the first steps in the plans is to confirm plywood sheet size. An important step as all 4 of mine were 2 1/2" too long. Trimmed them to size with this jig.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14_MZ8s ... p=drivesdk

Then it was a eyeball destroying weekend of laying out the parts... on my kitchen island!! The weather was better there and it made for short lunch breaks.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14dSPcB ... p=drivesdk

More to follow later as I begin cutting.

Very nice!
Two things that are useful in a shop. A refrigerator and dishwasher!
Looking good!

Finally finished cutting all of the parts out. I took my time and scored everything prior to cutting, which probably wasn't necessary. I had to re-cut two parts, broke one sanding, cut one wrong, I didn't score the replacement, with no splinter issues. I then spent the next few hours sanding everything to the lines with a 2" x 72" (120 grit) belt sander. That thing was my" learning to weld aluminum" project, so it isn't pretty, but it works great. It has an old treadmill motor and a variable frequency drive to control speed. It rotates 90° to go upright as well. Belts go from 36 grit up to 1 or 2,000 grit. Made sanding easy.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17v5BZk ... p=drivesdk

The pile of parts sanded:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1807hBp ... p=drivesdk

I will try to weigh the actual components later. Probably could be less if cut from patterns, or partially stripped, which I may do. I know some of this will be used for foot peg support and other such device support. More to follow later.

Love that sander you made!
I don't have a stationary sander.
Your parts look good.
Stay safe.

Been a busy week, just not on the kayak. However, Saturday saw alot of woodchips.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BZ1epA ... p=drivesdk

Planed down some cedar and cypress to 3/16. Ripped it to 3/4 width and started laying it out for the fore deck. Not done with that part yet. in between gluing and clamping sessions in the fore deck, started the aft deck. Took a while because the angles had me thinkin'. That part is all dry fit. Will still have to fill a few small cracks, but here it is anyway.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CNY4au ... p=drivesdk

Will post the fore deck later when complete.

Looks great! It'll really make the boat look nice.

Just a quick post to show the final pic of all three of the decks together. Moving on to staining the hull pieces. After reading the Stanley thread, figured this would be the best move since I didn't want epoxy lines in the final color of the boat. Anyway, here are the pieces.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1G1vmZ ... i9pE7YQ0aE