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Originally posted by Alan Gage: Re not asking for help. "How old are you? I'm starting to think we might have been separated at birth." Ditto!

Hi Mark. Don't worry about the heat, as the out-gassing is all done; just make it comfortable for yourself. It's logical that the craters are on the upper surface because gravity would help them fill in on the vertical surfaces. Don't try to sand down to the bottom of the craters-- just sand...

I agree with Alan. If the epoxy is still green, you can spread some epoxy around with a squeegee and fill those holes-- you'll have to babysit the job for a couple of hours until it stops sagging. The other alternative is to let it fully cure for a couple of days and then lightly sand the...

I've noticed that a stripper may change shape after a while-- I've seen a couple of shallow ellipse hulls morph towards 'round'. There's one case I know where a shallow arch became somewhat of a shallow V, with a clearly-defined keel where no keel exists on the forms. Perhaps the stripper...

Stunningly beautiful! Congratulations Mac.

There's a strong case to be made for maintaining humidity levels when glassing the stripper canoe. This especially relates to the time interval between glassing the outside and the inside. Here's an article by Tom Pawlak of Gougeon Brothers that is very interesting. Tom has been a great...

I have to qualify my earlier note on the weight of the extra layer. I cover the entire 4" waterline, stem to stem.

Slightly off-topic, but related-- After some years the straps on the cam-straps become sort of 'polished'-- the weave gets knocked down and it becomes slippery, or at least less grippy. Has anybody discovered a method of refurbishing the surface of the strap?

How much does the extra outside layer weigh? My Caribou S solo canoe is 15' 3" by 31.5" max width. If I use the DWL (4" WL) as the footprint of the football, it's about 2.9 square yards. Using 6 oz E or S-glass, that's 17.4 oz of cloth, plus another 17.4 oz for resin = 34.8 oz. or 2.175 LBS...

I made a Sugar Island out of Douglas fir a few years ago, and I tried something a little different for the shaft. It started with my normal 1.25" square, followed by lines drawn on with a spar gauge, followed by the rendering of an eight-sided shaft using a small block plane and spokeshave. But...

It seems 'gelcoat' is an industry term that refers to any resin than is applied to a surface on its own-- without fabric. It is often thixotropic, coloured, and may be applied in any fashion. Therefore, a variety of coating and adhesive materials may be utilized as 'gelcoat'.

I thought gelcoat was a polyester-based material, although wikipedia says it's either polyester or epoxy. Not sure. Here's another good note: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...poxy-5794.html

If the substrate is properly cured, I would not hesitate to put polyester over epoxy or epoxy over polyester. Because the curing process is different, the only bond you can achieve is mechanical-- the surface must be prepared properly by cleaning and sanding. Here's something from West System...

I usually stop after 20 miles or so and have a look at the straps and lines. Thereafter, I do a 'walkaround' at each normal stop. Earlier, I was referring to the external check or walkaround that pilots do between flights.

There's an unwritten rule in aviation that says you should never interrupt a pilot's pre-flight inspection of the aircraft, and the reasons seem obvious. But when it comes to tying down a couple of canoes onto the van, interruptions seem to come out of the woodwork, "So, how's the canoeing-- you...

Thanks! I just rubbed in my first coat of West 105-207 epoxy. I finish-sanded the paddle, wiped it, and set in the sun for half an hour to heat up. Then I rubbed in the 105-207 wearing rubber gloves. I let it sit and soak in for 45 minutes or so until it starts to kick, then wipe it clean with...

No Title Burned in the logo on my Sitka spruce Beavertail today.

Mike, of course you're right. While torque and flex between the cab and bed is a fact when driving on uneven surfaces, it isn't much. I used cab and bed mounts for years, and the canoes I carried still look the same.

GMC advertisement on bed twist. This is an extreme condition as the trucks are heavily loaded. And, for some reason the aspect ratio on the video is squashed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKMQjm7i2Jw

There has been a long-standing debate on whether the flexural and torsional moments between the pickup's cab and box are significant enough to impact the structure and/or the security of the tie-down on the canoe. The movement between cab and box on a pickup seems to have been more significant...