The day after Thanksgiving, and time for another post.  (Well, now it is Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Per usual, a few interruptions as life keeps intruding on important stuff like wasting time on an illogical project like this.  So, back to updating this post...)   Despite too much turkey, and many relatives come a visitin' I have done a bit of 'work' since the last post.

The 3.7oz dacron from Stewart systems turns out to be a finer weave than the 'heavy' dacron (2.9 oz) from Aircraft Spruce I used for the kayak.  It was a bit coarser weave than the lightweight dacron I used for the deck of the Pocock scull.

I applied the Dacron, mostly using the Heat-n-bond rather than the liquid glue from Stewart systems.  The tape is easy to apply, goes on uniformly, is easy to iron and tell when it is penetrated, and overall just seems easier.  With the glue on the planking around the gunnels, I went back an 'calibrated' the iron.  I put tape with numbers and a tick mark to be a bit more precise in the settings.  I then took a 4x3 inch piece of cloth and progressively ironed at increasing settings.  The results were:

Setting                                  length     width
0                                             4              3
3                                             3 7/8        2 15/16
4                                             3 3/4        2 13/16         (glue irons to cedar)
4.5 (wool)                              3 3/4        2 13/16
5                                             3 9/16      2 5/8
5.5  (cotton)                           3 1/2        2 9/16
6                                             3 1/4        2 7/16
6.5 (max)                               3 3/16      2 6/16

(Note that this was with a newish 'modern' iron, and I could not melt the dacron even at the highest setting.  I did a trial with an OLD electric iron, and managed to completely melt the dacron, before it was even on high...)

Before putting on the dacron, I covered the planking with 'saran wrap'.  (Actually, I used some clear plastic on a roll that is used for packing stuff.)  I held this on with double sided tape on the corners.  This is to keep the dacron from being 'glued' to the planking when painting on the filler.  In the figures, you can see the plastic sheeting, and the heat-n-bond ironed to the top of the planking.  The heat-n-bond was set using a setting of 4 on the iron.

 I could pull the dacron quite tight while activating the glue with the iron, and ended up with a pretty good job just doing that.  You can tell when the glue is well set as the dacron goes clear when the glue saturates the weave.

Worked from the center to the ends.  At the ends, I cut the dacron close to length, and split up the center to where the bow (stern) 'breaks'.  Turns out, I should have pulled to the gunnels further before splitting to make a neater and shorter split.  I could pull tight almost to the end of the gunnels before splitting.  Then I used 7/8" heat-n-bond, even with one side of the stem and overlapping the other side.  I pulled the dacron over from the 'even' side and ironed on the stem and around to the overlapping side, but not to the edge of the glue.  I used scissors to trim even with the edge of the glue, and then ironed that side to get good glue saturation.  Then I put another layer of glue (7/8" heat-n-bond) over the first layer - that is, even with the same side as before, so now around the edge on the near side.  Then I could iron on the dacron to the near side of the canoe, and trim the dacron even with the far edge of the stem.  Hopefully, the outer edge will now be under (or just sticking out of the stem band - whenever I get to that...).  I note that the under layer overlap on the one side is not visible.

At this point the dacron actually looked pretty tight.  But, I ironed anyway at a setting of 4.5 from the keel down to the gunnels.  Need to move the iron quite slowly to get the dacron to shrink fully to this setting.  Again, looked quite tight, but being brave, I reset the iron to 5.5 and ironed again.  This seems quite tight, and I decided to forego ironing at the highest setting.  Note that for all this I tried to avoid ironing over any of the glue to keep it from letting go.

And on to filling the dacron.  I went with Ekofill from Stewart Systems.  Much thinner than I expected (not knowing what to expect).  I only bought a quart figuring I would get at least 2 coats and that would be marginally enough.  Well, I got 6 coats, and still have a bit left in the  bottom of the can.  I put it all on with a 3" foam brush, right from the can.  First, up/down brush strokes, then lengthwise strokes alternating between coats.  After the first coat is was quite splotchy, which you probably cannot see in the top 2 photos, but after the that, the color was nice and even.  It took about 1.5 hours to paint on each coat.  There was one soft area in the canvas at the tip of the bow that I noticed after the 3rd coat.  Surprisingly, ironing at 5.5 took it right out.  The only soft areas now are at the glued areas, not too bad, and should be under the gunnel.

top 2 photos after one coat- a bit blotchy, but you cannot really tell in the photos.

These photos are after 3 coats, much more, but again hard to tell from the photos.

After 6 coats, the weave is still not quite filled, but the color is nice and even, and the dacron has an almost rubbery feel.  Note that  I LIGHTLY sanded with 320 after the 5th coat to knock off any lumps that I missed as I was applying each coat. 

Next up the Zinzer 123 primer.  According to various postings, it should fill the weave giving a smooth finish.  Unless I am painting too thin (as may be my tendency).  Then install the keel before trying the paint.

In the mean time, I called Island Falls Canoe to order the next round of parts (note I picked up the outer gunnels and keel last spring).  This order includes:

2 stem bands  (2x$25)

Stem band screws (~30   1.25"x4 oval head)

keel screws and cup washers (~25   1"x8)

gunnel screws (box of 100  1.5"x8  (need ~60)

Paint - off white - interlux or ?? - 1qt

I'll try to add prices when things are delivered.

I'll try to post again after a couple of coats of primer...