Recent content by David A

I get everything form Citadel. They have Basalt/Innegra, kevlar, carbon... You might have better prices at Composite Canada.

For material, I buy all my stuff from Les équipements chimiques Citadel, located in Quebec. A 6 gallons epoxy kit is 400$+tx. I payed 300$ of shipping for the material for my two prospector 14, and even with the high shipping cost, it was my cheapest option.

I completed the prospector 17,5 last year. I came at 65 lbs with the third seat, knee pads and flotation bags. I was aiming for a similar weight than the Nova Craft prospector. This winter I finished a BI prospector 14 (same shape as the Swift prospector 14) at 40lbs (including removable yoke...

In my opinion, a much better solution for finishing stems is to mold the shape of it during the layup. You end up with the stem shape right away. It's faster and avoids all the frustrations I encountered with the first method. The shape will be more accurate too. Molding the stems is the very...

I ended up closing the stems by molding a fibreglass piece on the mold, glueing it to the hull before adding 2 layers of 45 degrees strips of BI on the outside (with peel ply). I then removed the fibreglass piece and added a third layer of BI from the inside. I don't recommand this method. To me...

It was fairly easy to pull the canoe out of the mold. The inside finish is excelent. There are very few bubbles. Unlike kevlar, it's fairly easy to remeve bubbles trapped between layers. It looks like the air goes throught the fabric and get out. With kevlar, I had to push the bubble out with a...

My notes are informing me we needed a total of 2:15 to complete the laminate. That includes 40 min of squeejee time. Garage temperature was 18C and I used a total of 17 pots of 600 mL (at the end we wasted about 3 full pots). It took 30 min to rool layers 1 and 2, 45 min to place and soak layers...

The pot life of my epoxy is pretty short. With large amounts mixed at once (600 mL),it's even shorter. I try to get it out of the pot in less than 5 min. Once the resin sprayed out, I had no problem sqeegeeing the resin after an hour. I am aiming for a temperature of 18C. Of course, if I would...

Now my strategy is wet out 5 layers of basalt (plus reinforcements) all at once and saturate it with resin. It has to done very quickly so I have enought time to remove any bubble in the layup using a little bubble roll, and removing all excess resin with a sqeegee before resin's viscosity...

It's now time to apply window plastic. I start by carefully sealing the stems with tuck tape. The canoe will remain sticky once the tape is removed, but I don't want to run the chance resin reach the cedar canoe by using clear tape. I run double sided tape on the gunwales and stems. I apply the...

That's right Jim. I'm basically using the technique explained in Canoecraft in order to get a good chemical bond between layers. Afer 4 hours at 20 C, the resin I'm using becomes sticky but firm enough to stay in place. After mixing a small amount, I quickly take the resin from the pot to the...

Making a cedar strip is long, but I like it. I like to take it slow, a little bit at the time. Laying up is more stressful, but very quick. Preperation is eveything. After making several carbon paddle, I came to realise how weak the link between two layers of composite is if there is solely a...

Next step is to remove staples, work on the hull with a spokeshave, fill the staple holes with thinkenen epoxy, sand everything before fibreglassing. I am using 4 oz E glass on the outside, 4 oz E glass on the inside with a 4 oz E glass on the football and some other reinforcements. I am not...

So for my first built, I was looking for a tripping canoe. I wanted a canoe large enough to carry gear and food for extended trips with my wife and my 2 daughters, yet small enough to be able to paddle it tandem. I wanted it fixable in the field in case of a wrap, wanted to be able to nest it...

After tripping many years, mainly in the Côte nord du Québec and in Labrador on Royalex canoes, I am going towards paddling exclusively on composite canoes. For extrended wilderness canoe trips, I always thought Royalex was the choice. It slides well on rocks and when equiped with a spray deck...