Building a stitched lapstrake canoe

July 31, 2007
Filling holes -- 4:30 hours


I had a small surprise when I looked under the hull this morning, epoxy had dripped through the holes where the wire had been removed from when I had added more epoxy to the seams. It didn't take long to belt sand off these nubs. I guess the advantage is that most of those holes are now filled with epoxy. If I had thought of it I would have taped the inside to prevent this leakage.

Here's what the hole looks like after a quick pass with the sander with and 80 grit belt. I love this little Skil sander, it's light and easy to handle in awkward places. My next step was to mix up some epoxy with wood flour to make filler for the holes. I used a syringe that I had cut back so it has an opening of over 1/8" to squirt filler in the holes, then I scraped off the excess with a putty knife.

Here's a filled hole. I waited until late afternoon for the epoxy to harden and started sanding with 120 grit paper. I hooked my dust collector to the sander after I realized that there was a lot of dust that was not being caught in the sander's dust bag.

I sanded the entire hull to clean up all the excess epoxy on the outside. Now the plugged holes are very minimal. I am hoping that I will be able to finish the exterior with clear varnish rather than paint if I can keep it clean looking.