Make a Kayak
An ideal kayak is lightweight, portable, solid, narrow and contoured so you can quickly maneuver it on white water rapids to avoid rocks and other obstacles. It also has to be tough enough to keep you safe from harm. Most good quality kayaks on the market are expensive. If you're a real handy man, you can actually make your own custom, environmentally sustainable kayak, instead of buying one.
Steps
Carving a Palm Tree Trunk
- Find a palm tree trunk that suits your custom kayak's curved shape. You are looking for a healthy, strong, and solid palm tree candidate that ranges from 5 to 14 years old, depending on its species and the regional climate it grew in.
- Select a 7-8 feet (1.25-1.75 m) straight length section that is slightly arched on a side. Having a banana-bottom-shaped hull will give you a low center of gravity that can autocorrect and aid you if you're suddenly inverted and immersed in water.
- Measure diameter and also the thickness and radius to the core center.
- Research Buy a Kayak to get an idea of other kayak or canoe designs.
- Find out how much clearance is ideal based on your body size. You want to be comfortable, and for the boat to move in response to your body shifts for best control.
- Shave off loose husks from the palm tree. The hard outer shell protecting your torso and legs should have a thickness of 1 7/8 - 2 3/8 inch thickness for good buoyancy and structural soundness.
- Use an air-powered chisel or a hammer-drill to carve the inner trunk cavity and silhouette. Unlike most trees, palm trees have no grain. Instead, its unidirectional fibrous texture gives it an unusual lightweight, flexible, and tough trunk structure with desirable compression and tensile tolerance.
- Start carving the outline of the cavity. Mark the perimeter of the hole where your body will enter the kayak.
- Drive the chisel into the fiber layers to mark the outline. Then use the gouge chisel to peel off strips of the coco fibers.
- Keep scrapping and pulling fiber until you've removed enough to fit comfortably inside.
- Use a long C-clamp or other tools to measure for thickness of the outer hull. Make sure that all sides have the same thickness.
- Carve the entire kayak out of one trunk of palm tree. This will help maintain structure rigidity and reduce water permeability.
- If you're unable to carve deep enough, you can cut the entire length in half to hollow the body cavity. Then close, wrap with cable or belt and seal it.
Waterproofing and Sealing the Kayak
- Use a torch and a heat gun to dry out and remove excess moisture from the lumber.
- Carve and smooth the entire inner and outer surface of the kayak with a chisel and a heat gun.
- Fill gaps and cracks with a paste made from palm tree fiber and epoxy.
- Form belt rings out of the palm tree fiber for use as hull reinforcement ribs. Adding these fibers perpendicular to the direction of the palm tree fibers will add tremendous strength to the structure while remaining lightweight.
- Soak the fiber in epoxy or resin and form the ribs every 12 inches (30 cm) in the inner walls of the kayak.
- Sand the entire surface of the kayak to leave a smooth and sleek finish.
- Use a 120- 240 grain sandpaper, by hand or with a powered sanding tool.
- Dissolve polystyrene foam or packaging foam into a tin can containing acetone. You will need about one gallon of acetone to dissolve 9 cubic feet of styrofoam (three - 18 gallon trash cans).
- Place lid and seal the tin can. Then shake vigorously for a minute or two.
- Pour the dissolved polystyrene and spread with a squeegee evenly inside and outside the entire kayak.
- Make sure that there is enough ventilation and keep away from any fire hazards while the acetone evaporates.
- Do not inhale any fumes and use protective gear (gloves, mask, goggles, shoes, coveralls) that won't dissolve in acetone.
- Use heated / warm air to speed up the acetone evaporation and allow the polystyrene to swell-up and harden.
- Place silicone-rubber trimming and seat padding on your finished kayak.
- Enjoy!
