Building momentum

Getting the various hull parts stitched together has provided a bit of impetuous, and I'm trying to maintain the momentum with short bursts of activity. The boat currently sits with all the main seams joined by epoxy fillets and all the cable ties removed. This week I hope to get the glass tape run on the inside seams and the bulkheads cut-out, epoxy coated and fitted.

Distractions keep coming along though. On Friday I was invited to crew on the race boat again, an offer I always find hard to turn down. The coming weekend will try to through more diversions no doubt, with my son's sporting commitments and the ever-improving weather making a day spent on a beach somewhere look more and more likely.

Photographic Evidence of Progress

Here's the Dart 16' kayak bottom panels, joined by hog and cable ties and trussed up with various ropes and ratchet straps to force the roundness into her bottom. It looks brutal, and it is.

Overnight, one of the screws holding the panels to the hog burst out, leaving a nasty kink in the panel. I managed to get some 60 grit paper in through the gap and cleared away as much semi-cured epoxy as possible. I then drilled a 6mm hole through the centre of the affected area and re-packed the gap with fresh resin. Finally a 6mm bolt with a big washer on the back and a spreader of 9mm ply on the top forced the panel back into shape.

I've just finished planing the fair curves to the chine edges of the bottom panels. Next I need to drill all the holes to stitch in the side panels. I've also cut out the bulkheads so the next week should see some big changes. I'm close to finishing the footrest for the 14' Dart kayak, a little work is required for the rail it will be mounted on and then I'll be ready to reveal the design.

Boat Building Again...

Well, the Mini has been turfed out of the garage and now sits at the top of the drive under a gazebo awaiting a paint job. I've readied the garden beds ready for the new season of vegetables and on Saturday I gave the garage a really good tidy up. In the week I managed to pick up some more epoxy resin and hardener, and tomorrow a work appointment takes me close to Glass Fibre Supplies so I can pick up more tape.

On Sunday I started the build of the Dart 16' two-man kayak by scarfing some pieces of softwood together that will become the hog, kind of a part-length keelson. On Tuesday I got home early and marked out the bottom pieces on a sheet of ply. On Wednesday I cut the pieces out with a jigsaw and this evening I jointed the pieces to make two full length bottom panels. The plan is I will be able to stitch and glue these together, with the hog, over the weekend.

It's great to be building again. I was a little bit cautious at first but after donning the gloves and suit again this evening while spreading the epoxy, I already feel back in the swing of things. I just need to be careful though, there are quite a few design differences between the two kayaks. I must keep checking the plans and reading those instructions.

Cockpit Coaming

So after the deck went on the last real job of building was to cut out the cockpit hole and line it with a coaming strip.  I wasn't looking forward to this part too much because while it is woodwork, its not the orthogonal, easy-to-measure joinery that I'm more accustomed to.

I made a template for the hole by turning one of the plan sheets over and on the plain back marking the centre line, deck beam positions and the run of the cockpit stringers.  I joined the tapering lines of the stringers with the curve of the dustbin lid at the aft end, and to an upturned bucket at the forward end.  I transferred the curves to the kayak by punching through the paper with an awl.  A little adjustment by eye was required to get a more pleasing line on the forward end before the line was followed by the jigsaw.

On the same day I prepared some pieces of ply, 120mm wide and 700mm long, cut across the outer grains of the ply (the way it bends easiest).  I laid these pieces on the driveway with an old towel over the top and soaked them with boiling water.  A few minutes later I filled the bucket that had acted as a template with sand and the wrapped the pieces (all stacked together) round the bucket and held them in place with a ratchet strap.

Two days later the ply was mostly dry and so I started to lay the curved pieces up on the kayak.  I was originally going to make the coaming out of two thicknesses of the 4mm ply on end, wrapped aroung the inside edge of the cockpit cutout.  This looked a little clunky though, so after mulling it over for a couple of days, I abandoned the inner layer.

So tonight I trimmed up the pieces with a jigsaw.  I marked line parallel to the deck with an offset block then partially flattened out the curved end pieces to trim them.  The straight side pieces were then trimmed to fit between the ends from ply with the outer grain running length ways.  For the bottom edge, I marked the back of the coaming where it was level with the bottm edge of the cockpit stringers down the sides, and with the bottom of the deck beams on the fore and aft centre line.  I faired a curve between the straight sides and the mid point and then cut it out hoping it would look OK when curved back on the boat.  This shape has meant the a very deep section to the coaming at the aft edge, which was the intention since there is no real provision for a separate back rest in this kayak.

After a dry fit test I mixed up the epoxy, pre-wet each joint surface and primed out any parts that would be no longer accessible.  I then added plenty of microfibres and used this to bong in the coaming.  I held everything in place with temporary screws, and on the end joints between the side and end pieces I used broad packers (covered in plastic parcel tape) under the screw to cover the edge and keep the faces flush.  The leftover epoxy and any squeeze out was then stuffed back into the gap between the deck and coaming to form a small fillet and improve the bond.  Its definitely warming up here now and for the first time I noticed the pot of epoxy getting really hot in my hand as the curing reaction started to happen.

To finish the coaming of I will trim the edges into a fair curve and fit a lip the the upper, outer edge to take a spray skirt.  I was going to use some steamed pine for this, but I think the curves are too severe to even bother trying.  Instead I'll soak some 10mm rope in epoxy and pin it in place, then fair it in with filler while fairing the rest of the outer hull.  And that's really all that is left to do.  Tape the deck seam, fair it in along with the other external tapes and then sand and sand and sand, and then paint.

Oh, and there's also the small matter of making a paddle...

Torture Chamber

The main method of construction on the kayak up to this point has been stitch and tape. Pieces of plywood have been cut to shape and stitched together along there edges with cable ties before a permanent fixing of glass fibre tape and epoxy resin was applied. Another related method is called tortured ply, where compound curves are forced into the plywood. Its relatively easy to get a sheet of ply to bend in one direction at a time, so boats designed for this method of construction have panels shaped as sections of cones or cylinders. But the deck on the kayak is convex across the beam but has a concave sheer, the profile of the top edge of the side panels.

Last night I started putting on the deck on the forward end of the kayak. I screwed an oversize sheet in place at the halfway length of the cockpit. this allowed be to strap the middle section of the sheet roughly and draw an outline to trim the sheet to - still oversize but now by 30-50mm all round.

More screws were placed along the inwales working from the midships forward, and the stresses on the screws got greater as the curve was formed. I used scrap ply packers under each screw to prevent the deck springing back and popping all the screws through. As I approached the forward bulkhead the gap between the inwale and the deck was getting bigger and something needed to be done. I persevered for a while with a couple of ratchet straps holding things down, but it wasn't going to work.

At this point I took of the ratchet straps and then rearranged 3 straps over the top of an old towel that was soaked in hot water. The idea is that the warm and wet environment softens the fibres of the ply and makes it more agreeable to the compound curves being forced upon it. Wooden packers over the inwales concentrated the ratchet straps' force in the right direction while rags protected the deck and hull from the heavy metal hooks and ratchets. While tightening all this lot up, holding the ply with one hand and most of my body and tensioning a strap with the other hand, there was a pinging noise and a sharp pain in my shoulder. The torture victim had fought back.

I don't know what the outcome of all this was, I dared not look in the garage this morning so I'll conduct the post mortem tonight.

A Little More Progress

On Wednesday I got in a bit of time to tidy up and sand back the filling done on Monday. Some of the deeper filled areas had sunk where the super-absorbent end grain had sucked all of the epoxy out of the filler mix, lowering the fill level.

On Thursday I got in a good session and taped all the outer seams. I got the tapes good and tight with no wrinkles or kinks. I went easier on the wetting out on top of the tape and was confident of a cleaner end result.

On Friday I finished shovelling the earth and chopping down the old pergola posts.

On Saturday Bridgit helped me to clear the overgrown shrubs by the fence and we moved the trampoline into its new position.

On Sunday I cleaned up the outer side of the hull to get rid of the drips. Despite the care I took not to put excessive amounts of epoxy on the tapes on Thursday, there were lots of run lines on the side panels where the gradient is steepest. I cleaned these up with a bit of planing and lots of careful scraping with the tip of a very sharp chisel. I can see now why a cabinet scraper is such a useful tool to boat builders. I also used some 60 grit aluminium oxide paper to rough up the tapes ready to receive more epoxy.

Finally, I managed to shape the false keel that will act as a running strip to prevent wear on the thin panels of the hull. The plans suggest a simple taper cut on each end, but I went to town a bit with a fairly blunt fore end and a finely tapered aft end. I screwed this in place temporarily from the inside to use it as a centre marker. The next step will be to add another couple of rubbing strips on the bilges and the centre false keel will act as a datum to ensure everything is perfectly symmetrical.

And finally, some boat building

I got home on Monday evening and was determined to spend a few hours in the garage on the kayak. It was raining quite a lot, so that ruled out digging clay, but I had to wrap things up early to go to the Land Rover Club meeting.

There was just enough time to sand the outer joints and fill the gaps and any remaining stitch/screw holes with a micro fibre mix of epoxy. I'm getting more confident with the stuff and made a good thick mix which went almost entirely where I wanted it to, and hardly at all where I didn't.

I also had a good go at the twisted keel line at the stern with the block plane and got rid of most of the twist. After I've taped the seem I'll add a little more filler to one side than the other and no one will ever know...

Another slow week

I've only managed to get dribs and drabs of time on the boat again this week. Mostly its been tidying up after the weekend. I had about 4 dozen screws to remove from the inwales, and various drips and runs to try and clean up.

On Thursday I got out of work a little earlier than usual, but decided to go and get more supplies on the way home. I went to the Glue Guru on Wairau Rd, Glenfield for some cheap brushes and some West Systems 410 low density filler to add to the epoxy. So far I've used 411 blended filler that is slightly more dense and therefore harder to sand. Since the main use for it now is as a fairing compound to smooth everything out, I think ease of sanding is very important.

I got home and planed a bit of the boat. To get more room I took it out of the garage and up to the deck. It was he first time in a while I've seen the outside lines, and it does look very sleek. I've noticed a slight curve to the centreline in the last foot or so, as the chine angle increases to make the stern almost fin like. I suspect this will impart a fair amount of natural curve to the boats travel, so I need to do something about it. The problem was a less than perfect alignment of the ply panels before they were joined. A combination of planing down one side and filling on the other might remedy the situation to a degree.

I think, on balance, I prefer the time I've spend shaping the wooden pieces to the time I've spent in a one piece Tyvek suit, gloves and goggles, smearing gloop over the pieces of wood in an attempt to stick them together. I've got a few ideas that will make building the sister boat, a two man version of the Dart, easier, less frustrating, and hopefully more refined. Some of the woodworking tools have become firm favourites, especially the block plane that is a delight to use. I'm thinking a ply lapstrake boat like the Rogue will require plenty of shaping so the wood to gloop, joy to misery ratio should be higher than with the kayak.

I had to stop early on the Thursday to have a kick about of the rugby ball with Sam. Besides, the clouds were gathering so I couldn't have stayed outside much longer anyway. While he was waiting for me to pack up and play with him, I got Sam to take this picture. Bridgit obviously feels left out and sought to remedy the situation by getting in on the act, but she may regret it when she realises that her pushed-up nose on the window is on the web for all to see.

Inside Taping

Saturday morning I rushed out to finish taping the inside joints in the hull. I had a little over half the length of the boat to do, for three seams, the centreline and the two chine seams. I also had to tape in the transom. I had to rush because at mid day we were going off to watch a rugby match. I was just soaking the last bit of tape when Sam's friend came round to come with us to the game.

We went to North Harbour Stadium in Albany where we met up with neighbours who had also 'borrowed' an extra child to watch the match. We went to see our local side, North Harbour, play Auckland in the Battle of the Bridge, the local derby in the NPC competition. Unfortunately North Harbour were beaten 22-29. On a positive side though, all the kids got an autograph and a chat from All Black Joe Rokocoko.

When we got back the weather had closed in and we spent the rest of the day indoors. Sunday was a different story though. Over night it had officially become spring with the introduction of daylight saving time, and outside it was bright and warm.

The first job I tacked was to glue on the inwales. I mixed some epoxy with plenty of micro fibres for extra strength and to fill any gaps. Once the hull was spread with a line of epoxy along the top edge, I screwed the inwales on using the holes I made when dry fitting, and added a few extra to pull everything in line where there were gaps.

With all the seams on the kayak taped up, I adjusted the corners on the bulkheads to account for the epoxy fillets under the tape and dry fitted all the athwartship pieces again. After a little fiddling I had all of them fitting quite snugly apart from the forward deck beam, which wasn't as wide as the boat any more. This I made right by pulling the boat together by a webbing strap attached to temporary screws in the top of the inwales.

Again, a micro fibre rich mix of epoxy was made up to glue the deck beams and bulkheads in place, making especially sure that there were no gaps left around the bulkheads. These will seal off an air-tight compartment at each end of the kayak, which provide flotation in the event of the boat getting swamped. Some of the pieces were wedged firm in the hull, others I added a couple of screws or tacks to keep firm while I added fillets of epoxy with low density micro balloons added before adding glass tape and neat epoxy to strengthen the joins.

Finally, I added pins to the centre of all the members, and to the point of the bow and the centre of the transom and ran a line to check everything was straight. There's a good line running right down the boat, with only the forward bulkhead out of line by maybe 3mm. Hopefully this will be reduced when the webbing strap comes off, and failing that, I should be able to pull it straight when fitting the deck.

Steady Progress

I got a couple of hours on the kayak yesterday. I laid fillets of epoxy thickened with micro balloons laid down the joints. These fillets are not so much structural as to provide a gentle transition from one panel to another. I did all three seems on the forward half of the boat.

Once the fillets were in place, I laid lengths of the glass tape on the still uncured fillets and then wetted the tape out with straight epoxy.

I'm finding the epoxy part of the process quite a challenge, and although I'm learning lots, I'm afraid that the kayak won't be too pretty when I'm done. I'm gaining confidence in mixing the filleting or jointing additives thick enough not to run and slump, but getting the tape to sit nice and flat is also a problem. I'll not worry too much about the seams that will be hidden in the fore and aft air tight chambers, but I suspect I have a lot of difficult epoxy sanding and smoothing to do to the mid section that will be seen through the cockpit opening. I hope I can make a neater job of the outer seams.

A Few Photos

I went out to do a bit of preparation last night, and was already to lay some epoxy fillets and glass tape over the hull seams. I went in for dinner and by the time I was done the night had chilled off too much for the epoxy to safely cure. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the details covered over the weekend.


The above shot shows the difference in the profiles of rear bulkheads MK2 and MK3. The latest (the one that fits) is on top, and shows a much steeper vee to the bottom panels than the one taken from the plans.


This is a closeup of the scarf joint in the inwale, nailed to a a board but with a layer of builders polythene between the inwale and anything else wooden. This is so that I stood half a chance of separating the items after the epoxy over run had cured. Even so, pulling that nail out of the joint took some effort.


Finally a view of the epoxy tabs that allow removal of the cable ties before laying the fillets and tape. I've prepped up the forward half of the boat and its still in one piece after removing about 3 dozen cable ties.

Rear Bulkhead Version 3.0

Sunday morning was taken up with a trip to the library and Kings Plant Barn. I returned my copies of John Welsford's Backyard Boatbuilder and John Gardner's Dory Book and got some books on sea kayaking to make sure I 'll be prepared by the time launch date arrives. Since my partner, Bridgit, has suddenly decided to go all Earth Mother on us, we were at the garden centre to buy some olive trees and tomato plants, and Sam got some strawberry plants which no doubt he'll fail to look after.

When I finally got around to looking at the kayak, I decided it was time to address the rear bulkhead, the second version of which I failed to make fit while i was tweaking the lines of the hull on Saturday. It seems that as drawn, the transition between the steep vee of the transom and the relatively slack vee of the bulkhead less than 3 feet further forward is just too much for the 4mm plywood to take. In attempting to make the piece fit I was forcing the seams of the boat apart.

The solution, I decided after much pondering, was to make my own bulkhead according to the shape of my hull. I used the top profile of the existing part and carefully measured the width across the inwales, the width at the chines and the depth from a line between the chines and the centreline of the boat. These details were transferred onto a piece of cardboard, and when that fitted snugly, the shape was transferred onto 9mm ply and cut and planed to shape.

To finish for the day I took of the inwales and laid them out on a plastic covered board to scarf joint them with epoxy. I nailed the epoxy joint tight while it cured, and then used up the rest of the mix putting little dabs on all the hull panel joins, so that when I come to fillet and tape the seams I can take out all the cable ties first. The first mix was a bit too thin and worked OK on the centreline but it tended to run down from the chine joints. A second batch was made much thicker with extra microfibres and it all looked good when I closed the garage door on it for the night.

Stringers

On Saturday I lost a significant chunk of the morning while waiting in line for a haircut with my son at the Birkenhead Corner Barbers. Once shorn, we took the Land Rover down to the Birkdale Timber World to pick up the softwood for the stringers and running strips. I didn't want to waste more of the day going further afield, and my friend Simon works there, a fellow Land Rover nut.

After talking Land Rovers for about 15 minutes, I selected some fairly cheap 18mm square finger jointed softwood. Its not great stuff, but since the designer had e-mailed me back with some details about its purpose in the boat, I decided that it was more than up to the job. Basically, as in any true stitch and tape boat design, the plywood monocoque provided the boat with all its strength, and the stringers are there primarily to provide a gluing surface where a more usual epoxy fillet and glass tape join can't be made, i.e. in fitting the deck to the kayak, where no internal access is possible.

The rest of the day was spent tweaking the kayak hull and fitting the stringers along the top edge with screws, ready to be epoxied on later. I also spent a while planing the bottom inner corner of the stringers. This will remove a little bit of weight, since the timber I'm using is slightly over sized from the original specification.

While sanding one of these pieces, I had a bit of a mishap. My ring finger got caught in one of the accessory holes in the top of my portable workbench. It's ripped a lump of finger-tip away, I managed to stick it back down with a plaster and stem the blood, but it was very sore. I was using sharp tools all day, planes, saws, chisels and the jigsaw, and I managed to wound myself on a blunt work bench!

Stitch That!

So tonight it was out with the drill and the cable ties and time to stitch the panels together.

It was a fairly easy process, I marked out the chine edge on the bottom and side panels with a straight off-cut of ply, following the curves so that the holes would match up. The instructions say to start at the stern and work forwards. This made for wobbly initial progress, 14' long thin ply planks have a mind of their own.

The last part to go on was the transom, after bracing the gunwales 610mm apart. All of a sudden this loose and floppy mess held its shape and I could see how it could become a kayak. I kept the stitches fairly loose, I won't tighten them until I've made a few adjustments and got a good test fit of the deck beams and bulkheads.

Tomorrow I'll buy the softwood for the inwales, cockpit stringers and runners and get everything aligned ready to start filleting and taping the main seams. I'll also add photos to this post, I can't seem to do it from home since changing ISP.

See, I told you it was a kayak I was making!

A Slow Day

Unfortunately I had to do some real work this evening so no real progress on the kayak. I spent a few moments trimming the excess glass and resin from the glass strap butt joints, ready to start stitching, and that was it really.

I also made room for the assembled kayak by moving the Mini over to one side of the garage. Pushing it was made easier by pumping up the flat front tyre, and I then steered it close to the wall, but annoyingly I couldn't get the back end to tuck in as neatly. The solution was to grab the rear of the car by the wheel arch seams and pick it up and shove it over. Job done!

Taping the Other Side

Last night's boat building went very smoothly compared to the previous few days. The planks were all warm and dry in the garage, so it was simply a matter taping the other side of the join.

Where a lot of resin had soaked through from the first side I sanded with some 150 grit paper to give the new epoxy a surface it could key to. I'm fed up messing around with food wrap, its very difficult to get the wrinkles out of, and any wrinkles cause an impression to be cast into the resin. Instead I laid the planks over an offcut of thick builders polythene sheet.

I used lots of epoxy to soak into the glass, making sure it all went nice and transparent. This indicates that there are no dry spots or air bubbles. After an hour, by which time the cure should have been well into the gel phase, I went back to check it all looked OK and locked the garage door on it all for another 24 hours.

I've just had a reply from the designer regarding a couple of points with the bulkhead and bottom runner sizes, thanks Paul. Since I should be ready to start stitching the hull this evening, I can also now go and buy some softwood, the last structural components of the kayak. It should be looking boat-shaped by the weekend.

The Day After the Storm

What a nightmare - I put the 'tent' up over my kayak pices on the east side of the house. Its the most sheltered side and usually bad weather comes in from the west. Last night we had a howling wind and lots of heavy rain from the east, and it blew against the side of the house and down the back of the tarp. One of the planks got wet. It was mainly at one end, and the joint appears to be OK. I lifted all the pieces and put them in the garage, under the mini. I'll take a better look after work tomorrow and hopefully tape the other side then. At this rate it'll be Friday before I'm ready to start stitching the hull together.

Epoxy Again

This Sunday is Father's Day in New Zealand, so it was a leisurely start after a nice breakfast out at Verran's Cafe (French toast with bacon, berry coulis, grilled banana and maple syrup, if you're interested). When we got back to the house I lifted the tarp at the top of the driveway and un-piled the bricks and boards from the ply. What I found didn't look good, it was almost like a continuous bubble had formed between the ply and the glass, and I was able to lift the glass off with nothing more than a firm pull.

I got myself appropriately dressed and protected and sanded off all the epoxy from the previous day and then set about preparing to re-do the job. Knowing that the wet time and the cure time are two totally different things, I wanted a place that could be left undisturbed and where I could shelter the parts from the weather. As it happens the bit of deck outside the back door is just wide enough for all four planks, and is mostly covered by the house's wide eaves.

I laid down some flat boards, covering the centre one with food wrap, and then laid out and aligned the parts. The far ends I held in place with boards and bricks as before, but near the join to be made I used ply off-cuts nailed down through the board below. Before getting on with the epoxy, I lashed the four 8' fence posts to the deck rail to hold a tarp up when I was done.

I was almost better prepared this time, wetting out all the parts with neat epoxy before adding the microfibres to get a gap-filling strong bonding agent. Then I realised that I'd forgotten the glass tape, so I charged down to the garage, past a bemused neighbour (I was in a white chemical protection suit, dark glasses and medical style disposable gloves remember) got the glass and was back again in less than a minute. I cut generous lengths of glass tape and laid them over the wetted joins before squeegeeing the thickened epoxy over and into the tape and joins. When I was happy that all the tape was properly wetted, I laid another board covered in food wrap over the top and then piled on a few bricks to try and get the ends of the fairly springy ply to sit flat and level.

This was a fairly frantic process, and I carried on by putting the tarp over the fence posts and tidying up before stopping to get the camera out. But you should be able to see that I negated any chance of the ply moving until I decide its time. Hopefully this join will be good and I can turn the pieces over and tape the other side tomorrow evening.

Saturday Afternoon - Epoxy Time

So there was no more putting it off, it was time to use the epoxy.

This is the bit I am most wary of. The most careful woodwork could easily be trashed by carelessness with the stick stuff, and I could trash a load of other things too if I get too messy.

The first thing to do on the kayak with regards to epoxying is to join the fore and aft pieces of the four hull panels to their full 14' length.

My plan was to lay out the master parts that I cut on day one of the build, tape and epoxy them, lay plastic food wrap over the join and then lay the other panels on top to get their alignment spot on and then tape and epoxy those. That plan turned out to be far too ambitious. The ply, even at only 4mm thick, has quite a spring to it, and as soon as I lifted some of the weights, the joints lifted on one side, bringing the tape with them. I quickly weighted it all back down again and went to do something else.

My son has a little basketball hoop that clips over the top edge of his bedroom door. The only trouble is that when its in place, the door doesn't shut and then the door frame blocks half of the basket. After I decorated the hallway I promised him I'd make a permanent backboard to mount the hoop on. While I waited for the epoxy to cure, I cut the backboard from 10mm MDF and then measured and drilled the hoop mounting holes. I masked up and sprayed the lines using some left over black enamel, then gave a clear lacquer coating to the bare MDF. Mounted up I think it looks pretty good, and Sam was really happy with it.

Well, it was time to check on the epoxy. A test piece in the garage still hadn't gone into the final cure state, although with the increased volume and therefore exothermic heat, the leftover epoxy in the pot had gone rock hard. Although it was a beautiful warm day, its only just getting in to spring and it cools off quite quickly. I suspect that out on the driveway under the boards and bricks, the kayak panels still won't have cured by the morning. I covered them with a polytarp and more bricks round the outside, and we'll see what the morning brings.

Friday - a day off from the build

No boat building today, but I was working at a customer site in Albany, close to the PlyMan. I took the opportunity to call in and buy the West System Epoxy components required. I got 4 litres of resin, 800ml of slow hardener, some low density filling additives and some microfibres, and the mini pump system that makes measuring and mixing simple and mess free.

I then tried to find Fibreglass Supplies to buy some tape, but got a bit lost in an industrial estate (I hadn't checked them on a map before leaving and was winging it). Just then the customer called me back on the cell phone, so I pulled over to take the call. As I was talking them through their support issue, I realised I was staring straight at the sign for Fibreglass supplies.

Although PlyMan could have sold me 100mm tape, it would have cost over twice as much as the 75mm tape I really wanted as sold by Fibreglass Supplies, and I was going to get the epoxy from the Glue Guru, but noticed it in the PlyMan when I bought the ply last weekend, and it was a good few dollars cheaper. It just goes to show how a bit of shopping around can save a few bucks if you have the time and patience.