I laid out all the pieces on the ground so I knew where the longer and short stringers went together. I was really confused for a moment, because I was short a stringer, and then I remembered, I had broken one. So I cut a new stringer to size.
I tried assembling all the little wooden braces to the aluminum braces first. I don’t think this was as easy as bolting all the little aluminum braces to the flat plates, and then bolting them to the angle stock braces. I also think it was easier to bolt the whole thing together folded up like I did for the first half then unfolded like this. I kept fighting the sides that formed the gunwales. They just wanted to bind up on me.
Here I have the 2 completed halves on my my Do It Yourself folding Kayak. This second half went together much faster, even though I fought with with assembly more. The first time I wasn’t really sure if it was all going to fit. The second half, I knew it was all going to fit, I just needed to keep taking off pieces and shaving them with the block plane so they fit.
It is pretty amazing that the frame on the left folds up into what you see on the right isn’t it? Once I get the right hardware installed, the frame will fold up tighter. I bought more nuts and bolts tonight, the right kind, lets just hope they are the right size. I think the ones I got will all be too long, but I can fix that with my Dremel and a cutoff wheel. I couldn’t find 5/8ths long flat head screws. So I got 3/4 inch.
