Fly Fishing Traditions: Kingfisher Drift Boat Build

Hurray! It's time to start working on the interior of the Kingfisher. I've gone through about 6 gallons of epoxy and who knows how many sanding discs. I'm ready to start some woodworking again. The first thing for me to do is start building 3 pedestals. These pedestals will be used to mount the front and aft seats and the rowing seat.

Here are the 3 pedestals once the have been taken out of their respective forms.

These seats will be constructed with laminated 3mm Okoume plywood. The first task is to build 3 forms to bend and laminate the respective shapes. The photo above from left to right shows the 3 pedestals once they have been released and cut to their final dimensions. The one on the left, the aft pedestal is the smallest. It will have a small door to access storage underneath. The two hoops in the middle are cut from one laminations and will become the base for the rowing seat. The large pedestal on the right will be for the front and is designed to store a "Yeti - Roadie" cooler.

It starts with the Forms

The first step is to build the forms that the 1/8" Okoume plywood will be bent around. Here's the steps.

Cut out a top and bottom out of 1/2" plywood for each sized pedestal. They should be exactly the same size.
Measure the length of each lamination making sure the are at least 1" longer than required.
Determine the height of the pedestals. I cut all my 1/8" plywood pieces 19" wide.
Cut 3 - 2x4's for each pedestal 3" less than the width of the plywood. In my case it was 19" - 3" = 16".
Attach the 2x4's to the plywood tops so that you have basically a 3 legged stool
Attach the bottom and you now have a form.
Cover the edges of the plywood and the 2x4 edges with clear package tape so the epoxy will release from the form.
Pre-bend the laminations. Attach one of the 19" wide edges of each lamination to one of the 2x4 posts at the front.
Bend the laminations around the form and make sure they are the correct length.

Now Time to Laminate

You'll need clamps to help massage the laminations around the form and to keep them in place when the epoxy is setting up.

Coat the two plywood faces that will mate liberally with epoxy.
Attach the two sheets to one edge of the form with screws.
Bend and clamp the laminations around the form. I drilled 1 3/8" diameter holes in the top and bottom of the form to secure the clamps. See photo above.
Make sure the two pieces of plywood align on the edges as you bend them around the form.
Let them set up overnight.

Assembling the Pedestals

Once the pedestals come out of the form you need to cut them to size, sand the edges and then attach the top and front pieces.

The first step is to clean up the top edge of the pedestal. I was able to sand them flat without cutting them as they aligned nicely when epoxying them together.
I then cut out the pedestal faces out of 1/2" Okoume Plywood.
I cut out the opening in the larger pedestal prior to attaching it.
I used waterproof Titebond Glue to glue and clamp the faces to the pedestals.
Once the glue had dried I scribed pieces of 1/2" Okoume Plywood for the two tops. I marked them about 1/16" larger than the finished size.
I glued and clamped the two tops to the two pedestals. I cleaned up as much glue as possible once they were clamped.
Once the tops were set I used a pattern bit with a bearing to flush cut the tops to the sides.
I then used a 3/8" radius router bit and rounded the top edge and the edge at the sides.
Last step was to sand everything.
I sanded the radius at the edges to about 1/2"

Rowing Seat Hoops

The rowing seat hoops are bent on the same form as the front pedestal. They are 3 laminations of 1/8" plywood instead of two.

The rowing seat hoops are laminated with 3 pieces of 19" wide pieces of 1/8" Okoume plywood.
Same procedure as the pedestals.
Once they are released from the form they are cut into two hoops that are 7 1/2" wide. I used a jig saw to cut them.
Once they were cut into two hoops, I sanded the edges and the inside and outside surfaces.
I then had to layout slots in each hoop to receive a piece of white oak that was 13/16" wide x 2 1/2" tall that the actual rowers seat will be attached to. This piece needs to stick up about 1/2" above the top of the hoops.
I just used common sense and laid the cut out and used a jig saw to cut it and a sharp chisel to fine tune the ends of the slots.