I received my kit very soon after ordering it. There was a bit
more work involved than I thought there would be. I got a box of
wood strips and some plans. I figured everything would be cut and
shaped, however, that was not so. I had to cut the wood to length
and shape the ends at the proper angles. It was all pretty
simple, only time consuming. Building the workbench was harder
than putting the fin together. The only tools used were a small
coping saw, and a dremel type rotary tool (with a sanding wheel,
to smooth the ends of the wood parts to shape)
The hardest part? Epoxy. Yuck. Smelly
sticky gross stuff. I obtained two veterinary syringes for giving
horses shots (20-25cc each). I filled each one with epoxy from
the bottles TEAM gave me. I could then mix the epoxy at exactly
1:1. Oh...if you're wondering, the leading edge takes about 25cc
of each to laminate, and gluing the whole thing together takes
about 20cc... that is, if you are like me and get a lot the epoxy
on yourself (and the floor, the workbench, etc.)
After stapling everything together, and letting it dry, I had to
pull all the staples. They can't stay in there, as they would rub
into the cloth, and rust as well... I have also sanded and shaped
the leading edge. It was probably the most difficult task so far.
I was worried mainly that I would screw up and have to start
over. I figured I would have to start all over, there would be to
much to fix, if I messed it up.
I got out my dremel tool and using a sanding drum, carefully
sanded the edge into the approximate shape. I used long
controlled strokes, almost like whittling soft wood. I got
sawdust EVERYWHERE. Once I had it the way it basically should be,
I used extra heavy duty sandpaper to take off the roughness the
tool left, and finish shaping. Finally I sanded the whole fin
with medium sandpaper to remove all the epoxy that had oozed out
(I know now that neatness counts with epoxy), and to smooth off
the rough edges.
