| About a year ago, I showed David Nichols our nifty
kayak foot braces. I thought
they would be great for any of his flyfishing
kayaks. He had them for a while but did
not install them as there was not a good way to do
that without drilling a hole in the side of his boats.
Then we found out about glue-on studs. Those solved
the kayak foot brace mounting problem and David knew
exactly what to do with them. He was kind enough to
take pictures of the installation and we present them
here.
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This is what
the glue-on studs look like. They are stainless
steel with 1/4-20 threads. |
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This story is
about mounting Kayak foot braces but these studs
have all sorts of applications. |
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David says the
average person will want to mount the middle
of the base about 33 inches from the middle
of the seat. This is highly individual, though
so measure for your own installation. |
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About 2/3rds
of the travel should be available aft of the
nominal position. You will need a spring clamp
as shown or some other way to hold the base
in the desired position. |
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Mark the spots
on the inside of the hull where the studs will
mount, then sand all paint and varnish to expose
epoxy or bare wood where the studs and fiberglass
will go. |
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Mix a little
thickened epoxy and dab it where the perforated
flanges of the glue-on studs will touch the
plywood. |
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With the studs
in the holes of the base of the foot brace,
but without the nuts, push the flanges into
the thickened epoxy and secure until the epoxy
has set. |
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When the epoxy
has set up it should look like this. Now remove
the base from the studs. |
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Find some scraps
of fiberglass and make small patches with holds
for the threaded part of the stud to go through
and mix a little liquid epoxy. |
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Use a brush
to wet out the fiberglass patches being careful
to get as little epoxy on the threads as possible. |
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Once that epoxy
sets up, the hard part is done. All that is
left is to sand the epoxy and paint. |
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Here is how
it should look - you have a few inches of adjustment
for taller folks and several inches for shorter
people. |
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Here is David's
boat after the foot braces and seat have been
mounted. David will write more on seats later.
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David was so impressed with these Sea-Dog kayak foot
braces that he has decided to recommend them to all
builders of his kayaks. We like them too but I am
really interested in hearing ideas about the glue-on
studs. Can you think of a good use for them?
Other Articles by Chuck Leinweber
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