: 1. Golly! How do you do a s&g anyway? Kind of curious and I don't really feel
: like buying a book... Let's say that you have your hull panels lofted and
: cut. You want to stitch them together.

I build stitch and glue kayaks, and pirogues, out of designs I've developed over many years. Simple, quick, strong, inexpensive, sometimes light. They work. There are many excellent S&G designs available...but for me it's just too easy to do my own. That doesn't mean that I won't eventually do something designed by another person.

: a. How close to the edges do you make the stitch holes?

I make the holes as close to the edge as I can. Almost always within 1/4". I drill through both sheets at the same stroke.

: b. How far apart do you make the stitch holes?

I use as few stitches as I can...or only as many as needed. Usually not more than 8 or 10" apart. I do go down to 1" if needed...but rarely.

: c. How do you get them to line up from panel to panel?

As said above...I drill through both sheets at the same time. I hold the sheets in position, drill, and wire. I basically stitch the boat together loosely at very widely spaced stitches, and come back to add the real tightening stitches after it is looking somewhat like a boat.

: And then you start gluing, great. So, uh, yeah. So you make a fillet and tape
: the inside.

I put a small fillet between the wires. Let cure overnight. Remove the wires, then fillet as needed. After the fillet has cured overnight I add the tape.

: d. Well, what if you started by taping the outsides, letting that firm up and
: then filleted/taped the insides? I'm thinking that there would be gaps
: between panels and with this method one could fill them very easily (from
: the inside) without creating a mess on the other side that would later
: have to be cleaned up (in one way or another). Hmm. You might even be able
: to use a less solid (more fluid) epoxy fillet 'cause you know that it
: isn't going to flow out anywhere...

I don't get a mess. I mix the epoxy and wood flour to a consistency that allows me to spread the goop nicely with a craft stick (tongue depressor). One has to mix the epoxy with a somewhat fiberous filler...such as wood flour...or it has a tendency to seek the lowest level...like viscous water. In your scenario...though it may not flow out a "hole", it will flow to puddle in the lowest spot.

: 2. It's all about fill coats... If you were being silly and took a medium
: fast hardener you might notice that the epoxy is a bit thicker when you
: put it on. If that were the case then you might not need three coats (wet
: + 2 fill) of epoxy everywhere. Sure, there might be a few small places
: that you would want to fill (where you see the weave) but mostly
: everything would be ok. Well... And then, what if you weren't being very
: clever and filled only the spots that needed filling (and didn't thin the
: thick epoxy with anything) and ended up with a decidedly non-uniform
: surface?

I think you've answered this comment. As for filler coats...I put on a coat, scrape, coat, scrape, coat, scrape...as many times as needed. I put on several coats after the weave has dissappeared, then scrape lightly and sand.

: Is the best 'solution' to sand/scrape the edges (roughly 1/3 of the surface)
: or maybe to put on another layer of really thinned epoxy over the whole
: surface first and then to sand/scrape? (I could add, is it best to do that
: while the epoxy is still young or to wait, but -I- think that it's best
: when it's young. If you have a differening opinion, please, don't
: hesitate.)

I scrape...not sand (maybe rarely)...between each coat, including the saturation coat, that is done within 24 hours...or thereabouts. At least while the epoxy is "young". If I wait longer and the epoxy gets hard, or older, I scrape and sand a bit.

: 3. La la la! Maybe the living room wasn't the best place to build a 'yak
: after all It's nice in that I can close all of the doors and only make
: a mess in one place. It's problematice because it's right in the middle of
: the house and you -have- to walk through it to get from one side to the
: other - through it and over 'yak pieces that might, maybe, be covered in
: epoxy...

It's nice to have ventilation where you work.

: 4. Spam. Arg! Hate it, hate it, hate it! It won't help much for the board,
: but for personal use I highly recommend sneakemail... I can create
: addresses at will and when I receive email at one I always know where my
: address was 'harvested'... It is equally simply to destroy addresses and
: create new ones...

I get well over 100 spams a day. I have had many email address, but that only meant I had to check every one and search for real messages. With only one email address I simply go through and delete the ones that have passed the spam killer and open the messages I want. I never open spam.

: Maybe next time I'll do that as individual posts!

Probably be a good thing.