First Strips

At last I'm laying strips and the boat is
FINALLY getting started!

This weekend I cut all the cedar strips on the table saw using a glue-face blade. Last weekend I tried cutting strips on the bandsaw (less kerf loss), but the finish is too rough for gluing without sanding first. Life's too short for that, so I decided to sacrifice 30% fibre loss to table saw blade kerf. The benefit was that the strips were cut quickly and the edges are smooth. There will be more payoff later too in reduced sanding time.


I also figured out a better way to do the purple-heart inlay. First I build up the basic stripe pattern (red/yellow/red etc), then sandwich those strips with purple-heart, and cut the whole works with the bandsaw. I'm free-handing the curve as I cut.




Here are the built-up strips. Once each strip is assembled it goes onto the form and is edge-glued to the adjacent piece.






I am using two clamping methods here.

The first is very fine fishing line which is pull tight around the newly glued piece, wrapped around the shearline brace and clamped with spring-clamps. The benefit is that as soon as one row is glued, the next can be laid up and glued. When the glue is dry, it is easy to pull the fishing line thru and reuse it in a new location.

The second clamp is the combo rubber-band / bull-clip (heavy-duty office paper clip). These are exerting a downward force on the strips to keep them tight against the form.