A Cedar Strip Tip

Hi Chuck,

My nephew David, and I just finished up his Wee Lassie, and I thought others might be interested in the way I hold the strips to the forms instead of using staples. I know that many people use hot melt glue or bungie cords or clamps to hold the strips until the glue sets, but I am not patient enough to do a pair of strips at a time or deal with hot melt glue residue.

I strip my boats from the gunwale up, with the bead up. Attach the first strip with nails, as the holes left will be concealed by the gunwales. Apply glue to the cove of the next strip on the bench, then use 25 lb monofillament fishing line to clamp the the second strip to the first. Start at one end, wrap around and around the two strips, and clamp the bitter end at the other end of the boat.

You can immediately glue and place the next strip, and wrap the fishing line around all three strips until you reach the other end and clamp again. In order to keep the strips from pulling away from the forms as you continue up the sides of the boat, place screw on the face of the forms every couple of inches and as you pass by pull the line arond the screw, so that the strip is held tight against the forms. Follow this procedure alternating from one side to the other until you reach the area that some call the football, on the bottom of the boat, where you can strip on one side only then cut 1/2 inch away from the centerline with a hand saw. Then strip the other side and let the ends run over to be cut off the same 1/2 inch. This lets you fill the center line with a 1" square edge strip that can be planed to fit perfectly. When the whole hull has been stripped, and the glue has a chance to dry, I just run a utility knife along the bottom of the first strip, and cut all the fishing line.

Then you can pull the pieces through from the outside and you are left with a hull with no staple marks. The fishing line makes it difficult to clean up the glue squeeze-out as you go, but I find most of it can be removed using a scraper before the hull is sanded.

By the way, because the line curves over the edges of the strips, you can't even tell where they were when you are finished sanding.

David and I were able to strip the boat completely in a bit less than 2 days and he pretty much had it finished in the two and a half weeks he had out west.

rgds

Rick Crook