Page Two - Getting Started

One of the first tasks in building a Guillemot is building a strongback.  The Guillemot system uses a board inside the forms.  This can be a long 2 X 4, but finding one that's straight is pretty tough.  I decided to build a boxbeam out of some leftover 3/4" plywood I had. 
This shows the cross-section of the boxbeam.  The 4" pieces are rabbeted to accept the 2" pieces.


This shows my ripping setup.  The long rip-fence jig is attached to the stock rip fence.  A sacrificial strip is spring-clamped to the long rip fence.  A dado blade is ripping out the 3/4" x 3/4" rabbet.
 


Here is the completed boxbeam.  You can probably tell from the scraps of paper that I had just cut out the plans for the station forms.

Here are all the station form plans glued to 1/2" ACX plywood.  I used 3M Super 77 spray adhesive.  I got a lot on my hands.  I was a sticky mess.  I kept pulling the spray button off of the spray can because it was stuck to my thumb!  However, it worked fine.  I notice some bubbling after awhile, but when I first applied the paper to the wood, it was flat.  I think the bubbling was due to the paper expanding when exposed to the glue - kind of like what happens when you glue paper with Elmer's and you use too much.  However, since the outer line of each form is the most important, and those seemed to stay true, I don't think the bubbling will cause any errors in the final form of the kayak.
 

I wanted to see how well the paper stayed when I cut out the form with my saber saw.  It worked great!  It didn't get pulled up by the blade at all.
 

When you cut out the forms, you leave them a little proud of the line, then sand them down to their final size.  In order to do this, I clamped my belt sander upside down to my work bench. The only problem was keeping the form vertical while I was sanding away the edge.  I got down on my knees to keep my eye on the line, and from there it was hard to tell if the form was straight up or not.  It didn't come out too bad.  I'm sure I'll get better at this as I go along.  I have 17 more stations to go.
 
 


Here's my belt sander "clamped" by the handle.


Here's the other end.

Here's form 12, sanded down to its final size.  I even cut out the rectangle in the middle and slid it onto the strongback.  It fit okay.  There was a little play up and down, but not much side to side.  In order to get them all aligned, there has to be a little room for adjustment.  Maybe I'll have to enlarge this hole later.

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