Page Five - Finishing Strongback/Ripping Strips

During the past two days I fastened the forms to the strongback.  It was a nervewracking process, but I think I've got the form of the boat fair enough.  There are variations of 1/32" here and there, but I don't think it is enough to affect the handling of the boat.  I used a tip from someone else's pages (I can't remember who.)  I cut a small slit in the center of the top and bottom of each form.  Then, when the forms were on the boxbeam, I ran mason's line through the slits.  It made it easy to sight down the strongback and see if the forms were aligned with each other.

After that was done it was time to rip the strips.  I opened the garage door and put a long piece of scrap plywood on a couple of sawhorses.  It gave me enough length for the outfeed of the table saw.  I installed a new thin-kerf blade on the table saw.  I ripped a few scraps and adjusted the rip fence until I had 1/4" thick strips.  Then it was time to go.  It took about 4 hours, and created a huge pile of sawdust.
 

This shows my ripping setup.  The outfeed table goes out the garage door.  I had to stack the strips on top of the strongback, because I couldn't get to the rack I built on the stands.  Space is limited in my garage!

 
Here's a little closer view of the cutting operationg.  You can see the ripping "jig" I built over the table saw's rip fence, which isn't very long, and isn't tall enough to clamp a feather strip to.

 
 
Here's a closeup of the feather strips.  You can also see the ripping fence I built to slip over the one that came with the saw.

 
 
Here are the strips stacked on the racks I put on the sides of the strongback stands.  I ripped four 1"x6"x8' redwood boards, one 1"x8"x10' redwood board, and one 1"x4"x8" spruce board I had in the garage.  I plan to use the spruce as an accent strip.  I may try to buy a dark board (walnut?) to use for more accent strips. 

 
Here's another shot of the strips.  Will they be enough for the whole kayak?  I have no idea.  I'm not worried.  If I need more I can go back to Hayward's Lumber and get some more clear redwood.  If it turns out I have more than I need, well, at this point I don't plan for this to be my last strip boat.

Tomorrow I plan to put masking tape on the edges of all the forms and attach the first strips.  Finally!  I'm excited!  Stay tuned!

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