I'm using a "rolling bevel" where the two strips meet. In order to make the edges of the adjacent strips match, the edges have to be beveled to allow for the arch of the shape. However, the bevel has to be at a steeper angle towards the ends. Therefore, the angle of the bevel has to gradually change. This is called a rolling bevel by strip kayak builders. It's tough! I wanted to try it, but I'm having second thoughts. It's very slow going, and I don't feel confident that I'm doing an accurate job of planing the bevels I need.
The other way to join the edges is with a
bead and cove. Using a router table, you route a concave rounded
edge on one side of the strip, and a round convex edge on the other side.
When you butt the two edges together, the convex side of one strip fits
into the concave side of the next, no matter what the angle of the two
sides. Describing it makes it sound more complicated than it is.
I'll try and draw it.
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This crude drawing shows the end view of four strips. The bottom two show the way the beads and coves fit together to make a tight joint, even when the two strips are at an angle to each other. |
| Here are two strips attached to the forms. The strips are glued together along their entire edges. They're anchored to the forms using staples. There will be small staple holes left afterwards, which are usually filled with some sort of putty, such as epoxy mixed with wood flour. The staple holes are not supposed to be too ugly. There is a way to attach the strips without staples, but it adds complexity to the process and slows things down, because you can't apply a new strip until the glue on the old strip has dried - basically it limits you to one strip per side per building session. I thought I'd do it the easy way - with staples - on this first attempt. If I ever build another I'll consider stapleless. |  |
| The
blue tape is masking tape on the edges of the forms to keep the strips
from sticking.
After the hull is completely stripped, the staples are pulled, and the hull is smoothed by scraping, planing, and sanding. Then fiberglass is applied to the outside. After it sets, the entire hull can be lifted off the forms. This allows you to apply fiberglass to the inside of the hull, and frees up the forms to start stripping the deck. |
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This picture shows the way the forms are
anchored to the boxbeam.
There are 2" x 2" cleats attached to the boxbeam. The forms are screwed to the cleats. The wooden piece that goes about 3/4 of the way up the side of the boxbeam is the top of one of the supports that hold the whole thing up in the air. |