Strips not aligned at stem

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digger
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2011 12:33 pm

Strips not aligned at stem

Post by digger »

I'm a little over half way up the stem with the planking and I noticed on the bow, my strips are not meeting cleanly. Tough to measure, but I'd say at least an 1/8" or more. Should I start cheating the next couple of strips to work towards getting them to meet? I'm thinking that if I raise the bead a bit, but not enough that it's out of the cove, I should be ok.

thanks for the guidance.

Blair
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Jim Dodd
Posts: 1359
Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2006 11:08 pm
Location: Iowa

Re: Strips not aligned at stem

Post by Jim Dodd »

An 1/8" isn't bad. You could, once you approach the football, run a strip though your router and cove bit, chew a little off.

I wouldn't like to leave a gap in a joint to make it up.

Jim
Keep your paddle wet and your seat dry!
Stephen
Posts: 102
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2014 12:36 am
Location: Eastern Ontario

Re: Strips not aligned at stem

Post by Stephen »

Patrick's Dad had some useful advice on a similar topic last year viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4559#p28410
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Cruiser
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Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 10:21 am
Location: Bowmanville, Ontario

Re: Strips not aligned at stem

Post by Cruiser »

Hi Digger,

1/8" isn't bad at this point and won't actually show until after you turn the bilge and the pieces start meeting at the ends. If you adjust now, it will likely be easier, but there is always the possibility that you may need small adjustments, depending on if you add a pattern to the bottom. If you don't have accent strips or some feature that shows the misalignment on the bottom, then the importance of the alignment goes down.

The point you are at is likely the easiest time to adjust, because you can pick the side to adjust (shaving the bead is easiest). I would suggest no more than 1/8" adjustment on any one strip. What I do to adjust strips is to either add or subtract from the bead side.

To subtract, I mark 1/8" at the strip tip, go back ~1' and draw a line, then I plane off to the line, bevel the edge with the plane, and then use sandpaper to re establish the bead. If I have the room, I will use less than the 1/8" and spread it over a few strips.

You can also add to a strip, using the same idea. Just take about 1' of a matching strip, cut it down to just larger than you want to "adjust" (you are saving the cove part, that is what gets added to the bead), glue to the end of the strip to be "widened", mark the adjustment (again, 1/8" is about max) at the tip and draw a line back. Cut off the excess from the added strip, re establish the bead. This is sometimes needed after you finish one side, have cut the centreline and options for adjusting strip alignment get limited.

A couple of pics, because this is harder to describe, add to the strip ... in this case I went to a darker piece to better blend with where it was being adjusted

Image

and then sanded, planed and bead re established after gluing

Image

Those are the 2 ways I have found to do the alignment adjustments.


Brian
JesseP
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Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2015 11:13 am
Location: East Central, AB

Re: Strips not aligned at stem

Post by JesseP »

I wouldn't stress it to much unless your using a feature strip that will be very noticeable. The cedar will all sort of blend together anyway and wont be very obvious. If your foot ball is going to have a feature then I would do as mentioned above and taper one or two of the strips to get things back in line.
I'm up to my torch.
digger
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2011 12:33 pm

Re: Strips not aligned at stem

Post by digger »

Thanks guys. Hadn't thought about lowering the 'high' strip. That makes more sense than raising the 'low' strip.

Now if I could only get better at fiberglassing...

Blair
Edmonchuk
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Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2016 6:17 am

Re: Strips not aligned at stem

Post by Edmonchuk »

When I built a Prospector I faced the same mismatching on the stem as I approached the keel line. Glen (Obi-Wan) advised I could wait until I approached the football. Once there, he said I could cheat the strips by removing thin tapered slices down their lengths for about 24 inches of tapering per strip. After cutting off these tapers and rounding over a new beaded edge, I proceeded to place the strips as normal. As the pieces were being glued, they eventually matched together again after modifications to 3 or 4 strips. Worked awesome. Give it a try. Only you will know about the earlier mis-match of the strips as it's beauty is adored by onlookers whether inspecting things up close or wishing in the distance. :cool
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