Strip orientation

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Patricks Dad
Posts: 1476
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:11 pm
Location: Warrenville, Illinois

Strip orientation

Post by Patricks Dad »

This might be a dumb question or one I should have asked earlier...

We are building a redbird and have started the stripping process with the lightest wood in our bundle. We will move to the darker wood as we progress toward the bottom of the canoe. We've used up all the clear light strips and are about to begin putting on strips that have some light and some dark wood in them (one end dark, the other light)

We'd like to put these strips on with the dark end of the strip at one end of the canoe (on both sides).

The strips are planed smooth on one side but rough sawn on the other. We've been putting the strips on with the smooth side out (no particular reason). It probably would have been smarter to put the rough side out to make sanding easier.


Here's my question: Is there any reason to always put the smooth side out (or in)? If there is a strong motivation to put the same side in or out then I have a small problem.

In order to put the same side out AND have the dark end at the same end of the canoe on both sides, I would need to convert from cove up to cove down orientation of the strips on one side of the canoe. This would entail cutting off a cove and converting it to a bead to allow subsequent strips to attached on that side and still allow the same side out and the dark end at the same end of the canoe as the other side.

Hope this makes sense (I can imagine lots of different interpretations of the above).

Or is it simply the case that planed side vs rough sawn side out is completely irrelevant and I should just get back to work (my day job that is).

Thanks in advance.

I
Randy Pfeifer
(847) 341-0618
Randy.Pfeifer1@gmail.com
Bernie in Illinois

Post by Bernie in Illinois »

Patricks Dad, Hi!
The fact is, you can use almost any quality strips and still get a reasonable job if you're willing to put additional hard work into it. Yes, it would have been to your advantage to plane both sides of your strips in order to insure consistent thickness and minimize sanding. But, this is not huge problem. Hopefully, the rough side of your strips will require minimum sanding. Assuming you're using 1/4" strips, test a sanded strip for final thickness. Hopefully, you will not be below 3/16". My understanding of general design standards, is that you need additional reinforcement if below. That means extra glass.

Because your strips alternate from smooth to rough, the unsanded hull will have highs and lows where the strips mix. You'll need to sand very carefully especially in those areas, both to obtain a smooth surface and fair lines across the entire hull. To make sure you don't oversand any one area, mark it with a squiggly pencil line. The line will help you gage how your sanding is progressing.

I'm not a mechanical engineer, so I cannot tell you how much more glass reinforcement you might need if you fall below the 3/16 thickness. All I know is that no one seems to build below that standard. Those that have built with 3/16 strips have never reported any unusual structural problems.

Hope this helps.
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Erik, Belgium
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Location: Gierle, Belgium
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Post by Erik, Belgium »

hi Randy,
I don't have smooth sides on all strips either. Personally I wouldn't care because you 'll be blockplaning and sanding the hull when the stripping is done. In my case (see picture below, I have strip thickness going from 7 to 4 mm, which is not prefferable at all, but still I managed to get an even, smooth hull just by using a blockplane. I 'd suggest you sort out the strips on colour first, before ending up with all different colours. Try to get even colouring left and right as shown in the picture.
Erik, Belgium
Image
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