Good Grief... Rice Lake Stem Clamping Problem

[Juneaudave]

I was poking around, about ready to steam the stems on the Rice Lake tonight and realized my acquired collection of 2 1/2 and 3 in. clamps that I used on the Bob's don't reach (must have 30 of them). The stems are 1 in thick each and I set my clamp holes per the plan about 1 1/2 inch from the edge ':oops:' Back to the garage sales I guess.

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

That's a bummer Dave. I would bet that even if you would have moved the edge of the clamping hole to within 7/8" from the edge of the stem form, 3" clamps would still have given you fits because of the swelling that takes place during the steamimg. Thirty clamps to do both sets of stems at once, or thirty clamps for one set of stems?
Around here, Sears had the best buy on decent quality clamps, only problem was, they are on an automatic computerized ordering system. I had to buy my clamps five at a time, then wait two weeks for five more to show up. I tried several times to get the managers to let me place a special order, nothing doing. I even sugested that they fool the computer and type in that the inventory was at -40, nope!
Happy garage saling!
Patience my friend, patience.

[Rod Tait]

If you are going to continue to build boats, you can never have Too Many clamps. I like to pick up the one foot F-clamps when they are on sale, and about every three months, our Canadian Tire stores put C-clamps on for half price. I go to three different stores in one day and purchase hand fulls and tell the the other builders about the sales and they do the same.

If you glue gunwales on with epoxy say on an 18' canoe, thirty clamps won't even do one side.

Garage sales are great places. A neighbour told me once that his wife was at a garage sale and saw a garbage can FULL of clamps and they were going for $100. She phoned him to ask if he want her to purchase them. Well Ya!!!!

Good luck in your search

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Hey Dave,
Did you hit any good garage sales today? I just saw where this guy had to use 90 clamps to glue on one outwale. Looks like I need to double my clamp inventory.

[Juneaudave]

No garage sales today, it was 88 degrees in Juneau so I hit the water. I did order 10 - 6" F clamps though. That should do the trick. I counted my c clamps and had 37 - 3" and another 18 spring clamps of various sizes. How did I ever live without all these clamps?