I have been reading Ted's Shop Notes in preparation of building my first stripper kayak. I understand the advantages of fairing the molds, and realize also the extra time involved. It occurred to me that if you rounded over the molds with a full radius (bit) and positioned the molds so that the theoretical tangent point of the strip fell on the center of the station line - you'd really have something there...
Any second opinions?
Brian - PA
Fairing Molds - Alternative?
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Erik, Belgium
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Juneaudave
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I may be wrong, but I believe that the molds are set on the strongback in such a way that the mold edges that will hit the strips are exactly located at the 12" marks (that's why the molds are setup from the center out). If you round over the molds you will distort the intended shape somewhat i.e. the strips will hit on the centerline of the mold rather than the edge as intended. Probably not a big deal though for most designs. In regard to fairing the molds themselves, if you cut the molds correctly, and set them up square and all, fairing the molds is nothing more than laying a batten over the various areas and little if any fine tuning will be required. For me, at least, its more like an exercise to see if something is grossly out of place. I really can't tell by looking at a batten whether I'm spot on or a sixtenth off or even an eigth off for that matter in most locations.