With some help from this forum I have completed stripping the hull and I think it looks pretty good. Now we go onto the deck. I was able to put on the shear strip the deck without too many issues, but then I came to putting in the center strips. With the Guillmont design with very curved bow and stern, the cove from the shear strip (where I need to create a bead with the hand plane after cutting the center strip at the right angle) and the angle of the inner stem is about a 45 degree angle compared to the requirement from the form just one foot away. This means the center strip has to twist 45 degrees in a foot if I want the center strip to rest against the form #1 and then have it rest againt the inner stem and have the bead fit into the cove.
At the stern I sort of made it work (we will see after I remove all the clamps and tape) by forgetting about trying to rest the strips against the initial three forms from the stern and instead beveled enough to permit the two center strips to fit at about a 45 degree angle and then later on I was able to flatten it out.
My question is, unlike all the other boats I saw Nick work on, the Guillmont’s inner stem starts at the keel line and wraps around the centerline of the deck at the stern and bow for a couple of inches. Was this done because of the extreme angles I am dealing with right at the tip of the stern and keel mentioned previously and I should simply assume the external stem will provide a nice round over in the area instead of the normally sharp tip I expect to see with kayaks?
Tried heating the strip to pre-bend, but the requirement was just too extreme.
Hope I explained this correctly. In a way just having the shear strips and initial center strips butting into an external stem seems like cheating, but I don’t know what else to do. I hope someone else has run into this problem.
can you snap a couple pictures and include them in your post to help us see what you are talking about. i have a hunch what’s up…but don’t want to make comments without really seeing where you are at.
Thanks for the response. I have a few pictures here. First, I show how I have taped up the bow area before stapling, noting the difficulty in fitting the bead into the cove. Next, I show where I attempted to do it at the stern with it stapled, then the bow area without the strips showing the extreme angle required.
Hopefully fitting this in this matter will look OK after fairing and putting on the external stem.
Be interested in your thoughts and where I may have gone astray!
Taking a look through this forum, I can see I am not the only one dealing with issues bending strips with the Guillmont at the bow and stern. Looking at a couple of responses, I like the idea of gluing the strips into the tip first then letting it cure and trying to fit the strips onto the form after the glue cures. In addition, I am experimenting with bending the strips with a heat gun. I went 10 minutes and creating a reasonable bend. You can see my repurposed cutting jig used as a clamping jig. Any idea of how long to leave it in this condition for the twist to stay after unclamping? The only info I could find is when steaming.
i looked through your pictures and my impression is that you are on track and doing well.
i have built 5 strip builds and to put it in context, the first one was just a lot of learning and took a lot of time around the same areas that you are finding challenging. my last strip built is certainly tighter than the first, but they all came out looking great and my view is that you are close enough on what i can see that between fairing and some filling, you are going to be just fine. you do not appear to be ‘going astray’
on the question of applying heat with heat gun, i did use that technique in similar situations. the heat gun induced bends tend to hold relatively well but either immediately place them/staple them into their new form or keep it in a jig until you place them. i have never had them simply hold their shape…they will warp…but your goal in bending is to loosen it enough so that the last bit of bend can be managed with your staples or tape. you are not trying to ‘pre-shape’ the piece.
I’m building a Little Auk 10 and the short length requires some tortuous bends. I found a heat gun was mildly helpful, but not as effective as I’ve seen in videos. Of course, each piece of wood has its own personality. I resorted to making a simple form and steaming some strips to roughly the right shape. I am set up for steam bending, but it’s not hard to put something together for a small project like this. I use a length cut from a roll of food sealing bags for the steam ‘box’ . I do have a steam generator but I would think one could rig something up with a kettle. You only need a few minutes of steaming. Have good gloves. Yes, it’s bit of trouble and probably overkill, but it turned frustration into progress. You could also try soaking the strip until it’s thoroughly wet and then using the heat gun.
as you can see, they were small pieces for an outer stem. My wife was not happy about my selection of tools. She thought i was cooking her a special dinner until she looked into the pot
This is the only picture I could find. I used a piece of plywood and screwed blocks to it to approximate the curve. Where it also needs a twist I cut the blocks at an angle .
The nice thing about using a bag is you can continue steaming while you clamp the strip to the blocks. The tube from the steamer comes in at one end (where the spring clamp is). I slope the plywood to drain the condensate down to the other end.
This is the only picture I could find. I used a piece of plywood and screwed blocks to it to approximate the curve. Where it also needs a twist I cut the blocks at an angle .
The nice thing about using a bag is you can continue steaming while you clamp the strip to the blocks. The tube from the steamer comes in at one end (where the spring clamp is). I slope the plywood to drain the condensate down to the other end.
Howard and Steve, I just wanted to thank you for your input especially Howard for letting me know that it doesn’t always fit perfectly like in Nick’s video’s! I keep telling myself, that will look better after fairing!
