Time to Make Strips

Making Your Own Strips!

First of all let me say, this was a LOT of work that took days to complete but I'm glad I did it. Commercially made strips are available from mills so if you want to skip this step just go and buy them but be prepared to get your wallet out!! It's hard to believe that a few of those boards above will be a boat in a few months but that is the beauty of woodworking and it's so much fun!

Thank goodness my recycling container was the exact height I needed for an extension table.  These big boards were 17' long so it would have been awkward without something to take the weight as I pushed them through the saw.

BTW, even though most table saws use a 10" blade I chose to switch over to a 7" circular saw blade because they are only about 1/16" wide vs nearly a tenth of an inch for the big blade. It might not seem like much but saving 1/32" on every cut saves a lot of wood in the long run.

I cut my blanks for the strips a little under 1/2" for thickness and about 5/8" for width (.430" x .620" for my tool & die friends) and all 17 feet long.  They were a bit cumbersome to handle but my little rack I made kept them up and out of the way.

Another must have tool if you're going to cut your own strips is a router and a router table. I received this as a Christmas gift a few years ago because my wife wanted me to make toys for the kids and now I'm finally getting around to using it for my big toy--the boat.

As you can see above I have a router blade that cuts both the bead and the cove into blanks I cut however, it doesn't do both at the same time. I have to set it up for the bead and run all the boards then set it up for the cove and run them all again.

The bead and cove strips fit together pretty well and it allows for curving over the station molds as well.  The plans call for 1/2" thick strips but I know that my boat will not need as much wood removed through planing and sanding because I'm being careful with the finish on the strips plus it will end up pretty smooth when it's all planked.  My strips are about 1/16" thinner than 1/2".

Next step--get the molds ready for covering with glued strips.