Halleluia...........

The last pile of staples. Done with them till I start the deck and foredeck moulds.


After I pulled the last of the staples I scraped all the sharp protruding edges off of the strips that didn't quite line up. Scraping is a lot faster then sanding, (and for getting Glue blobs off nothing is better). I've never tried it on plywood before, but it worked like a champ. I didn't have any curved scrapers around, so I made a couple out of some junked brass plates.


Here's what the stripping looks like after the edges are smoothed out. I haven't touched this area with any sandpaper yet and its already pretty fair and smooth.


My co-workers and I flipped the mould after work so that I could reinforce some area's from the inside (thanks fella's). If the strips have a decent sized gap between them, or cover a steep angle sometimes the glue doesn't hold to well and those area's are weaker. Worked well, those area's don't flex anymore. It also gave me the first look of what the hull shape looks like right side up. Smooth and sexy right?


This is a pic of the inner workings of the mould, the strips look cool I think. Makes me want to build a cedar boat someday (when I'm old and don't care about extra weight, maybe a thistle or something). The whole structure is very sturdy, which is good, because the Vac is like two atmospheres of pressure. Tomorrow I need to trim some things and try to cut and install the aft Vac deck.