Stringers on at last!

As I was a little low due to my stringer problem I decided to send an email to Arch Davis to ask his advise.  Considering the difference in time zone and the fact it was in the weekend he answered very quickly. Arch had no experience with red cedar for this application but he advised me amongst others to plane the stringers down 2 mm to make bending easier and not to twist the stringers completely and accept that the stringers will need some fairing and bevelling before planking.

I also looked in back issues of WoodenBoat for articles on the subject. There was one in WB 129, page 99 (1996) on bending wood with dry heat. So I also applied a heatgun (paint stripper) to help the bending and twisting.

In the end I was able to get the garboard stringers on. Not 100% neat but sufficient to be workable.



Next thing to do was gluing the stringers and sheers to the stems with epoxy. As the ambient temperature is 4 centigrade at the moment I had to use my electric heater to get temperature sufficent high for curing. Nice messy job. 

I had to unscrew every stringer end, put epoxy on it and screw it back on. In the end my cordless drill/screwdriver is now epoxy coated.

If the epoxy is sufficiently cured tomorrow I will remove the front and end pieces of the strongback to be able to get the seatrisers on. As they are not very curved I don't expect any problems but you never know......