Laminating the stem facings (1)

Not much done the last few days. I have the plan to make a false keel from mahogany.  The original design from Arch Davis is to epoxy kevlar tape over the keel but for me that is not an appealing idea.  So when you think of a mahogany keel, why not also make the stem facings  from mahogany.  I have some planks 150 mm wide and 20 mm thick left from my previous project so why not use them.  The design uses 1/8" x 1 3/4" strips for the lamination so I ripped the planks in three equal parts that are all slightly wider than 1 3/4".

Those planks I cut through the middle on my table saw. I did it in one pass over the saw what was a bit much for the machine. The saw was getting hot as you can see from the black marks on the strips.  After that I took the strips through my thickness planer to work it back to a little more than 3 mm.

I have to confess that I made the mold to bend the laminiations on a bit to quick using old parts from a previous project. So not top class. Using bad quality builds bad quality into the product.

Finally I did epoxy on the strips and bended them around the mold. Messy again with those slippery strips.  Getting epoxy on the disposable gloves and then trying to turn on the clamps with those gloves on. That is not a wise procedure.

I put the mold with lamination on it in the house because of the temperature.  It has started to snow a little bit here which results in a nice picture of my shed.

This morning the result of my lamination was not good enough. There was even some torsion in it. So I have to start over again from scratch and first make a better mold. Maybe I will make the stem facings from red cedar. Easier to shape. 

Keep you posted.