They didn’t get glued until they went onto the boat. The forms were just to get the strips to take the bend. They bounce back some when taken off the form.
Then they got clamped and glued on the boat one at a time. I waited a few hours between strips to let the glue take hold before putting the next one on.
This was probably the most difficult part of the boat so far. I had a hard time getting the glass to stay where I wanted it.
It’s not horrible, but I’ll have some bubbles to fill.
What size are strip clamps? They get scaled to 10000% in my slicer.
And are the strip clamps for 5mm? Edit: Seems they are 1/4 inch.
If you have the time could you make one for 5mm thick strips?
I’ll have to go look. I’m thinking I created the strip clamps in inches. You’ll need to scale appropriately.
The strip clamps really aren’t anything special. You should be able to easily create them. It’s just a rectangle with a part cut out equal to the width of your strips. There’s nothing critical dimension-wise to them.
I have ordered material for a strip kayak and I want to try to build it without using to much staples with the staple gun.
I lost the ability to “pan” in blender and it makes it harder for me to create it myself. I tried scaling it but not sure what the lucky number is.
EDIT: The width is 1/4". I want 3/16".
Math was never my strong suit. Perhaps someone could help?
Give me a day or two. I’ll get you a strip clamp designed.
Yeah, sounds great. 
EDIT: I think that 3/16" really isn’t 5mm. I have 5mm spruce ribs and they are 20mm in width.
I’m going to build a short and wide one person kayak designed by a swedish paddler.
FWIW, 5mm is approximately 0.009" thicker than 3/16" , iow, close enough for most purposes.
I saw an article a while back where someone used heavy monofilament fishing line to hold their strips in place, basically tying them to the forms while the glue dried. No staple holes, and after they were cut, the ends of the lines basically disappeard in the glassing steps. Can’t find a link.
Then, this article talks about hot-glueing the strips to the forms and them being easy to release later. A drop of isopropyl alcohol will release some hot-melt glue very easily.
Honestly, the more I think about this, you should be fine with the 1/4" one. It’s ok if the clamp is ‘loose’. You’re going to use spring clamps to hold the strip clamp in place. You’ll push in towards the center of the kayak and down towards the previous strip on the strip clamp as you put the spring clamp in place. It shouldn’t matter how loose the strip clamp is on the strip itself.
Mine was not snug on the strip when I used them either. Especially since I made my strips in batches so my “1/4” inch strips were +/- a bit between the different batches.
I used hot melt glue on mine too. You need to do that whether or not you use the strip clamps. The strip clamps help hold it while the glue dries between the strips, but the hot melt is used to hold the strips to the forms as you glue the next strip on.
I need to dig up the pictures of what someone else did on their build. He used clamps too, but he had some other way of attaching them.
Here it is. I stole this off of Facebook…
His strip clamps are larger U-shaped pieces of wood. He then uses wood wedges to apply pressure holding the strisp to the forms and another wedge to push the new strip onto the previous one.
Then it looks like he goes back with large rubber bands and binder clips to pull the strips down onto the previous one inbetween forms. This would work better than the tape method I did as the tape tend to come unstuck while the glue dried or you couldn’t apply enough pressure.
There’s also a trick where you can use spring clamps and bicycle tires. You cut the bicycle tire into 3" or 4" strips. Then you put the ends of the little piece of rubber onto the ends of the spring clamps. When you use them, you clamp over the edge of the strip and the bicycle tire acts as an edge clamp and puts pressure on the strip holding it to the previous one.
I’m thinking I’ll make some of these for the next build.
I´ll check tomorrow after used bicycle tire. I like the idea.
If you would do “one” thing different on this build, what would you change?
My spruce ribs are “store” bought and they are convex and concave. Perhaps that does not matter?
I´ll print some of your 1/4" clamps and try them out!
EDIT: If I should scale 1/4 " to 3/16". What would be the correct percentage?
Are your clamps 70x70mm? Or smaller? Larger?
Which boat are you building?
I don’t have any 1 thing that I’d change. I’ve made small mistakes here and there, but they have all been fixable.
I probably would have started with better wood. The cheaper lumber I’m using from home depot had a lot of knots in it. And I learned recently that my bandsaw would have done a better job at cutting the strips than the table saw. Neither of those will affect you since you’re starting with reprocessed wood.
Oh… I would have sorted the sticks by color and used the different tinted strips to produce some type of pattern. You can see where I thought of this later into the build.
I also would have done more strips each day from the start. When I first started, I was waiting a full day between strips. I learned after a while that the glue really only needed 3 hours or so to set enough to start shaping for the next strip.
Everything else has gone mostly to plan. I’m using Nick Schade’s book and it walks through the steps really well.
I’ll have to look when I get home
It’s 2"x2"… math says that means it’s 50.8mm x 50.8mm
