This was my first attempt at creating saw dust from my lovely stock of Sapele. I bought a new (secondhand) 17" bandsaw for this project so I was eager to put it through its paces, cutting laminates. I was chuffed at how well the laminates came out, and before long I had 15 lengths prepared for my stem.I glued up the laminates without incident, although I did not use any fillers in the epoxy mix, but so far the stem seems to have held together fine.
Flushed with early sucess, I then laminated up the outer stem on the inner stem. It wasn't until I re-read the specifications that I realised the import of the sequence of John's instructions - i.e. shape the inner stem after it is cured and THEN laminate the outer stem to the inner stem. My outer stem is a little off as a consequence, but I am confident that it will bend back to mate with the outer stem, when the planking is complete, or failing this I will have to get out my lamination blocks and plans and re-do the outer stem. Not the end of the world...
One small word to the wise....dont cut off the excess timber from the top of the inner stem - you will need this to attach the stem to the jig, only when the boat s off the jig should you cut it to its finished lenght. I thought I knew better, I trimmed it back to about 2" longer than the finished length - had to re-glue the cut-off back on so that I could attach the stem to the jig. Epoxy glues and wood flour make for a very strong joint!
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