Yeah man… looks real good. I have to say, it kills me to read that you’re buying tiny pieces of balsa in ‘project bags’… I’ve got scraps of the stuff littered all over my shop. The trees grow all over the place down here… On the other hand, I have to drive 7 hours to buy Epoxy, so I guess it all works out in the end.
A little tip… make sure you keep that spine straight when you glue up the poplar.
Looking forward to seeing that desk get covered in glue and saw dust.
Yea, I called about 6 places looking for some balsa and finally gave up. Thanks for the tip. I’m thinking about cutting a strip of plywood, drawing a center line and screwing some 2’4s to it, so I’ll have something to clamp the spine to. My project might be postponed a few days, I have some tedious moving to do!
Yeah, that’s one of the trickier sections to connect… especially if you have a lot of nose rocker… wood bending in two directions is tough.
In those situations, I’ve had to build nose blocks out of balsa and just cut the chine logs short. You’ll end up having to shape the rocker into the chine log from behind the cut, and then the balsa all the way to the nose, but once the rails and skins go on, you’ll never notice. I’m sure the Wood_Ogre would scowl, but I don’t have any other solution… maybe someone out there has a good technique for bending poplar… don’t know.
Regarding the chine strip. Just force it to bend. You should have back up strips in case one snaps. I used redwood, which snaps really easily. If it isn't working out for you, then maybe your strips are too thick. When I did my board I glued the frame to the bottom skeleton first. The chine strips went on after the glue had dried. You can't have too many clamps for this procedure. The PVC pipe sections worked great (see below).
Here are a few glue tips:
- 3M 5200 fast cure is great for gluing the skeleton to the skins. It is white and goopy, and will fill any gap. Just don't get it on any joints that will be visible. Make sure the bottle says "fast cure." The normal 5200 takes several days to harden.
- For the visible joints, epoxy is your best bet. I used gorilla glue in some places and really regretted it. It leaves an ugly glue line. Epoxy glue lines turn nice and clear when you do the final lamination.
Thanks for the glue tips, I’m going to pick some up today. I"m basically following Wood_Ogres forum (http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/wood_ogres-balsa-hallow-wood-hallow-rail-fish-attitude), except using my own design and definitely not making a 12ft board. I like the way he did the rails, it seems simple enough. Although, I do believe its the easy things that can be the most difficult.
By the way those PVC pipe clamps are pretty interesting.
Yesterday I started gluing the skeleton. I used Loctite Extra Time Epoxy which has a setting time of 60 minutes (so I could take my time). I also built a nose block out of balsa, Thanks Tio.
I accidently cracked my spine! around the first rib but it’s now smothered in epoxy and has balsa at every corner, so I think it’ll be okay. I hope it’s dry enough today I’ll start working on the chine strips.
[img_assist|nid=1051068|title=Gluing the skeleton. (Epoxy)|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=641|height=433]
Aligning the spine by clamping to the guide I made, also making sure I keep the ribs even with the guidelines.
[img_assist|nid=1051081|title=Clamping to the guide.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427]
