The Lamination Thread... Show me your Lams, Jigs, Tips and Tricks.

Looking to create a go to thread for all thing laminating ie: Stems, keels, combings, hatch areas, decorative items etc. Also any tips/tricks to laming sheet materials like perhaps a tricky bow area where 2 1/4" sheets of ply are used instead of 1/2" to create to get the curves right. Hit me (us) with your best shot(s)...

I'll be posting my efforts on my Stems and keel for the build I have just started. I have 2 pieces currently soaking, 5/16" thick, one is Rift sawn, one is quarter sawn, both are Doug fir cut from T&G flooring. See my "Three Year" thread for pics of the milling. If they bend properly and enough, they will be for this:



Which is 37" of curve height over 50" of length... so pretty harsh. I may have to thin the strips down but these are the testers. I'll let them soak for 3 or 4 days then give them a shot to see if they will take the bend. If so, then I shall let them dry in that position and see if they crack after drying... if not then I shall proceed happily. If anything happens then I'll break out the planer and thin the rest out. Looking at the picture, follow the curve where the planks meet the keel/stem starting with the visible station lines. There will be a scarf of about 8-9 inches joining the keel on the left to the stem piece on the right. I plan on alternating Rift, Quarter and Flat sawn pieces for maximum stability, and using epoxy to glue everything together.

 

Here's one for getting a fast turn on supposedly 6mm ply. It ends up as 6mm ply as the class rules for this class required at the time, ha ha!.
Works on other types of build too and neat when you can take advantage of epoxy and sheathing internally ie buouyancy tank or painted area.

 

Good thread !

 

Better than soaking is to steam them properly. Hot steam.. A lot of..

 

Soaking did fine... these fit well within the parameters I need. One is the 1/4 sawn and one is the rift sawn... the flat sawn I'm not worrying about so much. Now to trim to width and dry on the form, which has yet to be built. Plenty to do whilst the water is hard here.