Bending the last stringer

Today was another stringer day, and it was also a sunny day so I had to open the garage door for a picture.

This weeks garage overview

This is how I intend to use the stringer-planing-jigg

Fixed stringer #3 with a sliver of wood

Towel steamed and bent in the final stringer on Starboard side.

The good thing with towel steaming is that you can adjust the heat in different parts of the piece. I was a bit worried how the epoxy scarf would hold up under the heat so I made sure I did not pour too much hot water in that area, with a steam box I could not have done that.

Then it was time for the last stringer, port #4. The scarf I made yesterday held up fine, but this was probably the stiffest stringer yet...

No breaks today!

I had to wrestle it a bit more than I was comfortable with, I screwed it onto frames #6, 5 & 4 and then we had the ...... BANG again. The stringer ripped the reinforcement ply's of the frames.

Well, shit happens...

So it was time to bring out the towel again, this time I decided to stem the whole stringer one piece at a time, sliding the towel along the stringer.

First steamin'

During the steaming session I also  managed to add some insulation to stop the draft from the top of the garage door. This increased the temperature in the garage from 14C to 18C :)

There was however a small problem, without the doublers I could not screw the stringer to the frames so how how can I attach them to the frames without screws? .........wedges and clamps!

I screwed wedges onto the frames so that I could use clamps to keep the stringer to the frames

Moving forward

Steaming the last bit

The last stringer clamped in!

  Time today: 3h