Glueing shear clamps

I am building a Shearwater Hybrid and I have a question about glueing the shear clamps to the top of the hull. What is the best method for forming the clamps to the curvature of the Plywood? It seems to be a long 'W' and looks to require a fair amount of bending. Will a ton of clamps suffice? Do I need to tack it with brads or staples? Should I wet the shear clamp and prebend? 

Thanks in advance,

Newbie Dan 


4 replies:

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RE: Glueing shear clamps

I built a Chese 17, not a Shearwater, but my shear clamps (of ash, 1 x 3/4") were so wobbly that they bent along the deck line with no problem.  I used a 2" spring clamp (2" jaws) every 8-10 inches, with a couple small C-clamps at strategic locations (to get things in place/started) and had no trouble at all.

Not understanding the "long W", but again, I built the Chese.

Good luck,

Larry

RE: Glueing shear clamps

Kind of like this...

\___________,-----\___________/ 

RE: Glueing shear clamps

Here is how I glued mine:

http://www.antibozo.net/cgi-bin/eric/imglib/prod/image.pl/eric/pictures/Archive/Shearwater/1-resized/IMG_0422.jpg

The two side panels are clamped together, outside to outside. With liberal application of plastic sheeting between all parts that I do not wish to accidentally glue together.

The sheer clamps were difficult to bend to the proper curvature. Especially, as I recall, in the curves towards the stern. Getting all the clamps tightened down, while everything is slippery with thickened epoxy, and trying to hold the proper curve was tricky. It would probably have been helpful to have an assistant, though I can't help but think that it is the kind of tense situation that could easily lead to bruised feelings afterward :) Working by myself, I just decided that it was going to happen, and somehow managed to impose my will. There were a few curse words involved during the process.

Later, when I was stripping the deck, I became enamored of these Irwin quick grip clamps that might have been extremely helpful here. They are very fast and easy to set quickly with one hand. They are also kind of expensive, but in this case, the smaller, cheaper ones probably would have worked. They are such a time saver that I think they are worth their price and wish I had had them when I was doing this job.  I might still have needed the C clamps to really impose my will on some of the tighter curves. But the quick setting clamps would have made it much faster and easier to get things into basic position.

There must be a better way to do this. But that worked out Ok for me.

--

Ogata, eric

RE: Glueing shear clamps

Not as scary as I thought. With enough clamps I was able to glue the shear clamps with no problem. Thanks for everyones input. 

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