Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
How would you get from square tubing to a finished surface? Sheet metal seems logical. When you built the Kayak was there a lot of tapering the strips necessary?
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I ran the strips through a router. Every single tiny one of them had a tongue and groove. The strips are laid over a form and stapled in place. They take the shape quite easily and when done (months of work) the surface is shaped with sanding and planing. After that the outer fiberglass is applied. When that cures the kayak is removed from the form and flipped over (and separated in two pieces). Anyway, that is probably more detail than you wanted. Corners and complex curves are quite simple with cedar strip method. The same method can be done with some other materials. People have tried various foam cores, but cedar has the advantage of crush strength. The point of the sandwich is that the core acts as a light weight separation to strengthen the two sides, like cardboard really. If I chose to round the roof to side corners it would be a complex curve, probably difficult for sheet metals.