> I hope to be milling the strips for my Expedition Single this weekend and
> wonder if anyone could tell me how many strips (linear ft.) I should mill
> with coves only, beads only, or any other style I may need other than the
> standard cove and bead strips?

> Thanks,

> Larry C.

Hi Larry:

Here are the figures I used in the production of my Expedition Single.

70 strips, approximately 16' long, 3/4" wide, 1/4" thick, square edges. This compares nicely to Nick's reference in the specs of the boat of 1100' feet of 3/4" strips. I milled the beads and coves myself. I milled _all_ the strips with a bead and a cove. I made no strips narrower, and I used no "cheater" strips.

I did have a special design in the deck that required me to plane off the bead or cove in some places. I know this sounds like throwing away the work I had done in the previous step, but the production of my deck was as much a work of performance art as it was the execution of a deliberate design. I mean, I could not have planned which strips would need which special modifications in advance. So, since it was easier to plane the cove or bead off with my block plane in the few instances where is was necessary, and more tedious to put a cove or bead on where I didn't have one, I elected to mill all strips completely and remove as needed.

One other result is that I wound up with a hull and deck that met at the sheerline in a cove and bead. The advantage here is that I could tell very definitely when the joint was lined up when the time came to join the hull to the deck. It literally popped into place in some sections. The main disadvantage is that I started with the hull and worked with the beads to the center. This meant that the delicate cove on the sheerline to some abuse as I rolled the boat/strongback assembly over and around on the slings. Nothing critical, but the edge of the cove was crunched a little in some places.

Except for the artistic design strips, the strips /can/ be made all the same. It worked for me.

By the way, the milling process makes a LOT of noise, requires infeed and outfeed tables at least as long as your longest strips and makes a pile of sawdust 4-5 feet across and a foot high. I used two helpers and two featherboards, and worked on the parking strip outside the front of my house.

Mill On!

Ed Valley