Hi All;

If you were considering shellac on your forms after I queried about it, you might want to read my experiences first . . .

My form edges were very smooth, brought to final size with a disk sander using 120 grit. I used 4 coats of amber Bull's Eye Shellac, with one sanding before the last coat. The surface was shiny. Hot glue would not stick to it with any reliability after 24 hours+ of shellac drying. I put on my first sheer strip 4 times, roughing the shellac with coarser sandpaper more at each attempt, but no cigar . . .

What WAS interesting is that the only attachment points which held throughout the ordeal were those at the stems - - Which were covered with duct tape. I think Nick has something there . . . :-) The recommendations I got for shellac were from people who know a whole lot more about kayak building than I do, so there must be some variables at work. The type of shellac, the level of finish, the specs of the hot glue, etc.

I added duct tape (Tuck) to my station edges for the 5th (and final) attempt, and everything went together great! I now have 2 REAL strips installed, and it was quick & easy when your temporary glue actually sticks. No holes yet, and I was verrrry tempted to staple that sheer strip in place after 4 hot glue failures just to get the project going. . .

I have tonite's pics up at my kayak site,

http://www.dbeweb.com/kayak

in the "Construction" link.

Best Regards, Spidey