: I once built a sail boat with a 20 ft mast. I couldn't afford to buy a single
: whole piece of lumber for the mast so I used 6 pieces of 2" x 6"
: fastened together with contact cement. 10 years later when I sold the
: boat, the mast was just like it was when I built it, despite all of the
: strain and flexing in 10 years of heavy use. Do you think it could work
: for gluing strips together for a kayak rather then using what you use now?
: It would be fast with virtually no clamping and I think it works OK in
: cold weather if you are building in a garage.

: John

I'm not overly fond of contact cement as a replacement for wood glue as I don't believe it makes as strong a bond. However, if it is stong enough to hold the strips in place until you can get the first layer of glass cloth on, then go for it. The real strength in holding the strips together comes from the bond of the epoxy or polyester resin on the broad, flat sides of the strips.

Problems I would worry about would be:

1) the need to fit the strip perfectly before coating it with the contact cement. Put a few alignment marks on the strips with a pencil os you cna get the things to go on in the right place. Once the contact cement grips, it is not very easy to shift the strip for later adjustment.

2) you need to coat both the new strip edge, and the edge of the previously installed strip with an even coat of contact cement. This can be messy, so do it carefully with a small glue brush, or you may have to sand off a lot of dripped contact cement.

3) highly twisted strips are bent into place with some effort. If the contact cement fails it will be in these stressed joints. Judicious use of a brad or staple can reinforce things until additional rows of strips are installed, which will (hopefully) provide some backing and aid in keeping the strips aligned and intact. You could also use narrower strips, which would be easier to bend into complex curves.

PGJ