: Rhed,

: Better that it happened at Home Depot, picture this....what if there was no
: other people in line at the lumber store to warn you what you looked like
: and you were a little short of cash so your next stop was the bank next
: door...complete with an armed guard.

Ken, You forget who you're talking to...... I'm a Postal Employee!! Ain't no way that guard would ever get the drop on me. Besides, If'n I took that stuff outta the store without paying for it, I'd have more to worry about than some bank guard!!

You'd have to add extra material to
: your spray skirt tunnel so you didn't take on water.

: Good luck with the steamer!

Actually Ken, I think it worked too good the other day. I took 20 minutes to heat it up, and put the strips into the slots. I left them in for near 15 minutes and when I took them out, one at a time, they almost drooped. I bent the first one just as quickly as you'd bent a soft twig, and had it doubled over for 2 or 3 minutes before it started to cool down. I clamped it end to end over night and in the picture you can see how much of the shape it held. The twisted one I clamped to the workbench and just started twisting it. I had around 1 1/2 turns in it before I actually got any signifigant resistance. Like a dummy I kept going until I reached two full turns, and just held it there for a while. Then, I started to twist it again, just a little more and that's when I snapped it.

But, for what I'm going to be doing with it, it won't have to bend over twist over 90* or bend over 20 to 30*, so, I don't think I'll have any problems getting my strips to conform to the forms on ANY boat. The only problem I can forsee would be the time to cool the strips and allow them to dry before glueing. But, I would rather that, than to twist them and break them, or have to staple, nail or screw them down.

I could cut down the steam time and probably not have to wait so long for them to cool, and still have plenty of working time. I would say, just off hand, that these two strips were still plyable enough to work around the end of a boat for at least 1 1/2 to maybe 2 minutes. When I start to build my stripper, I'll take the time to test a few different strips, different woods and so forth and see if I can set up a chart of some sort. Time to load up the old Polaroid......... Yeuck! I may have to buy a new camera to do that sort of thing.

Hey, maybe I could start a mail-order business for bent and twisted strips.

Rehd