Rob,

As we all know, there is more than one way to skin a cat, especially in this hobby.

"...you must have two routers..."

Two routers are definitely not a "must" for milling the B&C. You can get perfectly consistent results with just one router. I mill the B&C (bead first, cove second) with the strip between the fence and the router bit. As long as the fence doesn't move, the width of all the strips is exactly the same. I know this goes against the rule of not putting the stock between the bit and the fence, but 1. cedar is a soft wood, 2. the amount of material we are removing is very small; the router bit doesn't get a good grip on the strip, and 3. featherboard pressure alone is enough to keep the strip from getting launched.

"Setting up the C&B cutters is VERY time consuming..."

You may be right here, but only if you're using a two-router setup. With one router, the setup is quite straightforward.

"I think beveling is faster and you'll see progress in stripping your hull..."

Again, I have to disagree. With B&C you don't have to plane each and every strip with a varying degree of bevel and you don't have to worry about keeping the edges of the strips aligned between stations. Putting the strip in place to eye-ball the gap, then planing, then test fitting while holding the strip in place with spring clamps, then planing again... Dude, you can't tell me that's faster than the running a strip through the router table. I just worked out some numbers. For my OOK Expedition, which has both length and volume (lots of strips) and using 12' long strips, it takes about 45 seconds per strip to route the bead and the cove separately. That includes 30 minutes each (more than enough time) to adjust the router bits.

More advantages to using B&C: The strip edges stay alinged between station. With beveled edged you have to come up with a way to keep the edges of the strips aligned between stations. The cove is a very conveniant place to run a glue line; applying the glue is faster, more accurate, and not as messy. B&C gives you a larger surface area for glueing. This, combined with consistently tighter fitting joints, gives you a stronger core. You don't have to take the time to fill gaps when you plane/fair the hull and find that all those bevels that were nice and tight on the surface aren't touching anymore.

Don't get me wrong, beveling is fine if you don't have a router, if you don't have the skills to set-up a router, or if you really want to use the strip building techniques that were used before B&C joinery came around.

Pedro Almeida