Hey gang,
Here is another sequence of pictures that might spur folks on to new ideas. We are building Nick's guide boat design right now. We decided to strip in a chain rope design thing on the sides, in black walnut.

The chain is 5.75 inches high and runs the length of the boat. We built several miter box guides that allowed us to cut the 900 pieces again and again real acurately. Music and frequent breaks was the key to releiving monotony.

Then we hot glued cardboard betwen the stations so we could have a flush surface to build the chain. Then we stripped in our guides top and bottom. Given the change in dimensions in individual pieces we found a pattern of application that allowed us to only have to customize 3 pieces in each link. The chain applied over the curve of the boat caused dimensiosn to change for the individual pieces. For these customized blanks we made long blanks that we ground down to shape on our bench grinder. It allowed us to get a very tight fit. By adjsuting each link the changes were not additive acros the boat adding a sense of uniformity.

So far so good. Now we just need to fill in each of the chain links. After that we will remove the top strip which is nailed in as a guide and we will continue stripping stape-less. Thn it's back to cutting 900 more pieces for the other side Music more music!!!

!RUSS

PS: To all our Canadian buddies your pairs figure skating couple was out and out robbed last night! They deserved that Gold and not the shaft!