: I'm putting strips on my first project...the Guillemot, and have a question
: about steaming the strips...
: I lie them flat on the floor... and iron the heck out of them, and they
: become pretty soft. I read on one building log (can't remember who's),
: that this person, steams the strips, clamps them in place, then dries them
: with a heat gun (locking them in place). I've tried this, but it doesn't
: really seem to work. so my question (finally) is... can I glue the steamed
: and still moist strips down (I'm going stapleless), or should I dry them
: first before gluing them?

Yes--the moist wood shouldn't affect yellow glue too much. Hit them with the heat gun after glued and clamped and you'll not only dry the wood, but also cure the glue and really lock things down.

: and if it's the latter... how long do people
: clamp them before "locking" them with a heat gun?

Hit it with heat right away if you want. It's not like there's a needed wait time between clamping and drying.

: And there really should be a disclaimer available to all newcomers... this
: might be more addictive than heroin (although in full disclosure... I just
: started doing heroin this morning... just kidding...)

You're going to get along just fine here, Mike!

Shawn