: I've heard from more than one person who told of routing their own beads and
: coves, and said that they didn't quite get the cuts centered. This
: resulted in gaps when they put the strips together.

: I was thinking (my wife would say "Uh-oh.") Suppose your router bit
: wasn't exactly where it needed to be in relation to the edge of the
: strips. Say it was just a little too high or low. If, when you routed the
: edges, you marked each strip to show which side was up or down when it
: went through the router table; then, when stripping the boat, you made all
: of them match - in other words, have all of the "up" sides face
: outside, and the "downs" face inside (or vice versa), wouldn't
: that prevent any problems with the beads and coves on adjacent strips not
: lining up?

: Let me know if this would work before I get started. Knowing me, I'll be
: lucky to get the router bits at exactly the correct height. Should I go to
: the trouble of marking all the up sides "up"?

Well Gordon, You've already got the problem Zero'd in, so why bother making them wrong in the first place??? Just make a couple of short test pieces, say two feet long or so and when you are confident that your set up is where you want it, run a test piece. You only need to run it a couple of inches and pull it out. You will get an idea what you have by checking it that way. Use your ( you DO have ) finger-boards to keep all strips in the proper alignment and they will all come out right where you want them.

: Of course, I guess that would mean I'd have to get the bead and cove bits
: exactly the same height, but I was thinking that might be possible if I
: didn't mess with the height adjustment on the router - just push both bits
: all the way in and tighten. (Would bead and cove bits bought from the same
: company have equal shaft lengths?)

It's very likely they would, but don't trust to guess work. Take that extra time to do the entire set up with each bit and do all your cutting with one and then do the other. It's just as easy to set them both up right as it is to set them both up wrong. And would be easier to get the centered cut than to try and match an off-set one.

: Are these the kinds of things one wonders about before one actually has any
: experience at building a stripper? My only experience is with a stitch and
: glue. I cogitated long and hard before each step of that construction too.

Those are the kind of thoughts one has before using any type power tool. Once you've tried the alignment and a sample piece, You will see how it works and how easy it is to get a proper alignment as you go. I don't think you will have a problem at all. You are already thinking of what could go wrong and that's the first step to doing anything the right way. Knowing there IS a wrong way. Just take a little time, take care and be safe, you will do a great job.

Rehd