: and a few other questions.

: 1. i finished the keel strips today. this seems to be taking a very long
: time. more than i expected. while adding strips i noticed they can take up
: to 1 hour each. is that normal?

For your first boat, yes. I do stapleless strips now in about 15 minutes apiece. (4th boat). Your deck will likely go faster. You're learning, it will speed up.

: 2. i am using a crapload of staples. i almost have gone through a 1000 box
: and havent finished the hull yet. some have been removed and/or shot into
: my fingers, but it still seems excessive.

Well, you'll use about 18 per strip, probably 50 strips per boat...that's almost 1,000. If you're finding that you need a lot of staples to get your strips aligned, try a heat gun, or wet heat using an iron and a damp cloth to steam strips into position. A couple of well-placed clamps can take up the force of 10 or more staples.

: 3. i have started on my second bottle of glue. granted he first ws only half
: full, but how many does it take?

How big is your bottle of glue? I use somewhere between a pint and a quart per boat. Do you have a lot of squeeze-out? If so, you can use a little less. If your glue joint is not filled with glue now, it will get filled with epoxy when you glass the boat. The glue is truly only important now to hold the strips in place until you glass.

: 4. i planed the tip of my finger off today, and remembered why i stopped
: woodworking 10 years ago.

Be very, very careful. It bears repeating. If you cut off a finger or a hand with a power tool, your guitar building days are all but finished. These are just hand tools, but they're warnings. Don't cut toward yourself. Chisels and pull saws are sharp, too!!

Shawn
Who had 7 stitches in his thumb in May as a reminder not to cut toward himself.