: Hey guys, I'm going to start building a Laughing Loon stripper in a
: few weeks and I want to know what you think of an aluminum
: tubing strongback. I know a lot of people will be like "no
: way!" but I work on oil rigs around the world and am gone
: for a month at a time with a month off. In the time I am gone, I
: don't want the boat to warp or twist with humidity and
: temperature and all that since I live in coastal SC, and with
: how long it's going to take (hopefully done by August?), I don't
: want to risk anything. I'm building a Georgian Bay with a LOA of
: 16' 6"...about how long should the extrusion be?

: Thank you

If you use a pipe/tube as a strongback would work if it is perfectly straight (both side to side and up/down) and you drill perfect holes in your stations. Realistic you may need to adjust/align several stations along the build process, so if would be nice if you are using tube to weld some tab at the stations to make any final adjustments. Take whatever time is necessary to get the stations aligned. Using 3/4 inches box frame here in Florida's humdity, I still had could not get a perfectly straight strongback. I did the old fashion way with floating the stations and using a string to get it perfectly aligned. I found yellow braid fishing line work great... My accuracy was down to a pencil width. I know on this forum,builders have had problems aligning the stations, but I followed Nick Schade's process in his book and it worked out great, just follow every step.