: . . . I had a real hard time getting a perfect birds mouth on those thin
: strips. Ended up using 8 strips with a 45 degree bevel on one
: edge for the shaft. Worked out pretty good and much easier than
: the birdsmouth for a table saw noobie like me. You're not
: kidding about wrapping them up in the circle. seriously like
: wrangling a heard of cats and messy to boot. extra set of hands
: would have been nice..

: . . .

The birdsmouth is hard to cut even with a table saw which I don't have: I used the simple bevel except mine is 22.5 deg. I didn't have any trouble at all rolling up the staves: the trick is to lay them over strips of adhesive tape (which doesn't show up well in the pic) with the bevels up. This forms grooves into which the glue is poured, remembering to glue the last bevel! Rolling up the tube is simple and adding a tight spiral of string or nylon cable ties holds everything together. This one was a mast but the same principles apply . . .