ET,

What would you dye the glue with? I once had some West System dies, but they were all very mild, light green, yellow and red (I think) that wouldn't show up easily.

Bjorn's theory was that the epoxy would weep down into the joint and provide full strength anyway. I was just going to check to see if the epoxy was there.

I also thought about using your single brad method instead of staples (I haven't graduated into stapleless yet).
Did you use a pneumatic gun for those?

Hi Marc, I have not looked into epoxy dies, it was just a notion.

I never used staples. What I do is tap the brad into the plank at each station with a hammer, but not through it. Then I remove it, lay on a bead of glue, relocate the strip on the boat, and tap the brad into the station former with a hammer while pressing home the join with my left hand for a nice tight fit.

That way the brads are all in place ready for tapping home and I can manage the strip with my free hand without juggling nails.

I would go staple less, but it is just so much quicker to use nails, and there are so many designs that I still have to build. I don't mind the holes enough to sacrifice the time.

Et