: I've been reading a lot on this board and elsewhere in preparation for my
: first stripper, which I will be starting in the spring. This winter I'll
: be gathering the tools and materials, building the strongback, cutting the
: forms, and ripping the strips.

: Rob Macks recommends hot-melt glueing the strips to the forms, which makes
: sense. I don't quite understand how to dislodge the strips from the forms
: afterwards. It seems like you would have to build the hull, and dislodge
: it before starting the deck, otherwise how would you get at the forms? Is
: this correct?

: Also, I think it was Rob that mentioned that hot melt glue has kind of a weak
: bond, and a sideways whack would break the bond. If you were to use this
: method of dislodging, you would have to unscrew all the forms from the
: strongback so that you could whack them loose from the hull. Then you'd
: have to go through the hassle of re-attaching them and lining them all up
: again so you could build the deck. I doubt if anyone does this, so how,
: exactly, do you remove the deck and hull from the forms when they're
: hot-glued in place? On Rob's website he talks about prying them away. Is
: there any other way?

: While on this subject, are all hot glues pretty much alike? I want to make
: sure I get a glue gun that handles a generic glue stick that can be bought
: anywhere, and not some brand that has to have it's own proprietary glue
: sticks. Are glue stick sizes pretty standard?

: Thanks in advance, and thanks to all for all the answers I've received so
: far. I already bought my plans, it will be a Hans Friedel designed Spirit,
: purchased through Newfound Woodworks.

I think most of the guys whacking the forms are using an external strongback that has to be removed before the deck can be stripped anyway.

I built on an internal strongback myself. I also developed a little trick for removing the forms when I was doing my stripper. From my days as a swimming pool installer (years ago) I learned that you could melt through PVC pipe with nylon builder’s string. That is, you can saw your way through the plastic pipe because of the friction of the string. It is very easy to saw your forms out of the hull using a piece of string without damaging your boat. I also managed to cut away most of the hot glue that was holding the deck on before I covered the whole thing up. This allowed me to easily pop the deck off the forms and raise the interior strongback out of the hull without taking the forms off the strongback.

Hope this helps you feel better about starting your strip boat. Now get to work. :-)

--KT--