Gluing Up
Gluing and Wraping
Once all twelve strips for tip and butt sections are lovingly planed to satisfaction matching tight taper specifications they are ready for the big commitment of gluing. The glue, believe it or not, is off-the-shelf waterproof Titebond III. The big guys use it so it must be OK.
This Rube Goldberg machine tightly wraps string around the glued up sections to dry. Wrap in both directions for maximum compression.
I soak and soften a leather boot lace, wrap it around the strips, and pull to wind the string tightly around them. I pre-tie the strips every six inches or so with twist ties to get them aligned perfectly. That assures the minute tip section strips do not twist over each other when machine wrapping.
The heart of the build is now done and once the glue is dry and excess is scraped off the proof will be in the pudding.
