Strongback

If you read my post entitled Delay you'll remember I was concerned about not having supplies delivered in time for the weekend.  When I got home from work on Friday I had three boxes from Chesapeake Light Craft on my doorstop.  After jumping up and down and fist pumping for a few minutes I took the packages inside (I might have done a little Snoopy dance too).  The kit only included a strongback, forms and plans.  Everything was well packaged and in good order.

Yardwork was on the roster for Saturday so today I sorted my lumber for planing and scarfing then assembled the strongback.  Below you can see a thickness measurement.

 

I measured the thickness, width and lengths and matched up boards as closely as possible.  

  

Using blue masking tape I sorted the boards that will be scarfed together.  The slat lengths will be between 20' and 15' after scarfing.  Some boards won't be scarfed in advance.  I estimated the number of slats per board and taped the measurements and slat count on each board remembering to include 1/4" of waste per 1" of width.  Even with a thin kerf saw blade I fully expect to lose about 25% of the width.

 

After that was done I set them aside and brought out the strongback parts.  The finished strongback needs to be 179".  

 

The plywood was cut and keyed to make a box.   The wide boards were 8' (4) and 4' (2).  The narrow boards were sized at 8', 6' and 2'.  There were two of each length. 

  

This is going to take a few bar clamps!  The plywood was laid out and trimmed to achieve the 14' 11" length.  Then I staggered the boards so the butt joints would not line up and weaken the box beam type strongback.  Some how I still managed to have two joints aligned but I reinforced them with a sawdust and glue putty.  In fact most of the butt joints were puttied together.

I used small finishing nails to secure to tops and sides of the box.  A few nails did come through the sides and had to either be extracted and re-nailed or ground down with a Dremel.  The strongback was very straight and strong.  It is now resting clamped overnight.

You can see some short boards on the left of the plywood table.  These are 1" x 4" boards cut to 11.5" lengths and will be used as spacers between forms.  This will negate the need to screw the forms to the strongback itself, make the forms align better and the kit will be reusable in case I decide to make another.  Win-win if you ask me.   

My dad assisted with the strongback.  It was really great to have him help and I hope he continues to do so.  This part really benefited from an extra set of hands and I couldn't think of anyone else I'd rather have help.  If you're lucky enough to be able to work on a project like this with your father then you are truly blessed.

Thanks dad!  You've always been a strongback in my life and I appreciate all you do!