I decided to build a laminated coaming lip as I have always liked the look of them. This entails building up the lip layer by layer until the required thickness is achieved. I am building the lip out of Western Red Cedar and will glass over the top of it.
To begin, I put about eight long cedar strips through the thickness planer, thinning the strips down to about 2mm. I then tried to bend a test strip around the tightest corner of the coaming (the front) but it cracked. Soaking the strips for a few minutes in hot water was enough to get them to bend around the corner. Excessive boiling or steaming not required.
Next I used a pencil and a block of scrap wood to mark the correct height all along the coaming. I then put a long taper on one end of the first strip. Once this was completed, I began gluing and clamping the strip around the coaming, starting from the beveled end. One strip made it about 2/3rds of the way round. This end was then butt joined to the next strip and the coaming continued. When I reached the beveled end of the first strip I just continued on, overlapping the first strip.
Caption: Never enough clamps.
This was a bit fiddly as I had to remove the earlier clamps to place the second layer of strip on and then reclamp them in place. I was lucky as I had my clamps plus a load of other clamps I was able to beg, borrow and steal. This process continued until I had about 5 layers of cedar built up. The end of the final strip was also cut and beveled to finish in the same place as the first bevel giving a uniform thickness all the way around.
Caption: Re-gluing a few problems spots.
The next day, I removed all the clamps and found I had to reglue a couple of spots. I think there was too much water in the cedar and not enough glue in these areas. I applied more glue and clamped these spots for one more day.
Tip of the Day: If you need to soak your strips to get them to take the curves, then make sure your glue is capable of sticking to wet wood. Otherwise, clamp the strips to the form overnight and let them dry out. Then do your gluing with the pre-bent dry strips.
