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Even more stripping

All that remains in the bulk of the deck is the key strips. Shaping these isn't too hard, you just have to be careful to go slowly. Cut the strip to 2" longer than the hole, then place the strip so one end is where it should finish in the hole. Mark the strip at the maximum width of the hole, then hit it with the plane, repeatedly checking for fit. When you get close, one pull of the plane will make a big difference - so go slow. Also be sure to keep the plane at right angles to the surface of the strip. When one side fits, cut the strip to length and plane down the other side.

Once the key strips were done, I moved on to the short pieces in front of the step at station 6. I did these in two batches of six strips each time, because I wanted the glue to dry between batches. Each strip installed out here has to be taped down to the adjacent strip, and at the station 6 edge that means that there is tape between the strips. After installing a batch of 6, I came back and cut the tape on the top edge where it disappeared between the strips, and pulled the tape down out from between the strips (so the bottom edge of the cove is ruined instead of the top edge). Because no glue is holding the strips together at this point, it's not as strong, but the strips are running long and I figure this area will be cut off anyway when I install the step.

Next up: sanding. I removed the staples between stations 8 and 13 (pliers seemed to work well this time) and began scraping and planing down the high spots. I have to say, next time I do this, I'll be sure to remove all the excess glue I can during the strip installation phase - it's a lot harder to remove the glue afterwards.

For a diversion, I installed the vertical part of the step. I planed one edge off the cove of a strip 103" long. The edge with the cove remaining will fit into the gap between the strongback and the bead of the strip pressed up against the step. I installed that strip, then went ahead and installed the other three to make up the step - it's worth doing all four at once, so all four will press the strips down into the deck and make a tighter bond.

(20 images)

Stripping the deck (2)

Continuing on stripping the deck. I had forgotten how to cut the strips to length correctly, so the pictures mostly tell the tutorial of how to do it. (Trick: use the disc sander for as long as you can to cut the bevels...)

The biggest discovery was how to cut the coves in bevel edges to fit into the beads. For strips where the bevel needs to mate with a cove, you have to shape a bead - which is easy, just hit it with the plane. For strips where the bevel needs to mate with a bead, you have to shape a cove. This isn't especially easy. To do this, I used two pieces of plywood screwed to a strip. Taped to the strip is a 5/32" round chainsaw file. This setup works well for most of the strips, especially if the bevel is short, but when the bevel gets long it's not the best. For long bevels, what I did was put a triangular file wrapped in 60-grit paper where the round file was - and this worked quite well. You get a rounded cove, and the triangle file only makes a very slight impression (where it will be filled with glue). (Of course, I only figured this trick out for the last couple of strips...)

Getting the last full strip in place required a bunch of man-handling as well - you have to bend it in a kind of omega Ω to make it fit, and because it isn't very long it's hard to get the strip to cooperate. Tamara held one end in place (otherwise the tip would break with all the wrestling) while I worked on the other end. It also helps to plane off some of the underside cove edge (if the piece to be installed has a cove edge) for the length of the bevel, to allow the piece to slide into place a little bit easier. Remember - the last two full-width strips have the edge facing the space planed flat, so the key piece will fit in.

(15 images)