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Builder's notes:

• Have plenty of epoxy mixed up, because once you start applying it to the wood stock, you need to keep moving and don't stop until all pieces are coated, stuck together, set in the nail jig, and clamped! It would help to do this work in a cool area, or cool time of the year so that the epoxy won't begin to cure too quickly. This was a problem in southern summers when the temperature was easily 90 degrees in the shop, and no air conditioning available.

• Clamping the laminated pieces together was problematic and took some material preparation before hand (and lots of clamps!). The first thing I did was to stagger the placement of the nails making up the jig. That is, no two nails were directly across from each other across the space occupied by the laminated strips. I prepared a bunch of short strips of wood - about 1½ inches long and ¾ inch wide - by carefully cutting a groove in the center of one side, wide enough and deep enough to accommodate the diameter of the #6 finishing nails used in the jig. A band saw and a steady hand are great assets for this delicate work. This channel allowed the length of the wood strip to press in good contact against the outer surfaces of the laminated strips when the clamps were placed directly over the nails, thus providing good pressure spread and better adhesion for the length of the bow.

• Do these laminations wet. That is, soak the wood strips for half- an-hour before hand. The T-88™ epoxy works just as well with wet wood as dry, and the straight wood strips will better take the curve if wetted and allowed to thoroughly dry in the jig. I did these bows dry, and experienced a significant amount of spring-back when I removed them from the jig. Severe enough, in fact, that to get them to conform to the curvature necessary to fit the end of the wing, that I had to make a series of saw cuts into the outside of the curve at the trailing edge end to give them enough bendability to contact the wing where they needed to attach. I filled the saw cuts with a mixture of epoxy and sawdust once the bows were attached, so no strength was lost. But, do the laminations wet and avoid the extra work!