"Evan Gatehouse" wrote in message ...
"Jonathan" wrote in message
...
I am about to embark on building a 10 ft stitch and glue dinghy, a Dudly
Dix, Argie 10.

I would think this has been asked, but so far I haven't found it. Can I
use those plastic self cinching cable ties to hold the panels together
until I glass them? I would think they would sand off more smoothly
than wire?

Any thoughts?

Jonathan

Yes you can. Use as few as possible to keep the shape fair, more in areas
of high curvature, typically near the bow.

With all due respect to Evan I have another opinion to share. You can
use plastic ties but don't. Go to home depot or such and get some 7
strand copper ground wire, or a couple of packages of 18 guage copper
wire, cut it into 4" pieces and fold them over so they look like "U"
nails. The seven strand is thicker but of course holds better. Plastic
ties can not be easily re-opened and tweaked during your tie up and
there will be times when you want to loosen one or two and readjust,
with ties you can only cut and redo them if that need arises and
completely cutting them to adjust can cause even more problems. Ties
click, and sometimes to get things really fair, you could use a half a
click, not possible with ties. Copper is much easier to shape and
string through the holes, you can use a much smaller hole, you just
have a lot more control. As to sanding, snip the copper off low with
snips and then touch gently a few times with your sander and it should
come right down fair, they will sand down just fine with a little soft
touch. You may rip a couple of pieces of paper but all in all after
some 70 stitch and tape boats, having tried almost everything, I still
use copper wire. I do keep a lot of sizes on hand but only for
flexability with custom work.
Scotty, back to the hunt..