[THE GITS]

We can now think about glueing our laminations to create the speargun blank. Firstly we needed to address the gaps created by the lamination. There are 3 ways of doing this:

Shape each lamination to fit. This is a very difficult job
Add a tapered insert in either Teak or Purpleheart. Would destroy the effect of the taper being brought forward
Squeeze the outside laminations to close the gap. This could be achieved with hand pressure alone so was deemed the way to proceed.

We needed now to make a thin tapered strip to place under the bottom lamination when glued to provide the needed support when under pressure. This can be seen in a photograph in a future letter.

The laminations were assembled dry on the bench and a minimum number of clamps applied to examine the joins, they were perfect so we can now glue. The glue used is International epoxy resin supplied for this project by deeperblue.net member foxfish along with a large quantity of brushes and some International epoxy varnish. Thank you foxfish, I am most grateful for this donation. We shall be glueing up and clamping using my bench surface as a straight surface, the bench is regularly trued and cleaned to keep it as a reference surface. To keep glue spills from its waxed surface we use cling film to be sure of cleanliness. The bottom lamination is left in the front and the remaining laminations inverted and moved to the rear of the cling film to weigh it down. The epoxy is now measured at a ration of 4:1 very carefully and mixed thoroughly. Using a brush coat all gluing surfaces with the mixed epoxy and assemble but at this stage do not proceed to clamp for a few minutes to allow the glue to penetrate the pores of the timber. Notice in the last photograph the tapered slip to support the butt of the gun to ensure symmetry during clamping.