best type of wire for stitch and glue

[Tom the rower]

Sunday morning I plan to unfold my Core Sound 20.  I have the two sides and bottoms glueing up now, so it should be good for the morning.  I still have to wire my bottoms together, apparently loosely, then unfold. 

 

Any suggestions on the type of wire to purchase from Home Depot or Lowes?

 

Thanks

[PeterP]

Tom, I have always used the same wire: mild steel wire I bought from Lowes eons ago. In fact I built the first twenty with it. And two CS 17 before then. All out of that same roll.They still sell that stuff. Saw it in there the other day. It is very soft and you can twist it off real easy but you are using it on plywood which is even softer. What I mean is there is no point in going high strength/ hi tech. If the wire is not strong enough to snug things up it is better to run wood blocks and screws - less chance of tearing out chunks of plywood. PeterP

[Dnjost]

on stitch and glue boats, I have always used 16 ga copper.  In tough spots, I double up the strands.  Last boat I built used plastic cable ties.  they sand quite well, so are easy to hide.  

[tom151]

...  I have the two sides and bottoms glueing up now, so it should be good for the morning.  I still have to wire my bottoms together, apparently loosely, then unfold.

I seem to recall that some folks have had issues with the butterfly joint failing when going 3D -- and it was diagnosed that it might have been due to the epoxy joint not being fully cured and thus not reaching full strength. Apparently getting up to full strength may take several days - depending on curing conditions (temps).Just relaying from memory, so YMMV.

[PAR]

Epoxy will reach about 90% of it's strength in 24 hours, under normal temperatures (if it's cold this can take longer). It can take up to a couple of weeks for the last 10% of the cure to finish off. With some epoxies, you can expedite this with a post cure process.

 

There's no best stitching wire - what ever works for you is best.

[Tom the rower]

Well, I guess I can let that zipper joint cure a little while longer.  In my hurry to maximize my time while my super carpenter buddy was here helping me, I forgot to rip down my stringers and epoxy them to the sides.  So, after he gets here today, we will rip the stringers and the inwales, and then try to lift up side bottoms and glue in the stringers.  Lesson learned....plan 3 times, execute once.

[Polecat]

I agree that there is no best stitching wire. I use stainless aircraft lock wire because there is always some in my toolbox when I'm ready to go. I have used copper and mild steel to equal effect.

[MisterMoon]

I've used nylon cable ties to good effect. Super easy to sand smooth and no reason to remove the remnant left inside the fillets. 

[Dnjost]

pretty remarkable that this strand got posted.  I ran out of copper wire, so went to the local hardware store to get more.  The quality of the wire was terrible as each strand broke while being tightened.  Even doubled up it was a struggle.  I gave up and just used the spool of baling wire.  I am figuring the alloy of copper was considerably cheaper than the stuff bought at the other hardware store.  Will remove the bailing wires after tacking together.  

[Tom Lathrop]

What kind of wire is best depends on the particular job.  Small boats can get by with small plastic cable ties or even tape sometimes.  Since I wired my own house, I saved all the 14 and 12 gage scraps and they work well when stripped.  Soft iron bailing wire for larger jobs and blocks and screws for really difficult work on thick plywood.  Occasionally, support blocks and clamps are necessary.  The batten running along a couple inches below the top is for strain relief to avoid rupturing the plywood which is a real danger when torturing plywood this much.

[Howard]

This is the wire I use. Sold in hardware stores and other places as rebar tie wire. Soft and flexible enough to bend as needed, yet strong enough to draw the plywood together. Several of these in close proximity, working a twist or two at a time, will close up a remarkably large gap.

 

What is even more remarkable is that a few dabs of thickened epoxy will then spot weld and hold those panels together, even with the substantial strain the tortured bend puts on them. Once you see that, most doubt about the ability of epoxy to hold a plywood boat together goes away.

 

On fitting panels, check the plans to see how the various panels are designed to go together. Some put the side panels above the bottom panels and some put them outside the bottom panels. Same with the transom and fore and aft position of the bulkheads relative to the lines marked for them on the side panels. If in doubt, check with the guy who designed it. You would think there is a standard way of doing it, but apparently, that is not the case. Doing it the wrong way could cause problems fitting things together.

[hokeyhydro]

Rebar tie wire - I recall that coming in a magazine-like strip with wires sized 4", 6" or whatever, with loops on the ends. Wrap around rebar, hook twister gizmo in, twist = done. But while building pools we also used soft steel wire we called "gunite wire". We would run that at the upper and lower edge of the gunite shoot and tension it really tight. After the gunite gunner got done blowing aitr placed concrete on the wall, a screeder guy would run the screed along the really tight gunite wire to trim off the excess.

I do not know what kind of wire it was exactly, but it would have done stitch & glue just dandy. We could tighten that wire to a high C note over 50 meters and I never saw one break.

[Dale Niemann]

I got my wire from Graham and it looks like the photo Howard posted.

dale