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Photo 1
Assuming you've already sketched your design, building a checkerboard rocket starts with the checkerboard components. In this case, I used strips of maple (light wood) and padauk (dark wood). The strips are planed so they’re square in cross-section. Running both sets of strips at the same planer settings ensures that the strips are all the same in cross-section dimension.
Photo 2
The planed strips are then glued up lengthwise, one maple strip to one padauk strip.
Good glue coverage is important so the joints don’t fail later in the turning process. I use a brush to get a thin coat, even of glue on the joint surfaces.
It’s also important that the strips don’t shift relative to each other while they’re clamped, or the checkerboard won’t form correctly.
Page last updated 16 June 2007