Gluing the strips

Procedure

Finally strips are ready to be glued together; they are placed on the bench one close to the other and bi-component epoxy glue is spread all over with a tooth brush; then the 6 strips are bonded together to form the hexagonal rod section, and immediately after we proceed on binding with a spiral criss-crossed winding so that the strips are perfectly matched while being very careful to avoid unwanted bending or twisting.

To avoid twisting we can use a pair of wood plank to which strips of foam are glued so that the rod can be rolled over. When everything is perfect the rod is hanged inside a drier where a thermostat keeps the temperature on 70°C (158°F) for the time required by the type of glue used and obtaining the glazing of the glue surface.

The next step consist of removing the binding rope used to keep the rod strips together and eliminating the glue excess squeezed out by the binding process with a pad of sanding paper of decreasing grit till the external surface of our bamboo rod is polished.