Beginning assembly of the jig

With the strongback and flare forms ready, it was time to start actually assembling the jig.

I started out by making a frame out of 2x6 lumber:

The long ones are 12', and the ends are 8'. I decided to save a little space, so I made it a tad narrower than the full 8'. I'll go back and cut off those off with my Sawzall later. I got lucky and it turned out square without having to adjust it. But it also exposed how non-flat my garage floor is. 

Noodling on that for a while, I figured I had two options: Shim up the frame to make it level, or just level the strongback and just accept that the frame would be off. I decided to go with plan "b".

The Barlow plans call the legs that hold up the strongback "stanchions", so here are my stanchions. I cut some 2x4 stock to 42", then cut some blocks of wood to separate the pairs of legs.

After screwing them together (this is a great project for using up old boxes of decking screws), I pulled out the spacers and have two matched pairs of stanchions. Sunnie thinks they are pretty cool. Its his job to hand me screws.

The stanchions fit snugly enough over the strongback that I was able to dry fit it onto the jig frame without any trouble.

From there it was just a matter of leveling off the strongback, making sure the stanchions were plumb, then and screwing the stanchions into place.

Right on the money:

The gap here shows how much I had to raise the bow end of the strongback to get it level:

With the strongback locked in, it was time to cut the notches that will allow the flare forms to rest properly against the top of the strongback. For this, I used a little Japanese pull saw to cut down the sides of the notch...

...followed by a chisel to break out the excess material. If you get lucky, the whole chunk will pop out in one piece. If you don't, you will be shaving it off all the way to the bottom. Of the four, only one went easy.

I was pleased to see that the bevels lined up beautifully with the curve of the strongback. Thanks, Mr. Barlow!

With all four notches cut, the flare forms fit neatly into place, and its really starting to look like a Pelican.

Next steps will be to add on the sides of the flare forms, and then brace the whole thing up nice and solid. But since I haven't ordered my plywood, fir or epoxy yet, I'm not in any hurry.