Model Boat Mayhem

Technical, Techniques, Hints, and Tips => Wood Care: => Topic started by: dan on February 12, 2008, 09:29:40 pm

Title: cutting a deck
Post by: dan on February 12, 2008, 09:29:40 pm

hi,  does anybody have any hints on how i can accuratly cut a deck out of a peice of ply, the first time i cut a peice it turned out too small and i dont want ot make the same misake again, i simply traced the plan of the deck onto the ply and cut it out and i can not get it accurate.

any ideas anyone. :-\

Title: Re: cutting a deck
Post by: Bryan Young on February 12, 2008, 10:17:09 pm

Quote from: dan on February 12, 2008, 09:29:40 pm

hi,  does anybody have any hints on how i can accuratly cut a deck out of a peice of ply, the first time i cut a peice it turned out too small and i dont want ot make the same misake again, i simply traced the plan of the deck onto the ply and cut it out and i can not get it accurate.

any ideas anyone. :-\

Put your sheet of ply or whatever on the hull, weigh it down with pretty hefty weights, draw around the hull from the underside and THEN cut slightl oversize. Then carefully plane the edges till it fits. I suggest you buy a little "Davids" bullnose plane that uses a razor blade as a cutting edge. Good value and very useful.

Title: Re: cutting a deck
Post by: tobyker on February 12, 2008, 11:46:13 pm

My advice would be to make a cardboard one first. When you get that to fit, mark out the ply the same way you marked out the card. I find that the thin card they make frozen pizza boxes out of is pretty good for templates.

Title: Re: cutting a deck
Post by: White Ensign on March 01, 2008, 01:48:56 pm

Dan, had the same problem and found out, that the hull was not absolutely symmetric.
So if the deck was taken of the plan, but it doesn`t match exactly to the hull, you probably should blame it on the hull.

Now there are two solutions:

1. Get the hull to follow the lines of the deck by fixing it with some bolts and clamps or....
2. Mark a center line on the deck, place the hull on it and mark the hulls line with a pencil. Then cut out this line.

Hope that was out of any help.

Jörg

Title: Re: cutting a deck
Post by: Shipmate60 on March 01, 2008, 04:16:16 pm

One problem with model plans is that what you think is the deck is really the inside of the gunwhale capping, this makes the deck toosmall all round.
The best way is as has been suggested make a cardboard template. Old breakfast cereal packets are a good source of cardboard.

Bob

Title: Re: cutting a deck
Post by: sinjon on March 01, 2008, 05:22:47 pm

Thin cardboard every time, sellotape small strips on to get a close fit, trace down again until a perfect fit, then trace down onto your ply.

Colin