> Building my first stitch and glue kit, I will have to copy the deck plates
> onto new sheets of plywood, to enable me to make a narrower cockpit hole
> than planned for in kit.

> Having at hand the deckplates delivered with the kit, what will be the
> easiest way to have perfect copies? I had been thinking of drawing, using
> the kit plates as templates, then sawing a bit outside of the line and
> then trimming the edges to the lines using a block plane.

> But I recall someone who did use plates as templates when using a router
> to do this job faster (no drawing). What will the result be if following
> such a procedure? As exact as if using the plane? Better? Worse?

> If I am to buy a router, what router should I buy? What router bits to do
> the copy work? If buying a router, it will later be used to make bead and
> cove strips, so this should be in mind when choosing type of router.

> Jan Gunnar

The router bit you are looking is called a pattern bit. Most router bits have a roller bearing in the bottom part of the bit. The roller goes against whatever you are worling on and follows the shape of the part you are building. The pattern bit has the roller bearing on the top of the bit. You place the part you are copying (pattern) on top of the stock for the new part. The bearing follows the shape of the pattern and cuts an exact copy.

It sounds like you are trying to make a part different than the origional. I would suggest you make a pattern for the new part and cut it out with a saw.