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Re: Tools: Making tools
By:JohnAbercrombie
Date: 5/12/2013, 12:50 pm
In Response To: Re: Tools: Making tools (John Messinger)

My son wants me to make him a Night Heron hybrid, but I have been struggling with the thought of cutting out the plywood panels accurately with a saber saw.

The large foam work surface is a good-sounding idea, but I've never had much luck cutting curves with a circular saw - that's one old-tyme boatbuilder skill I don't have. (Scary...)

Once I mark a panel (or panel template) accurately, I haven't found any problem cutting with a saber saw (with the right and sharp blade) and working up to the line with a small block plane (held at a skew angle to reduce the effective bed length on curves).
Cut the panels in pairs - pin the sheet stock together with a few small brads and use spring clamps along the edges - you'll need to move them as you cut.
Keep the panels as flat as possible while cutting if you want them to be a matched pair.
It's also possible to cut one panel and then 'copy' the shape using a router if you can improvise a large router table surface.

I wouldn't be too obsessive about the cutting, but it does pay to be as accurate as possible. On every S&G project I've done (without pre-cut kit panels), the panels needed some minor 'tweaking' when I started wiring them up.

If you decide to paint the boat (at the outset) then you can be a bit more casual with the width of the panel joints.

Messages In This Thread

Tools: Making tools
Malcolm Schweizer -- 5/9/2013, 1:01 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
Malcolm Schweizer -- 5/9/2013, 1:12 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
Matt Jakubek -- 5/9/2013, 1:28 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
Etienne Muller -- 5/9/2013, 3:23 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
Matt Jakubek -- 5/9/2013, 3:26 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
Charlie -- 5/9/2013, 5:47 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
Malcolm Schweizer -- 5/9/2013, 8:24 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
Paul Sylvester -- 5/10/2013, 12:17 am
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
John Messinger -- 5/9/2013, 6:05 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
John Messinger -- 5/9/2013, 6:23 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
John Messinger -- 5/9/2013, 6:42 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
John Messinger -- 5/9/2013, 7:19 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
Malcolm Schweizer -- 5/9/2013, 8:33 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
Malcolm Schweizer -- 5/9/2013, 8:18 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
John Messinger -- 5/9/2013, 7:25 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
John Messinger -- 5/9/2013, 7:58 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
Malcolm Schweizer -- 5/9/2013, 8:37 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
John Messinger -- 5/11/2013, 6:16 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
ancient kayaker -- 5/12/2013, 12:10 am
Re: Tools: Making tools
John Messinger -- 5/12/2013, 7:45 am
Re: Tools: Making tools
Kevin -- 5/12/2013, 9:57 am
Re: Tools: Making tools
ancient kayaker -- 5/12/2013, 10:12 am
Re: Tools: Making tools
ancient kayaker -- 5/12/2013, 10:10 am
Re: Tools: Making tools
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/12/2013, 12:50 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
ancient kayaker -- 5/12/2013, 1:40 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
Bill Hamm -- 5/13/2013, 12:12 am
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
ancient kayaker -- 5/13/2013, 10:31 am
Re: Tools: Making tools
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/13/2013, 12:04 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
Noel Bennett -- 5/9/2013, 11:13 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools
Malcolm Schweizer -- 5/10/2013, 1:32 am
Re: Tools: Making tools
Etienne Muller -- 5/10/2013, 3:34 am
Re: Tools: Making tools
ancient kayaker -- 5/10/2013, 9:10 am
Re: Tools: Making tools
Mike Bielski -- 5/10/2013, 12:45 pm
Re: Tools: Making tools *PIC*
Bill Schill -- 5/15/2013, 5:19 pm