Jeff Horton
Member
- Messages
- 4,272
- Location
- The Heart of Dixie
So you said you would be interested in seeing a SOF built so here you go. This is my latest design Vardo. Click here for more info on it. Assuming this boat has no surprises or disappointments me, my plan is to offer it as a kit. So this is the prototype and will help me determine any changes needed.
Obviously the first part was the design of the boat. I will skip that part and just say I have been working on the boat design off and on for a three months.
Once the design was finalized I created a set of offsets for the frames and draw them out on some cardboard. I don't draw out the actual frame, just the the critical points so I can visualize the frames better. This is surprising harder than you think. So it's better to mess up on paper and regardless how careful I am I always do.
I take the cardboard sketches and layout the frames on some cheap plywood. Even after doing this many times it's still slow and so easy to make a mistake. it takes me a while to do this. Much of this is just done by eye and experience as I go.
Once the frames are laid out I usually cut them in smaller pieces and take them to the bandsaw. I can do a much better job with the band saw than the jig saw. So I rough all these out and make the final cuts there.
At the end of the day I have the outsides cut pretty close to size. I will go back and sand these and do some work with the rasp also. Still a good bit of work to have the outsides finished before they are finished.
Tomorrow I start cutting the insides of the frames.
Jeff
Obviously the first part was the design of the boat. I will skip that part and just say I have been working on the boat design off and on for a three months.
Once the design was finalized I created a set of offsets for the frames and draw them out on some cardboard. I don't draw out the actual frame, just the the critical points so I can visualize the frames better. This is surprising harder than you think. So it's better to mess up on paper and regardless how careful I am I always do.
I take the cardboard sketches and layout the frames on some cheap plywood. Even after doing this many times it's still slow and so easy to make a mistake. it takes me a while to do this. Much of this is just done by eye and experience as I go.
Once the frames are laid out I usually cut them in smaller pieces and take them to the bandsaw. I can do a much better job with the band saw than the jig saw. So I rough all these out and make the final cuts there.
At the end of the day I have the outsides cut pretty close to size. I will go back and sand these and do some work with the rasp also. Still a good bit of work to have the outsides finished before they are finished.
Tomorrow I start cutting the insides of the frames.
Jeff