Cutting the sides

Hank · Post by **Hank** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:45 pm

Hi -

It's here! It's here! The Merrimac plans arrived yesterday! Woooooooooo!

Now I really have to finish cleaning out the garage.

I was perusing all the materials and contemplating on the start of the build. The boat is symmetrical. To make the sides there appear to be 4 identical top pieces and 4 identical middle pieces. The diagram shows a top and a middle lying close together on half of one sheet of plywood. So you end up with 4 pairs of top and middle pieces on 2 sheets of plywood. Is there any reason why I shouldn't cut the two pieces of plywood lengthwise, draw the top and middle on one half sheet, stack up all four halves, clamp tightly, and cut out all the tops and middles in one go?

- Hank

Post by **jem** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:52 pm

You can certainly do that.

Keep in mind that you'll need mirrored copies so keep track of the side you want facing toward the outside of the hull when stacking the wood up.

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 4:23 pm

Hi hank,

Swamp Girl is also symmetrical, My eyesightis not so good so what I did was to cut each panel to about within `1/8th of the pencil lines, trim one panel to the lines and then screw it to the other three.

A quick run round all of them with a router and a flush trim bit or pattern bit and the job is done

-four exactly identical panels.

Chalk · Post by **Chalk** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:38 pm

hairymick wrote:Swamp Girl is also symmetrical, My eyesightis not so good so what I did was to cut each panel to about within `1/8th of the pencil lines, trim one panel to the lines and then screw it to the other three.

A quick run round all of them with a router and a flush trim bit or pattern bit and the job is done -four exactly identical panels.

That's what I do...be mindful to triple check the measurements, cause a mistake can be twice as costly if your not careful.