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Newbie needs help with ship designs

Hello,

I wonder if you can help me? I'm building my first "proper" model boat totally from scratch, rather than from a kit, and I'm having some problems that I wonder if anyone can give any advice on?

Firstly, there is the question of the plans themselves. The plan size leaves a boat a little too small, at around 2 foot 2 inches, and I would like to increase the scale to something around 3 foot.

I have a full set of plans for the formers, stringers etc, but am not sure if I can simply up scale these, or if I need to design additional formers etc to deal with the now larger ship?

Secondly, the formers are more than a little complex, and I'm having great difficulty transferring them, now that I'm practising, from the plan onto the wood, then cutting, and doing this neatly enough that I can get a piece of wood that exactly fits the plansd when I lay them back again. The formers are made of 3mm liteply, which is too tough to cut with a knife, so I am left with a jigsaw or handsaw, as I have no scroll saw.

Can anyone provide any advice or help as to tips and tricks to do this properly or easily?

Ideally, I would like to get the formers CNC cut or laser cut, as they are strange shaped, with many odd inlets, bends/twists etc, and are critical to the boat shape, as it will be a working boat. However, the only plans I have are on paper, and any lazer cutter or CNC'ing shop demands them in a vector format with dimensions. Does anyone know of any firms/companies/individuals that can transfer a plan from paper to an electronic format?

Many greatful and grovelling thanks indeed.

Steve

Reply to
RipSlider
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For transfering your plans to an electronic format, check the yellow pages for drafting services. Many CAD programs can import scanned images and save them in the proper formats.

-- Chuck Ryan Springfield OH

Reply to
Chuck Ryan

I have had good luck using a Kinkos to scale up plans. Good copiers today are accurate with little distortion. Fully adequate to scaling model plans. If all drawings are to the same scale, it is an easy task to have all drawings scaled up by same percentage. If some parts of drawings are to different scale to most, however, you need to have them scaled seperately to a different magnification.

While I have done cutting of 3/4 inch wood with a hand jigsaw, it is a lot of work. If you are going to be doing much ship modeling, I recommend getting either a scroll saw or a small bandsaw. Either one should run about 100 bucks. I now have both.

I have never had laser cutt> Hello,

Reply to
Don Stauffer in Minnesota

I wholeheartedly agree with Don about using modern copiers. If you are talking copying plans, they are linear scanners, and therefore have negligible distortion. I have done a lot this way, works well.

As for transferring the designs to the wood, you are right, it is a bit of an enigma. However, technology is at hand. Copy the formers on your flatbed scanner and print on a laser, or have conventional photocopies made of them. Then turn them upside down on the wood, take a deep breath, and iron with a hot iron! The toner softens, and enough transfers to the wood to give you an outline to work to. The get a bandsaw, and off you go! Takes a bit of practice, but it works, honest!

N
Reply to
Nigel Cheffers-Heard

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