Passagmaker Plans Build: Parts Layout

While laying out the parts for my PM, I am following the nested plywood layout diagram very closely in order to use as few sheets of 9mm plywood as possible (at $130/sheet).  In the diagram, it's pretty difficult to determine which bulkheads (forward vs. aft) are on which sheet.  One is longer while the other is taller.  While laying out these parts, I made the executive decision to take advantage of putting the taller piece on one sheet simply because there was room for it.  The reasoning was that I would have more of an opportunity to put the shorter piece on the other sheet, therefore making more room for smaller parts.

As I was ready to lay out the second, narrower but longer piece, it immediately became clear that it might not fit.  I had already cut out the other sheet, so there would be no other fix other than buying another sheet of plywood.  Sigh...

Luckily, with some careful maneuvering, I was able to just barely fit the longer piece in between all of the other parts on the sheet, with just barely enough room to fit a jigsaw kerf in between them.

The moral of this story is don't try to outsmart John Harris.  After close examination of the manual, it clearly shows the shorter, thicker bulkhead in the area in question on the second sheet.

As a second point, I will admit to knowing nothing about large format printing costs and the associated shipping, but it is a real hassle to lay out the parts from a 36" wide sheet of paper onto a 48" wide sheet of plywood.  How much more expensive would it be to reformat the plans to be printed out onto 48" wide paper, with the same layout as the plywood diagram, so you could just lay it directly onto the plywood and start going at it with an awl and mallet?

Yes, I'm enjoying the plans building process and I love CLC's product(s), but this small change would be a game changer for plans builders.  I can understand not wanting to revisit plans that are over a decade old by now.  Maybe this could be something incorporated into new plans being published moving forward.  


5 replies:

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RE: Passagmaker Plans Build: Parts Layout

At least you're not lofting :-)

As they say on the clickbait pages, try this one weird trick:

1. Make a yard stick that is 1 1/3 times the size of a true yardstick, with the distance between all markings proportionally enlarged. In other words, a 4:3 scale model of a yardstick.

2. Measure the plans with a real yardstick

3. Transfer to the wood using the scaled yardstick.

This works so much better with metric, BTW, but even with yards and inches it'll be faster than scaling each individual measurement with a pencil and calculator. That's because you can use any reference point anywhere to establish your lines, not just the dimensioned ones.

Think of it as an analog computer.

Good luck,

Laszlo

 

RE: Passagmaker Plans Build: Parts Layout

Ha, I feel your pain CaptainSkully! Here in Turkey, plywood sheets are 2.2 metres x 1.7 metres. The reason I'm always making something is because I have lots of bits of plywood left over and don't want to throw them away. Whatever will I do with them?

At the moment it's a WoodDuck 14 and a CLC Sailrig. The offcuts from the sailrig amas have provided enough to make a 1 metre long RC sailboat. There'll be few offcuts from the WD 14 though. I was thinking I might have to buy another sheet of 4mm ply but I think I'll have enough with the 5 I bought for the major panels. I made all of the hull and deck forms from offcuts I had lying around. 

RE: Passagmaker Plans Build: Parts Layout

That's a very interesting concept, but I'm not trying to scale the boat parts up.  What I'm saying is that the plans come 36" wide, with parts nested to fit on long sheets of paper, some half drawn with centerlines.  It's a very efficient format as far as it goes.  If the plans were printed 1:1 on 48" wide paper, with fully drawn parts, you could just lay the paper directly onto the plywood and start tracing.  I wouldn't have to wrestle with the roll of paper to situate the part in question perfectly between the edge of the plywood and the previous part that's already laid out.  And more importantly, I wouldn't have switched the forward and aft bulkheads almost necessitating another $130 sheet.

Yambo, that's another issue I'm dealing with.  The okoume sheet comes in metric, so it's slightly different size/shape than the masonite/tempered hardboard that I'm layering with the plywood.  That way, I can cut them out at the same time to make templates that are an exact copy.  So far, I have 4.5 hours in just laying out parts and I haven't even started on the planks.

RE: Passagmaker Plans Build: Parts Layout

So they're full-size patterns on 36"-wide paper. I'd rather build from actual plans. They're less trouble, more accurate and as long as you can read the numbers size doesn't matter. My last scratch build used the plans in Bolger's Boats With an Open Mind and it turned out pretty well. Does the CLC package have dimensioned plans, or just the patterns?

Laszlo

 

RE: Passagmaker Plans Build: Parts Layout

I can see where that would be a pain. The plans for the Shearwater Sport are 48" wide making it easy to transfer to the plywood sheets.

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