Kayak - Construction journal

Plans

On this page: - Reference line - Verticals - Marking - Uniting the marks
More information: - Tables (plans) - Templates - Marking the wood

Drawing - application

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These plans are (c) Nick Schade of Guillemot-Kayaks

Clicking on the picture takes you to a larger version.

As you may have noticed, half of the parts are missing! This is because to plywood panels are pressed together, and cut at the same time, to obtain better precision.

Tables

Plywood panels in the U.S. seem to be just a bit wider, and it results impossible to get all parts from a standard panel here (1.6 m wide). So, I changed (shifted) the parts in the table, without changing the form, and this resulted in the second table.

Table usage

There was a bit of confusion (my fault) about the tables - the seemed too far away from being a drawing to be usefull. Still, I didn't find any other way to represent these precision measures.

Anyway, below follows a description of the technique for passing the table information to the wood. (I'm not sure, but I believe Nick Schade has the drawing available in scale 1:1).

Ok, we'll use part of the second table as an example (that's the one I used):

To pass this table to your plywood, use the following steps:

Step 1: The reference line

In the previous step we've obtained two panels, about 80 cm wide, and more than 5.2 metres long. We'll cut them both at the same time, so to mark them, join them (with their 'good sides' together), so they cannot shift.

More than likely, the parts were glued together, but the alignment was not entirely perfect. To obtain a valid reference, it's necessary to draw a line along one of the large borders, which will be used as a reference in the next step. Draw this line near (a few mm) the border, but, of course, completely on the wood.

I used a string to get a straight line, then marked this line on the panel. This line is important!

Step 2: Vertical linea

Now it's necessary to trace the vertical lines. To make it a little easier, I made a larger triangle from a piece of plywood scrap, as precisely as possible 90 degrees.

Draw a first vertical, as near as possible to the left border. From there on, draw other verticals at 9.5mm, 150.8mm, etc. (All the values that appear in the left - yellow - column of the table).

Step 3: Marking the crossings

Now, visit each vertical line again, this time marking the line at the distances in the other columns of the table. E.g.:

The first line (0.0 in the left column) has values like: 583.6, 583.6, 528.8, 528.8, 373.0, and 152.4. Make marks on the vertical at these distances. Of course you don't have to mark 583.6mm twice!

The second vertical, at 9.5mm, has only one mark, at 398.4mm. That's ok, some of the parts are shorter... Make the mark, and pass on to the next vertical. The third vertical has only one mark, at 9.5mm from the reference.

Get the idea?

Step 4: Tracing the border

This takes a bit of ingeniousness (a few extra hands are welcome too). The secret is to make a fluid line that crosses the marks made in the previous step. It's very difficult to trace the line without mechanical help. I found a 1meter piece of cableguide, which was quite rigid, but flexible enough to unite three or four marks. The extra hands (my wife's) held the improvised ruler, and I adjusted and traced the line.

If a mark is really out of the way, check the table! (It happened to me)

Epilog

It's not as difficult as it seems, but it's not easy either. Neither Nick, nor I, ever mentioned that this was an easy project!
Take the time to do this right. More than a mm of error can distort the for to a point where things are difficult to fit. Don't use a wide marker. A fine pencil it better. Use a jigsaw to cut outside the lines. Then sand the borders to obtain fluid line.

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