how did you make your a pattern for cutting plywood decks??

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Old Bill

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After many hours of pleading, begging, and doing many household chores...my dear wife said I could have $25.00 to buy a sheet of plywood for my boat's front deck! :roll: :roll:

I have an idea on how to measure the front deck area to cut the right curves for the decking...but, I'm sure the membership here has much better proven methods of doing this correctly. :lol:

So, how did you measure, mark, and cut the plywood for your bow deck? :D
 
Is it a V-hull or Jon boat? I did my Jon boat decks by measuring the width at the beginning and at the end of where the deck is going.Then maybe a couple more width measures in between if a longer deck.Then did a dot to dot line.The carpet hides any slight imperfections
 
I lined up the sheet on my center line and let the plywood overhang the outside edge of the boat. I then marked the outside edge with a sharpie. I then had one more straight cut down the center line.
 

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What I did was made a grid on a piece of paper. First I measured the center line from the point of the bow to the ending point of the deck and marked this on my paper. Then I measured the width in 2" increments for the length and marked each measurement on my paper. After this was done, I transferred these measurements to my plywood. I first marked each measurement with a pencil and then used a chalk line to mark the plywood and keep the width straight. Lastly connect your marks and cut out. Clear as mud, huh :lol:
 
ky_madman said:
What I did was made a grid on a piece of paper. First I measured the center line from the point of the bow to the ending point of the deck and marked this on my paper. Then I measured the width in 2" increments for the length and marked each measurement on my paper. After this was done, I transferred these measurements to my plywood. I first marked each measurement with a pencil and then used a chalk line to mark the plywood and keep the width straight. Lastly connect your marks and cut out. Clear as mud, huh :lol:

No, that is very clear! And, it sounds like something that I might be able to accomplish.

Thank you very much! :D
 
Bill
Sorry I just seen your post
I dont know how the other guys did theirs
I did mine by making a templet. I used scribes to make my templet.
Scribes are a compass looking thing carpenters use to fit something to an uneven surface.
A compass will work I even used a wood block and a pencil.
The idea is to stay paralel to the surface .


Get you some cardboard and tape - I used like 10in wide strips of card board
You need to know where your floor line is - when I did my bow I would hold the strip of cardboard agisnt one side at floor line. Set the scribe at the wides gap between the cardboard and the boat. Now stay at about 90deg from where the scribe touches the side and draw your line on the cardborad.
Play with it youll see how to do it.Fit a side and work your way around tape the cardboard together. It doesnt need to fit perfect and needs a bit of space to wrap the carpet over the side and staple it on the bottom.

You may need to cut the patteren and re scrbe a few times each time it will get better , I had to do it twice on a few cuts of the patteren (rivets &laps )
Another reason I would not try to fit it to tight the bevel of the sides leave your self an 1/8 in or maybe a little more gap. Carpet will take care of small gaps
Its easy I have fit loads of cabinets over the years
Ron
 
Hi Ron,

That sounds fairly easy to do. I even have an old school compass that might still work!

I'll have to ponder on the easiest way for me to proceed.

Sometimes I make things a lot harder than they need to be...but, then again, like today, I'm learning new ways to do something!! :D

Anyone else have any suggestions?
 
The methods described above work well. Don't cut wood until you have the template just the way you want it to fit. One-half of the template should fit the other side as a mirror image once you have the centerline established. As the the old adage goes, "Measure twice, cut once". In my case I measure multiple times before cutting, and still do some trimming afterwards, lol :roll:
 
Waterwings said:
The methods described above work well. Don't cut wood until you have the template just the way you want it to fit. One-half of the template should fit the other side as a mirror image once you have the centerline established. As the the old adage goes, "Measure twice, cut once". In my case I measure multiple times before cutting, and still do some trimming afterwards, lol :roll:

Me too, then I ruin the wood and have to make a second trip to Home Depot for more wood/supplies. :LOL2:
 
I used cardboard for a templete and a compass to mark. I cut the cardboard on the outside of the lines, then trimmed to fit. After cutting the plywood, I still had some final trimming to do.
 
The methods described above work well. Don't cut wood until you have the template just the way you want it to fit. One-half of the template should fit the other side as a mirror image once you have the centerline established. As the the old adage goes, "Measure twice, cut once". In my case I measure multiple times before cutting, and still do some trimming afterwards, lol

Unless your boats like my old dented tweaked beater.

Hows it goin Bill make any head way?

Bill depending on how you plan on doing the decking & carpet- Mine is removable and I wraped my carpet over the edges and stapled to the bottom. I cut a few to tight - once the carpet was on them , had to do a little trimng to get them to fit.
Just somethin you might think about
Ron
 
Bill don't forget the thickness of your wood compared to the template.

I cut the cardboard temp out and traced it onto the wood. I used the cardboard as the bottom of the wood-angled the saw to the correct degree and cut. If I used the template as the top of the wood and cut :( well then the wood would have been to short #-o
 
My thanks to everone for the great suggestions and comments. I really do appreciate your replies.

I ended up using a combinations of things to make my pattern. I attached a piece of plywood, that I had marked a center line, and ruled off in inches, to the center line of my 2 x 2" framework.

Richline%20bow%20frame4s.JPG


I then measured each side from the center line and marked the inches on the plywood.

Richline%20bow%20frame5s.JPG


I later transfered the measurements onto some cardboard, marked the outline, and cut out the pattern.

Richline%20bow%20cardboard1s.JPG


It still needs additional trimming, and no doubt the plywood cut out will need further triming to fit!

I had planned on going to Lowe's this morning and buying a sheet of 1/2" plywood...but, family chores got in the way! :lol: :lol:

Thanks again,
 

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