Outrigger building

 
  I want to create a pair of 4 ft outriggers to attach to my sailing canoe.  I started by drawing them up on the freeware 'HULLS' programme and printing off the finished plans.

This is where I am up to so far.

  
Print off the plans and tape the pages together Cut out the plan leaving a decent margin
Pin the plan to the chosen 4mm ply I use map pins as they are easy to push in, and simple to get back out
I use tailors chalk to mark the edge of the plan onto the plywood I need 4 pieces in total for 2 outriggers, so I move the plan down, pin it on and draw round it again
Repeat until you have 4 outlines Cut around the chalk lines you drew
Cut the board into 4 pieces then roughly cut out the pieces, staying outside the chalk lines you drew I use a jigsaw to make the cuts
You should now have 4 roughly cut out pieces Now pin all 4 pieces together and pin the plan back onto the top.  The panel pins you can see go through all 4 pieces of ply
Now cut carefully along the line on the  edge of the plan, to give the correct shape and sized pieces.  Make sure you keep the jigsaw blade vertical or you could end up with the bottom pieces smaller than the top ones You now end up with 4 panels the correct size and shape
While the panels are still pinned together, I sand the edges smooth using a belt sander clamped to the workbench.  That's a piece of non slip mat with a piece of scrap ply on top to raise the panels I am sanding to the main area of the sanding belt Once the edges are sanded, I mark the edges for where the holes need to go for the plastic ties I am using
Mark in from the edge and drill your holes where you marked, drilling through all 4 panels at once.  I use scrap ply as a backer to avoid tearout. Unpin the panels and set them up as 2 pairs.  Start to thread the plastic ties and start doing them up. DON'T PULL THEM TIGHT YET!
Panels loosely stitched together ready for spreaders to be installed    

[ Home ]