New Queensland PDRacer Build
G'day Folks,
Today I commenced cutting of my PDRacer. I'd originally planned to build a kayak, however after sailing one of these things up at BitingMidge's last week (thanks Steve!), I was hooked. So the racer is pretty much a practice run on boat-building before I start on the kayak.
First of all, I picked up some Gaboon ply from Boatcraft Pacific - They warned me about the potentially poor quality so after selecting a couple of nice looking sheets I thought it would be a good test run to see how they went in the racer before committing to using it for the kayak. As it turned out, the sheets I got were ok. The quality and consistency (colour, surface, defects etc) does very considerably however. The surface veneers were quite sound, and very few if any small voids in the core. I also had a closer look at the 'Pacific Maple' at Boatcraft - it is 0.5kg heaver than the Gaboon for 4mm sheets, so for the whole kayak, about 1-1.5kg heavier if using this ply (3 sheets).
Anyway, on to the photos...
1) Laying out the panels. This pic shows the fairing batton I used on the sheer curve.
2) This is what happened to my finger jointed pine batton when attempting to clamp it to the chine curve :no:. I'd actually spent some time sifting through the pile to find a length which was not kinked. Two lessons here - 1. finger jointed pine is RUBBISH! 2. I could probably have used a more flexible batton. For the shorter side boyancy tanks, I ended up using my meter long steel rule on its edge which worked ok, if a light touch was used.
3) One completed side panel! Thanks to my friend Richard who helped hold the panels while i was cutting :)
4) 3D! sorta...
5) One PDRacer.. Ikea style :2tsup:
I was really surprised how well my Japanese saw worked for cutting out the panels.. Very fast and a good finish.
One question (for Mik?).. What is the best way to plane the concave edge of the side panels? do you use a spokeshave?
Cheers,
Duncan