Fit and finish

[JoeMaine]

Hi. I'm looking at the Dinghy 10 with those nice curving seats. NOT a talented builder, but can use tools and not lose body parts. Can you advise on how to fit the ends of the seats against the curved hull? Have been puzzling on that ...
thanks, Joe

[terrulian]

You talking about the V10?
The seats are sitting on cleats, 3/4" x 3/4", made of scrap lumber. You will have to shape these to fit the hull and still present a level surface to the seat. Attach them to the sides with thickened epoxy. Since this is hard to clamp, I did this by utilizing a couple of dabs of hot glue to keep them in place while the epoxy kicks. Then put thickened epoxy on the top of the cleats, place the seats on them, and put some weights on the seats to make a good fit.

[fallguy1000]

I contour find with cardboard from all the stuff I buy to build a boat.

[pee wee]

I would do as Fallguy said, make a template.

If you've never done one before, take any easily cut but stiff scrap material and fit a piece to one part of the boat- e.g. one piece for each hull face, as many pieces as it takes to work all around the area you want to fit. After you get all the faces done, put them in place and join them together using whatever method you can to keep them from shifting- hot glue works well, but I've used staples or screws. You will probably want scrap strips to tie it all together so it can be handled without coming apart or changing shape. Run a few diagonal pieces to help lock in the shape. Trace around it and the part will fit as well as the template you made.

Cardboard will work, but thin plywood is better. I've also used strips of Formica; look around, free is better. Key points are work carefully, choose a material that will hold its shape, and fix all the parts firmly together.

Edit: if you're attempting a tight fit (e.g. for a bright finish), just remember that as the hull sides flare out the template will give you the shape only at the line it meets the hull (bottom of the seat, or wherever).

[Dougster]

Templates for sure. $11 bought me several 4' by 8' sheets of cheap 1/8" luan or maybe it was doorskin panels that I used and re-used for templates. Marine ply is pretty dear and I'm not skilled enough to get the first cut right most of the time on curved surfaces. There's a technique for drawing curves to fit the sides, using a "tic stick". Hard to describe, but if you google it you can surely find some good explanations with pictures.

Dougster

[Netpackrat]

Alternatively, you can use plain square cleats, and just fill in the gap with putty. Glue the cleats to the seat frames first, and clamp some battens to those to orient the side cleats in place, then apply putty in the gap. Adds a little weight but reduces the need for woodworking.

Edit to add; I think I misunderstood the question the first time I read it. Yeah, if you are trying to put the curve to the edge of the plywood, making a template is probably the way to go. On the other hand, if you wind up with a bigger gap there than you want, you were probably going to putty the corner anyway, so just use more...