question about reading plans

[3W914]

On the free laker plans-- while the plans say to begin by making one-foot guidelines down the plywood, the drawings for each component have some measurements marked slightly to the side of these one-foot spacings. My question is: are all measurements (except where clearly shown otherwise) drawn on the lines, or is it necessary to figure out the distancesfor those measurements offset from the grid?

[Oldsparkey]

I have not made the free laker but from the boats I have made the one set of lines are at the 12 inch mark on the plywood. Markeing it off into 12 equal sections for the length of the plywood sheet.

The others are the distances the panels ( widths) will be at those lines and are the ones that need to be connected to form the panel for the boats construction , the top and the bottom of each one.

There should be two sets of those measurements at each 12 inch junction , one for the upper area (top) of the panel and one for the lower ( bottom) if it is not using the base of the plywood as the bottom for the panel. Best thing to do is to read the instructions , reread them , then do it again , then the plans and fully understand the process before picking up a pencil , making a line and sawing it out.

The measurements for the panels are those ones that run all the way to the top , the ones on the bottom are the base of the panel then the next are the top of it , the next ones are the bottom of the next panel and then the top and so on till you run out of wood. It might help if you pencil in those lines and lightly shade them in so you can see the shape of each panel , if you did not get a sheet showing that. Each sheet will have a pointed junction while wide at the other end , the bow and mid ship , reversing to the rear section on the other sheets.

On the plans I have used , the measurements were in metric and normal inches , make sure you do not combine them if they are on yours. Then measure it , mark it out , then remeasure it again , some times it does not hurt to remeasure it the third time , just to be sure.

It is best to take your time when doing this and don't get distracted or you will do like I did , get another sheet of plywood and repeat the whole process because you were a fem millimeters or inches off. YEP... It is easy to do and I have made quite a few boats which means that I did not make a mistake till then.

Chuck.
I'm sure you will receive more information and probably better then mine.

[jem]

If the plot point is off the drawing reference line, a idstance will be given. If not, assume it's on the drawing ref line.