Templates are used for transferring shapes from the loft floor to a vessel under construction or modification.

Materials used for templates, which are normally just for one use but can be for more than one vessel are usually: 1/4 inch plywood, plasterers nails, those blue black 1 1/4 inch or so thin shank nails Tools were pencil dividers, a nail 'shovel', a 12 or 16 oz. carpenters rip style nail hammer and a good pair of wire nippers sufficient to cut the shanks of nails used.

Rippings of ply sufficient to span the shape of the area to be copied are laid on the loft floor adjacent to the sections to be tranferred to the ply. The rippings are adjusted to expose the edge, now called the working edge of the template, so that the pencil compass can be used to transfer a series of locations from the loft floor drawing to the ply. Each ripping is marked in sequence so that when picked up and taken to the band saw to be cut its location or sequence is not lost in the cutting. A batten is applied to the template pieces on the pencil marks and a line drawn to connect them is drawn. The cut template piece/s are again placed on the loft drawing and aligned one to the other, the cut line is checked for fairness and the template is assembled. Pieces of ply are cut to cover each joint in the template from working edge to back edge minus approx. 1/2 inch.

The ply pieces are dimensioned so that they cover both pieces sufficiently to hold and support the joints. There seems to be no hard and fast rule for this but this dimension should be enough to take the handling and still support the joint. The 3 pieces at each joint, the actual template pieces and the cleats are fastened together with the blue nails using the shovel as backup to clinch or turn the nails back into the template making a nice tight and strong joint. Appropriate 'witness marks' should be made on the template where ever deemed necessary to insure proper alignment when applied to the work.

Larger templates were further supported with diagonal bracing and cross pieces as needed to insure stability and accuracy when using and storing.

Home

Back