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Glen-L Marine Designs
July 13
Question for our Boatbuilding folks: Do you see an advantage to having CNC cut wood templates for the frames, stem, etc. in addition to the paper patterns?
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Steve Patmont and 11 others like this.
Steve Patmont big time
July 13 at 11:12am · Like
Erich Marse It would seem that it's a question of appealing to a customer base that's truly composed of beginners. If someone with no experience makes a mistake at that foundational stage, then it may become irreparable by the time they get the experience to recognize and repair their error. On the other hand, is enouvh oc your customer base beginner enough to need that, and wealthy enough to afford the extra cost? Do you even have the customer base to recoup the investment in machinery and training? Could I possibly be any less helpful?
July 13 at 11:13am via mobile · Like
Shannon Way I think so.
July 13 at 11:19am · Like
Jorge Garcia Of course. But how much it cost? That's the problem
July 13 at 11:21am via mobile · Like
Duane Wood in terms of speed it wouodl speed up the process a fair bit however isnt part of the journey learning how to get those drawings onto the wood so you can make a boat? Once you have it figured out you learn its wasnt that difficult after all.
July 13 at 11:21am · Like · 1
Rory J. Hamilton definitly! I think it would be a great help!
July 13 at 11:53am · Like
Randy Steiner I would like to see the files to drive a CNC (STL / DXF / etc) as an option. That way if a CNC is ideal for selected steps it could be used, or skips if the template is effective enough.
July 13 at 12:44pm · Like · 1
Fergal Butler How much would they cost to post to Ireland Instead of cutting templates you might have more interest in cutting frame kits again with the aid of a CNC you should be able to make them cheeper and with less waste than we can make them so the cost may balance out. Tracing out the plans is no big deal and doesn't take much time so I don't think I would buy them. Now if you could come up with a bright pre finished fiberglass skin that doesn't need to be sanded and just sticks on the side of the boat, that I would be interested in
July 13 at 12:59pm · Like · 1
Greg S. Brown I think it would be a good idea. If I could buy most of the boat already cut out and all I have to do is glue it together and then deck it, that would be the thing to get me to buy a boat.
July 13 at 1:20pm · Like · 1
Warren Oatman Maybe stiff non-corrugated cardboard templates....they can be folded and shipped more economically and would be more cost effective....all depends what customer base you want to reach I suppose
July 13 at 1:23pm · Like · 1
James Bird It would definitely be more accurate.
July 13 at 2:07pm via mobile · Like
Christopher Atwood Might be cost prohibitive. Depending how much it ads to the cost of plans I dont know that I would have bought them, its not a huge time saving step. Now if you offered CNC cut frame kits for the most popular models THAT I would PAY for say $750 for the Zip plans and CNC cut frame pieces that are precisely cut and ready to glue up. Same benefits for the customer as the old frame kits but less costly to ship not glued up. Then the builder just sources the, build form lumber, chine, sheer, keel and plywood locally like normal since they are so large. That would be a huge head-start. Priced at $500 for Squirt frame pieces w/plans to say $1400 for Monaco frame pieces with plans.
July 13 at 2:40pm · Like · 1
Glen-L Marine Designs Thanks for the feedback! Erich, you crack me up and Fergal, yes it would cost a LOT to ship to Ireland--doesn't everything? I do like your idea about the fiberglass skin--very funny! Personally, I don't think it's a big deal to use the full size patterns and having templates seems redundant. I was curious as to your thoughts. Chris--I do think you have something there. This all came up because a Malahini builder is considering having some CNC templates cut and wanted to see if we'd be interested. At first I thought he was talking about making frames and that is definitely food for thought. He's going to keep in touch when he gets his quote. Thanks again--you guys are great!
July 13 at 4:35pm · Like · 1
Rod Hughes Cnc is good if you are going to mass produce a boat but not really needed for a one time build. with your full size patterns and tracing paper it really isn't a problem to cut out the pieces.
July 13 at 6:13pm · Like
Russ Karches Rod is right. However the cnc would give a newbie maybe that slight boost in confidence that would get more boats on the water.
July 13 at 9:12pm · Like
Alan Edisbury Well you could supply templates cut on a cnc but you may as well sell kits!
I have just started a Malahini and made templates for the frames using 6mm mdf which only took a day to make not too much time wasted on a project that takes most of us a year or two to build, by the way the mahogany frames then only took a couple of hours each to cut out.
I think it's a great option for some builders, but personally I want to build my own boat from the superb plan Glen L have drawn up
July 15 at 3:30pm via mobile · Like
Glen-L Marine Designs Again, you guys are so helpful! Alan, you're like many builders that would prefer to do it all themselves.
July 16 at 3:43pm · Like
Rick Wangerin Thanks for all the good info.
July 21 at 7:43am · Like
Kevin Andrew Walsh Right now I am researching before I build. My main.obstacle is time. While this would be an enormous help, it would have to be cost effective at the same time to make it attractive
July 22 at 9:58am via mobile · Like
Doo Mic My Reasons to MDF Routing Templates
July 22 at 11:48am · Like
Doo Mic Less Dust , more acuracy,and ! less waste on the ''real Wood'' i think the saving is more than the cost or at least equal(this may not vote on smaller boats). Paid about 240€ for complete set routing templates in 10mm MDF (21 FT Hacker Racer/12 Frames, Stem...)