Ha ha ha, Mike. And to this day I have not made fins.
Probably 20% of my template collection are spin templates.
At least another 70% are full length.
Many I have several sizes of. On my most popular models.
One great thing about full size templates even if only half sides, is the ability to lay it on the floor and stand on it.
Both for yourself and your customer.
Way better than looking at some outline on a computer screen.
It is nice to lay them on top of each other for comparisons.
Thats funny - I do that too, with my spin templates. Mark the shape on the ground, then stand on it to see how it “feels”. That’s usually the point I get most excited about building it!
There’s a few reasons I prefer sheet plastic to Masonite.
One, it won’t melt if it gets wet. One of my good friends, a very well-known shaper, lost most of 40 years worth of templates in the 2004 hurricanes here. (When Hurricane Floyd was bearing down on us in 1999 as a Cat 5 with 155 mph winds, I had to put everything I really valued in my pickup truck and evacuate. I remember driving away from my house and thinking it wasn’t going to be there very much longer. Luckily the storm turned north at the last minute and we were spared. But the only thing I took from my shaping room was my templates. I figured I could buy shit to replace everything else, but the templates were the life of my biz.)
Two, they’re easier to travel with. I used to travel to work a fair bit, after the first time I lugged a bunch of Masonite through airports on the way to Hawaii I figured there had to be a better way. Greg Loehr was right down the street from me using sheet PVC for stringers; I went down and talked to GL and we both figured it might be a good ides to try using some of that stuff for templates.
Three, the material is way easier to work with compared to Masonite and not “dirty”. Masonite dust will foul everything in your shaping room.
Four, it’s much more compact and lighter to store. I have about 50 spin templates sitting on one of my light shelves. Try that with Masonite!
All that said, I still play with Masonite sometimes. If I’m designing a new rocker I like to do it on Masonite so I can “see” it full-scale. CAD screen just isn’t the same for me.
Mike - can the plastic templates be sanded, or are they something so thin you just cut with scissors to the shape you want?
Huck they have a plastic at Depot they use, its like a thin FRP almost but not textured. its like 15 a sheet. It cuts with scissors, a jigsaw san be jigsawed, sanded and microplaned. Its not as thin as what Mike is using but not as thick as 1/8 masonite. Its white.
Cool - thanks, I’ll check into it. FRP I am familiar with, I’ll go by the big box store and see what they have.
Sheet plastic come in various thicknesses, some are thin enough to easily cut with scissors. There’s heaps of applicable products. I like it a little thicker so it doesn’t feel as flimsy, and I usually cut with a razor knife. I can cut a nearly clean curve along a good line, but I still finish up with small block planes and flexible sanding blocks. Sands/planes really fast and easy when supported.
For those who want to be Masonite purists, here’s a tip: when you get close to final truing, bevel both sides of the sheet along the edge of the outline with a sanding block. This will bring the surface being faired to a “point”, and make those final adjustments easier. If you bevel well it will also clearly show any bad spots in your curve as thick or thin spots in the edge.
Thanks Mike, for the reply, - I have to sand to blend curves thats why I asked - also, appreciate the tip, even tho not sure I want to be a Masonite Purist, is that anything like becoming a Frisbyterian?
You really want to avoid becoming a Free Masonite, because that could lead to a position on the Tri Fin Commission, and we know what that means…
Probably too late for me.
At least half of my 250+ templates are Masonite.
It’s a sickness.
Along with my tool addiction.
Barry Snyder and the templates of doom! You must remember the saying of the wise man, “If the weight of your templates is causing you to stumble, cast them off from you and convert, and ye shall PVC the light!”
That’s funny.
When my collection was smaller. I used to keep them on the floor beneath my side lights.
As my collection grew, I did in fact begin to trip over them.
They are now up off the floor on shelves.
Thin plastic temps would be nice.
But I route a lot of my outlines.
Correct
Yeah thats the stuff. I think it’s a little more money than that, but if you want plastic temps. it should work well. Back with the FRP.
Some guys wind up with them hung every where. On a rack or shelf beneath the lights. Holes drilled and hanging a foot deep at the far end of the shaping room. On the wall outside the door of the shaping room. In the "guest shaping room next door. Belive me I’ve seen it and could name names, but that might result in calls for intervention… Some guy in a bar in Kihei one nite told me he had a bunch in a storage shed that some shaper left behind years before. So 2 AM we’re fumbling around in a roach infested shed for what turned out to be Sailboard templates. They’re still curves I guess. Lowel
I’d love to get my hands on some of that plastic. I live in Rodanthe NC on the Outer Banks,and my shop has flooded twice. Once 4ft from Hurricane Irene, and the second time a week ago from Hurricane Arthur. Luckily I had my templates up high enough to survive the flood. I’m rebuilding now for the third time. So if anyone has a line on this material, please share. I use a router to cut my outlines, so I’ll need a bit thicker material for the collar to run against.
Thanks,
G
Hofner, You might not went to use plastic with the router. The heat genarated by the rpms even with a collor could melt the plastic. But you might also use the plastic so if your masonite gets wet you have a back up to work from.
Mine are all ply doorskins. They always begin to warp and twist. Tips get knocked of easily, too. What kind of plastic and where can you find it please? Mike
I do mine the same way as Mike Daniel. Learned it from Jim Phillips
I use the floor undlerayment from lowes and cut the plywood in to four lengths just like Acqua Glassing. It’s thin plyood and easy to true up. I use my planer and hard sanding blocks. It will leave splinters so I run an edge of folded over masking tape.
I saw some unreal foam at Dick Blick art supply but it only comes in small sizes for artists. I googled foam sheets but it was very confusing.