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Classic Pond Yachts

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There is a nice tool easily available online, well made and inexpensive. It does however have a few short comings for deck lining, I have made a few alterations to mine, the first issue is the scale is very fine, and you have to add the width of the plank each time, easy to make a mistake, there are enough things to think about when lining a deck without adding mental arithmetic! also each time you adjust the length setting you have to line the Pen back up vertically as well as on the correct length mark, no repeatability

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In the above picture I am holding the standard tool, I have fitted the pen as low as possible in the holder, and it is forcing me to hold the tool up high to keep the pen level, the key to deck lining is repeatability, so you can go back and draw the line again, here you have to hold the tool in the air and hold the pen vertical, it will be different each time.

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My first mod was to shorten the rollers and fit nylon washers to run on the deck, this means you can concentrate on the pen as you run the tool around the deck, the problem is the pen is in the holder as low as it will go, but is too high it is causing the tool to be angled, and the bottom of the rollers could/will hit the hull causing the line to run out, and potentially damage the paint, I will get to tumblehome later. 

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Next I made a new pen holder out of square aluminum, the idea being the locking screw will lock the pen upright, or at least in the same position each time. I set up the bar in my mill and with a small endmill just touched the top to leave a clear circle, and the center defined, I thought about drilling holes and giving a positive location, but this system gives some flexibility to cheat! It is very easy to see when the circle is just touching the tool, also when the circle is almost gone into the tool. The thumb wheel was making a mess of the surface of the alloy, so I fitted a nylon end to stop the surface being damaged. The pen holding part allows the pen to be fitted higher, allowing the pen to be more vertical.

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You can see in the picture above the tool is now holding the pen in a position that allows the tool to sit more or less level, the rollers and washers are sitting on the deck edge and top, this is giving a nice 3 point location, two rollers and the pen, so is very stable in use, and will repeat if you have to go back to redraw a section of line. Notice the angle on the bottom of the pen holder, this allows you to see the pen nib when approaching deck margins etc.

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I mentioned tumblehome earlier, the picture above shows the problem, the rollers are running around the hull, not the deck edge, I made up a new set of rollers to locate on the top and side of the deck, see picture below.

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The picture above shows the latest mod, rollers with a deck register, this is stable and allows you to concentrate on drawing the lines on the deck, and its repeatable. To be fair I do have a Lathe and a milling machine amongst other stuff so it is easy for me to make these mods, but as long as your model does not have tumblehome, just fitting the large washers to the top of the rollers will make the biggest difference, and all that requires is two penny washers, and cut the rollers down with a hacksaw, and tidy with a file.

Dolly has an oval hatch, the problem I then had was drawing a margin line around the hatch, so I made some more bits.

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A tapped hole under the pen holder.

A couple of offcuts of carbon, could be anything, with a slot for adjustment.

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Parts bolt to pen holder, the thin piece is for the pen nib to go through for extra support.

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Tool in use, you have to do it free hand so A little tricky, but it works, the hole has to be fair and smooth, this will copy warts an all! 

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Just got these pictures from a friend going down the route of customising this tool for deck lining. He has spread the width of the wheel base to make the tool more steady, he has drilled the new sliding rod, and will fit a sliding pin to locate the rod, note use of servo parts for wheels to run around the deck, and as me he has fitted a taller pen holder to locate the pen better. Always more than one way to skin a poor moggy.

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14 Feb 21 - For the smaller boats the tool worked fine, but as my friend who made the mods above found, the wheels are a bit to close together when the pen is at full extension. My next deck lining job is my A class Cymbeline, and the pen holder was too short to reach the middle of the deck. I made a longer pen holding arm, and machined 4mm circles with an end mill.

New parts fitted to tool holder, I machined the circles at 8mm centres on one side, and 10mm on the reverse, the old deck on Cymbeline had 10mm wide planks.

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The pen holder on the end of the holding rod can be unscrewed and turned 180 deg so you can work from either the 10mm or 8mm divisions.

New mounting plate made out of an alloy worktop trim piece!

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Surprising how accurate you can position the pen holder by lining up the edge of the machined circle and the tool holder by eye! Try this one out on the deck, which is the next job.

Classic Pond Yachts

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