15 year old building 18 foot aluminum center console.

I looked long at the snakeshooter plan myself. What you would be getting from Glen L (Ken Hankinson) is basically a paper plan. From this you would cut all your parts, probably with a circular saw. What I got from Steve Pollard at Specialty Marine was a computer plan, this plan was e mailed to a water jet cutting outfit. They loaded it into their compter and cut all the parts for me with the water jet cutter. It costs a little bit but the savings are enormous in terms of time, and accuracy of the parts. By the way. The boat that I built wasn't one of SpecMar's stock plans. I gave him the specs that I wanted and he modified one of his existing plans to meet my needs. Now he offers my boat as one of his stock plans.
To estimate aluminum cost determine the weight of aluminum. for instnace Pollard gives you the estimated weight, for my boat it was in the neighborhood of 2400 lb. From there call around to suppliers and they can give you the current price of aluminum. FYI, the price can change daily! Don't go to your local metal shop, but call the distributors. You'll get a much better price.
Good luck

 

While the idea of a CNC made set of pieces sounds nice, it does detract some from the whole "homebuilt" idea. More of "home subbed out" the way I look at it. Heck, that was why I was kinda against going by a set of plans when I first started that thread, but then decided to leave that for another day. I do have the equipment needed to cut 20 foot pieces of aluminum, much better than a circular saw of course, and the patience to do it very accurately, not not rush through and make a wobbly cut line, etc. "Close enough" won't cut it, in my book.

The pricing I was going by was by the estimated amount of material needed that they put on the site. If I go by the 2 bucks a pound rule, that I see many post on here, I am a little less than the speculated price otherwise, but not by too far, at least as far as a rough calculation is concerned.



Bassboy1

 

Just curious. How are you planning to cut aluminum sheeting?

 

Numerous ways. For straight cuts, I usually use the table saw with a high tooth count carbide blade. It isn't of your contractor variety, actually a heavy duty cast iron setup, and when we set it up with the infeed and outfeed tables (8 foot each) and fence, it will cut sheet with the best of them. Also, for smaller stuff with light curves, the 14 inch metal cutting Delta bandsaw does the trick, especially when paired with infeed and out feet tables. For some things, if I don't feel I can get it accurate enough on the metal bandsaws, I will cut it to within a quarter of an inch of the line, using nibblers, bandsaw etc, and then make an exact template out of a piece of MDF on a wood bandsaw, clamp it to the bottom of the aluminum, then run a carbide router bit that has a bottom roller against the MDF, thereby trimming the aluminum exactly the way the MDF is. This method works great for all but interior angles, and they will clean up nicely with a saber saw and metal blade, followed by a fine file.