Curved surface on plug?

What do you guys use for curved surfaces on your plug? It's a little too much radius to bend plywood. Small boat, 10' long. Is foam my only option, I'm building it by hand, and foam worries me I won't get it symmetrical. Thanks.

 

On a plug there are a number of tricks,Thin plywood another is closely spaced battens that could have a shape sawed in them,another is bending plywood,then veneers (fir and the like),sheets of plastics and metals.

 

You can also make thin Fibreglass panels and use the same method is plywood Or find a shape that is what you are looking for and simply mould it and fit it to the plug ! Glass shapes and panels are real easy to make anything out of !!
Thin glass can be cut with scissors and stapled and glued in place Then glassed over ,then your fillers !!. nothing is imposable

 

Bill...the thinner the ply the more that you can shape it, so use aviation ply if necessary, it is 5 ply and can start at about 2mm.....

....and as Tunnels says, just use sheet glass panels, you make them on a sheet of real glass, they are very easy to make.

 

use 40mm thick MDF strips very flexible and easy sanding look at what we made with it:

 

it was made from 12mmx4mm MDF strips

 

This is being made with Fiberglass,Plywood,Bending Plywood,Putty and Duratec

 

Steve , i always enjoy your pics and i wish i would have taken more over the years .

 

Artie Thank you.

 

You can carve wood or mold fiberglass. I think that using the same material for finishing is important so that when you laminate the mold on and it heat up, there will be less distorsion. Beware of epoxy finishes, they inhibit the cure of polyester. For symmetry, use templates.

 

You are always welcome ........................ and did you make it to the worlds by chance ?

 

No I had a Sport fisherman in the water apart and needed to close it up.

 

I saw that a lot of people make cedar strip plugs using 1/4 x 3/4" strips. What is the reason for the cedar as opposed to, say, pine which is cheaper?

 

Perhaps that it is free of knots. However, that would not hold me back using pine. WRC is horribly expensive over here.

One of my cusomers built a motor boat out of pine instead of WRC, as he is allergic to that wood, and this boat still floats...

 

There is nothing wrong with pine. It was one of the usual species for plug making on castings. I think that the more even grain of the pine is superior to cedar. It makes it much easier to get an even finish.