Experience with building from Carlson Hulls design?

Hi all. I've been doing a lot of playing around with the Carlson Hulls program recently and this fall/winter I want to have a go at building a kayak from my own design.

For those that have built from the files that this program produces did you find that you needed to allow a little fudge factor for certain types of joints? Any other little foibles that come to mind?

Also I'm importing the DXF files into Turbocad to allow me to round the stem and stern corners a little. Any thoughts on demons for this or is it quite simple?

I've already built up a simple lower hull only model from card stock using the plank printouts and it all looks real nice. I just hope the 1/4 inch plywood tortures into the shapes as easily...

If this works out the next project will be a sailing canoe with a long center cockpit that I can snap two seats into for tandem double blade paddling. I just gotta remember to put the wife in front so I can make sure she is paddling...

If I can figure out how to get the VMRL pics to save as jpgs I'll post up some pics.

 

you can open and save the VRML 3d model as a BMP or JPG in a program called "autovue pro" . You can evaluate it free for 60 days( I think).Download it at http://www.cimmetry.com . The attached pics were done over a year ago with Hulls (8 chines !) it was to be a 22' launch .I built a 1/4 scale model but never the full size boat.

Rich



As for the fudge factor, I have ran into problems with how the bottom panels develop around the stem on V bottoms, They came out short the two times I tried to make a stitch and glue model. just be sure to make a model to check your dimensions before you build the real boat.

Rich

 

Remove the thickness of your panels (hull sides and bottom) from the frames and bulkheads.

You must remember that the surfaces and edges you see are the outer most edge. Your panels will be short if you don't remove the thickness of them from the frames and bulkheads.

 

I've built two sharpies using Hulls, and the panels have some out dead on. I gave some thought (briefly) to making the last one stitch and glue and observed that some fudging would be necessary. rickc's and The Fisher's advice, above, is good.