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Preparing the eighteen foot cutter plug
T
he cutter plug has been cast to exact specifications. Some preparation is necessary, however, before it may be used to build your eighteen foot cutter. It takes less than 30 minutes to ready the plug for use but these steps are crucial to the finished appearance of the cutter so please take your time and follow the steps and photos carefully.
The inner surface of each half first needs to be sanded smooth, plane, and flush with the edges of the other sides. This is easily done by placing a sheet of 60-grit garnet paper on a level surface and ‘scrubbing’ the half-plug until all the excess resin has been removed. Repeat for the other half. Lay the plug halves on a surface and make sure they are perfectly flat. All of the ‘gloss’ of the extra resin needs to be removed before this will happen. Finish with a final pass over 100-grit garnet paper. Introduce the two halves to each other. They should match with no gaps.
The next step is to align the pre-drilled holes, spacer and the cutter halves. Due to variations in casting, drilling, etc, some adjustments may be necessary to insure that the two cutter halves are perfectly aligned. The key here is to make sure that the bottom of the spacer is precisely even with the bottom of the plug. I would suggest reaming out the holes in both
the plug and spacer to allow for adjustments .
After enlarging the holes the spacer and locating pins are temporarily positioned to make sure they will be fit flush with the bottom of the plug.
When satisfied with the spacer fit, use medium viscosity cyanoacrylate to secure the pins and spacer to the first half of the plug.Once dry, fit the completed half-plug to the other half. Enlarge and adjust the holes until both halves of the plug are flush on the bottom and the fore and aft borders are in line. When this is achieved the slots of the plug will be in perfect alignment at the bottom edge. You may now apply cyanoacrylate to the spacer and pins and join the two halves together. Make sure to align everything perfectly before the glue has completely set.
The cutter plug is almost ready to be used. It will need to be placed aside temporarily until the keel/apron/transom assembly for the cutter is completed. This assembly is pictured below and is ready to be fit to the mold.
You will note that the apron will not fit into the slot of the cutter plug yet. This is because the apron is a full inch (scale) wider than the keel width. This slot is gradually filed out until the apron seats properly against the center plug.
After filing the slot, refit the keel assembly to the plug. When properly positioned, the top of the rabbet will be flush with the bottom of the plug and the front of the plug will fay into the apron. The photos below should make this clear.
The final step is to refine the apron and aft side of the rabbet so that they fay into each other and the mold. A plank should smoothly follow the shape of the mold, apron and seat into the rabbet without interruption. Small fines or chisels may be used for the initial shaping and further refined using a utility knife blade.
The last step is to lightly sand the surface of the plug so that it will accept pencil markings.
Congratulations – you have taken the first step in creating a perfect replica of an eighteen foot cutter. You may now refer to the instructions written by David Antscherl and proceed to the planking and fitting out of the cutter.
Greg Herbert
Cutter backbone completed: model by Greg Herbert