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View Full Version : Repost: I need help with Rabbit and Bearding Lines



Ross M
04-11-2006, 08:52 PM
(Recovered from internet cache)

Posted by Blue (Member # 3292) on 05-10-2001, 01:20 PM:

I and in the process of building the 18' Handy billy launch similar to the one in woodenboat. I have finished the frames and am now trying to calculate the bearding and midlines. I've never done any of this before and am getting bogged down. If you know the skills your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Blue


Posted by ishmael (Member # 1866) on 05-10-2001, 02:42 PM:

Read some of the standard texts. Macintosh's book might be good place to start. Basically, they are established by measurements from a baseline, faired with a batten. Then you cut some references the width of a chisel and finish by connecting those. What materials are you working with? Don't forget to sharpen your tools.


Posted by CKG (Member # 1955) on 05-10-2001, 03:48 PM:

Make a plank fid.(a chunk of material the same thickness as your planking,if the plank is 3/4", make the fid out of 1/4" plywood - 3/4" wide - 4 or 5" long.this stick is square on it's ends.)
Go to the full size body plan you lofted.Look at the centerline -the width of the keel should be drawn and set off to either side of this line. Where the various station lines come into the sides of the keel indicates the Height of the rabbet at that point. Since Handy Billy is drawn to the outside of the planking, slide your Fid down the inside of any given station line until it's lower corner just touches the side of the keel - that point is , of course, the rabbet. The height of the middle line is the corner of the fid thats buried inside the keel- and the bearding line is where the upper edge of the fid passes out through the drawn side of the keel. With a marking staff, take these heights to the corresponding stations in the profile drawing of the keel.
Seeing as you got the rabbet, all the way up to station 1, given to you in the offsets- it,s just a matter of plotting the heights of the mid and bearding lines above that rabbet, then fairing them in. Presto!
Well, fine and good, you may say- but what about the Rabbet and friends at the forefoot and on the stem?
Two options - scale the rabbet at the stem off of the plans and transfer it to the loft-
or,-
Draw some waterlines above the chine line in the body plan.-Draw them in the forward part of the profile view - Develop them in the half-breadth plan.- where these waterlines intersect the stem siding in the half-breadth plan, take those points to the corresponding waterlines in the profile.(Do this by indexing your marking staff to a station line in the half-breadth, the W.L.-stem intersections are fore and aft locations. At the waterlines in the profile, plot those fore and aft locations.)
this will give you enough points in the profile to fair in the rabbet.You can get your mid and bearding lines using the plank fid in this operation,too. (sounds easier to just scale the darn thing off the plans.plus it only works good on the upper,more plumb part of the stem.)
For the rabbet at the fore foot and rest of stem, you need to draw a "raking station" at right angles to any given point on the curve of the stem. You basically develop these views the same way you draw and station in the body plan. You need some developed waterlines below that hard chine, though, in order to develop those raking stations.
The explaination is long and requires sketches and waving of hands in the air.

Read Greg Rossel"Building Small Boats" or Robert Stewards "Boat Building Manual" they both explain with drawings.

Posted by Blue (Member # 3292) on 05-11-2001, 11:27 AM:

CKG...Thank you a ton for the help. It sound as though you have done this a bunch before. I have been looking in a number of books. I have a good grasp on what goes on from the curve of the forfoot back along the keel, and from the chine up to the sheer. It is the area that requires the waving hands that is a tough one to grasp. I am able to develope more waterlines but creating lines perpendicular to the forfoot is where the problem lies.
Thank you for the help



Blue
quote: Originally posted by CKG:
Make a plank fid.(a chunk of material the same thickness as your planking,if the plank is 3/4", make the fid out of 1/4" plywood - 3/4" wide - 4 or 5" long.this stick is square on it's ends.)
Go to the full size body plan you lofted.Look at the centerline -the width of the keel should be drawn and set off to either side of this line. Where the various station lines come into the sides of the keel indicates the Height of the rabbet at that point. Since Handy Billy is drawn to the outside of the planking, slide your Fid down the inside of any given station line until it's lower corner just touches the side of the keel - that point is , of course, the rabbet. The height of the middle line is the corner of the fid thats buried inside the keel- and the bearding line is where the upper edge of the fid passes out through the drawn side of the keel. With a marking staff, take these heights to the corresponding stations in the profile drawing of the keel.
Seeing as you got the rabbet, all the way up to station 1, given to you in the offsets- it,s just a matter of plotting the heights of the mid and bearding lines above that rabbet, then fairing them in. Presto!
Well, fine and good, you may say- but what about the Rabbet and friends at the forefoot and on the stem?
Two options - scale the rabbet at the stem off of the plans and transfer it to the loft-
or,-
Draw some waterlines above the chine line in the body plan.-Draw them in the forward part of the profile view - Develop them in the half-breadth plan.- where these waterlines intersect the stem siding in the half-breadth plan, take those points to the corresponding waterlines in the profile.(Do this by indexing your marking staff to a station line in the half-breadth, the W.L.-stem intersections are fore and aft locations. At the waterlines in the profile, plot those fore and aft locations.)
this will give you enough points in the profile to fair in the rabbet.You can get your mid and bearding lines using the plank fid in this operation,too. (sounds easier to just scale the darn thing off the plans.plus it only works good on the upper,more plumb part of the stem.)
For the rabbet at the fore foot and rest of stem, you need to draw a "raking station" at right angles to any given point on the curve of the stem. You basically develop these views the same way you draw and station in the body plan. You need some developed waterlines below that hard chine, though, in order to develop those raking stations.
The explaination is long and requires sketches and waving of hands in the air.
Read Greg Rossel"Building Small Boats" or Robert Stewards "Boat Building Manual" they both explain with drawings.



Posted by TomRobb (Member # 1216) on 05-11-2001, 02:18 PM:

I never could make sense of it as written words. Someone showed me and I had one of those Ooooooh moments. Find someone in driving distance and beg them to show you. (I can't imagine actual begging would be needed) Once seen it turns out to be more or less simple. I don't think calculating has anything to do with it. You pick them off the lofting. I suppose it depends on whether you are verbal or visual of mental bent.
Posted by Bob Cleek (Member # 1211) on 05-11-2001, 05:12 PM:

Make yourself a model of the keel, heel and stem to 1"=1' scale (or the scale of your paper plans, if different) out of soft wood. Mark your rabet line on the model off the plans. Take a small piece of scale "planking" stock to use as a "try piece." Estimate the angle of the frames along the way with your try piece (this is a throw away model, so it doesn't have to be right... it just gives you the idea). Carve your rabet with an x-acto knife or whatever, following the instructions above. Do this a time or two, until you get the "ah-ha!" lightbulb lit above your noggin, and then tackle the full size expensive timber. Cut a bunch of little notches along the rabet line, with the try piece as your guide for deptch and angle of the back rabet and bearding line, then connect them up in a smooth arc. It's easier to do than describe, but the little short hunk of planking stock as your thickness gauge is the key to it.
Posted by TomRobb (Member # 1216) on 05-14-2001, 08:42 AM:

Yah, exactly. What Bob said http://media5.hypernet.com/~dick/ubb/biggrin.gif

Ross M
04-11-2006, 08:54 PM
Posted by johnwill (Member # 3327) on 05-16-2001, 08:26 AM:

Have to respectfully disagree with TomRobb concerning his comment about calculating rabbet lines. I know that lofting is the traditional way, but it isn't the only way. I use a method I developed myself using a computer and Excel spreadsheet. All you need to do is plug in the offsets from the stem and stations 1 and 2 and the rabbet coordinates from the stem layout. In a very short time you have the distance from the rabbet line to the mid-line and bearding line, bearding line and mid-line coordinates, and the angles of the cuts from the rabbet line and the bearding line to mid-line. There's a little more to it than that, but it takes about 5 minutes after you have the data put in.
Is my way better? Don't know, don't care. Is it faster? It is for me. Anyone wants more details, email me.
Posted by TomRobb (Member # 1216) on 05-16-2001, 08:55 AM:

johnwill,
Once the lines are transfered to the stem or keel there's no calculating involved. Ya eyeballs the cuts as Bob et al explained rather better than I did. I suppose a CNC driven 3 axis router would profitably use the calculations. Gauge by eye works for mere mortals. I guess it depends on what sorts of resources one brings to the task.
[This message has been edited by TomRobb (edited 05-16-2001).]
Posted by johnwill (Member # 3327) on 05-17-2001, 11:31 AM:

One resource that is always good to have is an open mind.
Posted by PugetSound (Member # 2943) on 05-17-2001, 08:37 PM:

Excel spreadsheets and CNC machines are all very nice but the fact is that while most CAD/CAM programs will spline a curve (i.e. a "best fit" through a series of points) very very few are capable of the more complex requirements for FAIRING a curve. You need a good Naval Architect program for that or . . . just do it the low tech way and loft it. By the way, John, when you input the numbers from the table of offsets into the computer how do you know that they are Correct? That is, after all, why you loft in the first place.
Posted by johnwill (Member # 3327) on 05-17-2001, 10:13 PM:

Thanks for the comments and question,Puget Sound. After I put in the offsets, the points are plotted on graphs (lofted, dare I say?) for visual inspection and any required adjustment. The curve-fit equations I use are regressions already available in Excel, nothing special, but they do produce fair curves. At the end, all of the lines (rabbet, bearding, mid-line, cutting angles) are also plotted to allow for quality checking the result.
[This message has been edited by johnwill (edited 05-17-2001).]
Posted by TomRobb (Member # 1216) on 05-18-2001, 11:16 AM:

John W. I don't doubt that you have a very good idea there. It's just that my math challenged mind would be happier with the more visual approach. If I were happy messing about with equasions and XL tables, I'd be happy as a pig in poop with your method. But I know me too well to even consider it. I'm glad it works for you.
Is that open minded enough to pass muster?
Posted by johnwill (Member # 3327) on 05-18-2001, 12:09 PM:

Right you are, Tom. I just want folks to be open to considering different ideas. I'm sure traditional methods suit most people much better.
Posted by CKG (Member # 1955) on 05-21-2001, 02:48 PM:

johnwill,
Is there any way you can post an example of one of your excel spreadsheets, showing what you're talking about?
Is this stuff all by the numbers, or do you feed co-ordinates into a CAD program to produce illustrations?
I know that some tooling shops subcontracting for big boat and ship builders are generating all of the loft information needed for cutting out frames and such for plugs and molds - and they can develop incredible renderings of all views - but i never heard of anyone using excel for any of this stuff.
I can type on a computer- but thats about it. So maybe i'm missing something here. Your method sounds like a low-tech approach to a high tech thing. Sounds like it'd be worth learning excel and CAD.
CKG
Posted by johnwill (Member # 3327) on 05-23-2001, 08:45 AM:

CKG, Thanks for the comments and questions. Only Excel is used, no CAD program. I put the rabbet line, sheer line, chine line offsets into the program and it produces bearding line, mid-line, cutting angle, rabbet width etc. for each of the rabbet points on the stem layout. Also plots of all that for visual quality check.
Blue sent me his Handy Billy 18' offsets and I ran the program for him.
I tried to cut and paste a part of the results here, but the table was unreadable, since it was all mashed together. So I added the underlines to try to help.
Angle is the cutting angle and width is the distance between the rabbet and the bearding lines.
Rabbet Line_____Angle___Width___Bearding Line
Sta_____WL_______deg.____in.____Sta______WL

0.375___30______33.75___0.90____1.26____30.18
1.375___24______31.12___0.97____2.32____24.19
2.75____18______29.61___1.01____3.73____18.25
4.5_____12______28.83___1.04____5.47____12.36
7.25____6_______29.60___1.01____8.13____6.50
11.5____0_______27.51___1.08____12.26___0.77
18______-4.375__29.77___1.01____18.43___-3.47
24______-6.375__33.73___0.90____24.25___-5.51
30______-7.875__37.16___0.83____30.16___-7.06
36______-8.75___42.81___0.74____36.08___-8.02
48______-9.375__49.72___0.66____48.03___-8.72
As I told Blue, please check these numbers against traditional methods before cutting the rabbet. There is a little kink in the angle at the chine intersection, due to topside and bottom planks coming in at slightly different angles. Just blend it. Hope all this helps.

[This message has been edited by johnwill (edited 05-23-2001).]
Posted by TomRobb (Member # 1216) on 05-23-2001, 10:29 AM:

John,
I'm reasonably sure that my prejudices are obvious, but even given that, how is one to interpret that table? Am I to understand that you have a protractor ruled in hundredths of a degree and a ruler in hundredths of inches? And even if you do do you think that you could work to such tolerances with hand tools? And we won't belabor the fudge factor at the chine.... And all this without a 5-axis cnc milling machine? I, at best a wood butcher, am truely humbled before your skills http://media5.hypernet.com/~dick/ubb/frown.gif
Posted by Blue (Member # 3292) on 05-23-2001, 11:10 AM:

Thank you all for the input. As you have just seen Johnwill was kind enought to send me the results after running my numbersw throught his program. What he has shown here looks much more confusing than the true Table. I layed these numbers out on the tale and in compairing them to the points that I had previously found, I was amaised. His were right on. I faired them a bit and dug in. I have finished both sides and set the stem up with the frames. I will know alot more when i plank it but in just laying planks over to check the rabbet, it looks great.
I will let you all know how it turns out hopefully Ill know in the next few weeks. Johnwill thank you for the help, and to all the sceptics don't knock it till you try it.
Thanks for the help!
Blue
Posted by johnwill (Member # 3327) on 05-24-2001, 07:10 AM:

Tom, Excel will calculate and print out any number of decimal points you want. But it will not print out fractions. So I thought a tenth of an inch was too crude for Blue to layout the lines for his rabbet and used hundredths. You are right about the angles though, hundredths of a degree is a little overkill, forgive me. I certainly don't have the skills to carve a rabbet or even a turkey to a hundredth of a degree, never claimed to. I am pleased that Blue was able to use the data and wish him well on the rest of the boat.
Posted by TomRobb (Member # 1216) on 05-24-2001, 08:24 AM:

And it has been interesting and fun too. http://media5.hypernet.com/~dick/ubb/smile.gif