Building My First RC Airboat

	Here is the wood and the plotted out templates.
	I cut the 4" wide boards into 2" wide boards. I used a sharp new utility knife. Reason I didn't use a saw is that the thickness or kerf of the saw would have made one of the boards narrower than 2".
	The templates were cut out using a straight edge and sharp X-acoto knife. Once cut out they were sprayed with an adhesive and attached to the boards. Don't wait more than a day because the adhesive will dry and it will be hard to get the template off. Ask me how I know.
	This pic shows the transom all cut out. I used a straight edge to do all big cuts. It's much easier to cut a straight line. Also clamping down on the straight edge helps keep the cut straight.
	The slots were harder to cut out with a knife, so I used the scroll saw.
	And here they are, all cut out.
	Hey, that doesn't look anything like the finished product. I did this just to test fit the pieces. They fit fine.
	I'm ready to cut out the stringers for the boat. That's a piece of 1/4" Baltic Birch. I made a template out of it to be able cut to a smooth bow curve. The paper template is ready to be glued on with adhesive spray.
	The bow curve has been very carefully cut on the scroll saw. A bit of sanding to smooth out some of the small bumps and it'll be ready to use.
	I tried cutting it with the knife. Doesn't work to good.
	As you can see, a slip of the knife and you can ruin a part. Fortunately it wasn't deep or long.
	Here's the 1/4" wood template set on the basswood to check for proper fit.
	Normally you would use "carpet tape" to temporarily hold the master template to the part to be cut. Since the "shop fairy" saw fit to hide my roll somewhere I decided to use small wire nails. Both carpet tape and wire nails can be purchased at the hardware store.
	I cut the access wood off with the scroll saw. I used one side of the foot on the scroll saw to guide me in cutting the curve. You don't want to have to much wood left to cut for the next operation.
	For cutting the curve on the second piece I used my router, router table and a flush cutting bit. I show two bits on the table. One has a top bearing and one has a bottom bearing. Although they are of different diameters, they still perform the same function. I'm going to use the cutter with the top bearing.
	Ready to cut the curve on the stringers. Unfortunately it's not very clear, but the bearing is bearing against the template on top and cutting the wood on the bottom. Make sure to cut with the grain or the wood will splinter out.
	Done. The wood with the red was cut using a utility knife, the other the router. If you are making many parts, using the router method will keep the parts close to identical as possible.
	All of the stringers and bulk heads are finished ready for, as Norm Abrams from Yankee Workshop would say, assembly. Parts are ready for a dry fit to see if they are some what close to fitting properly.
	And they do fit very nicely. Now for gluing on the bottom.
	You may have noticed in the previous picture that there is no motor tower on the stringers. I decided I was going to make them out of 1/16" thick aluminum. So I printed out another set of stringer drawings and cut them out. I cut off the stringer just short of the third bulk head. When I came up with this plan I decided to cut out four pieces and add a sandwich of wood between the two pieces of aluminum.
	Here you can see the pieces cut out and temporarily held on to the stringers by cloths pins. I used my scroll saw with a new wood blade to cut the aluminum. It's soft enough not to dull the blade to fast. Now I need to figure out how to fasten the aluminum to the wood. Several ideas have come to light. More on this later.
	Here's a closer view of the motor tower from the back. Nothing has been glued yet. The transom is just leaning against the stringers for now. I have thought for several ways to fasten the motor tower. One would be drilling a few holes and using epoxy and a second would be to use contact cement and screws with nuts on the back side. I'll have to ponder that a bit more.
	While I'm "engineering" the motor tower I decided it was time to get at least the bottom glued on. Here you see the 1/16" ply being curved to fit the curve of the stringers. I strayed the ply with water and clamped the bulkheads and stringers down. Then I put a piece of wood under the front to force the ply to bend to the shape of the curved stringers. After several hours the water had dried and the curve had partially set. Another application and it should hold it's own shape. If not I'll apply more water and let set until the shape hold it's self.
	Once I had the bottom glued on I started to work on the sides and found out there really wasn't much to glue to on the bow of the boat, so I added two more stringers, but only from the front bulk head forward. I used the same procedure as I did forming the long stringers.
	I used a piece of pine that is square to line up the stringer. This makes sure the stringer is square to the bulk head and square to the bottom. I also added a small clamp on the very end to make sure the bottom piece followed the curvature of the stringer. I applied "slo-zap CA" and let it set undisturbed for a few hours.
	This is what it looks like with the bottom glued to all of the bulkheads and stringers. I also added the engine tower, although not fastened yet to the stringers, and two small square pieces of wood from the last bulkhead to the transom, rather hard to see in this picture.
	A shot from the transom end of the boat better showing the two pieces of wood from the bulkhead to the transom. This is for the support of the wood deck that will go one later.
	Getting the sides to fit properly on the bow was going to take a bit of work. Not wanting to make mistakes on a piece of expensive ply I opted to make a template from a piece of thin card board.
	The bottom edge is lined up with the top of the bow piece and then a line is drawn that follows the contour of the bow stringer.
	Keep doing this until you have a template. . . . .
	. . . . .that fits the contour.
	Then add another piece of cardboard for the rest of the side.
	I marked the points just above the bulkheads. This gives me a rough contour line. I connected the dots and cut out the template with a pair of scissors.
	Here the template has been cut out and is being test fitted for final trim work.
	Once satisfied that the template is correct, the pattern is traced onto the ply. Then I cut it out using my scroll saw.
	Once cut out, a bit of sanding to make it fit and . . . . . .
	. . . . . we have the bottom just about done.

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