Stan Kern - Sail Boat

I have been in the furniture building and design business since 1972 and have always drawn up my own plans. In 2008 I purchased the 4x8 CNC machine with a router 3.25 hp and then added a fourth axis myself for Rockwell lathe (indexer).

My interests are in computers and woodworking, CNC brings that all together, so it was a perfect fit for me.

We wanted to hear more about why he decided to create the boat…

I was looking for something large enough to use and utilize the 4 drawing boards I have, so a boat came to mind as it is the right kind of size and as I have made three boats before I have insight into what worked well in the past.

After coming up with the idea and getting the materials together, Stan went to work planning and designing the project…

For the design of the boat, I used some 1950 pdf plans I had of the boat I wanted to make. To digitize the plans, I printed them out full size and traced around them on John Walsh’s Logic Group drawing boards (4 of them called jumbo boards). This enabled me to output them as *.dxf files which I could then import into the Vectric software for cutting on the CNC. In the software, I nested all the various parts to be cut to make the best use of the material.

The materials I used for the project were: oak plywood, fir plywood, basswood, and spruce all from local source and stock inventory.

Stan then went onto talking about cutting the project…

I do not run my CNC machine at full speed as I own it and do not want to break it for the sake of running it at full speed. I normally cut my projects slowly at around 70-80 in/min and the speed at 19000 rpm which works for me. I normally use a ¼ USA end mills solid carbide bit for cutting projects.

Stan explained why he did not apply any finish to the boat and if there was anything he would have done differently…

The whole idea of the project was to show the drawing digitized and converted to cad (dxf format) to create a toolpath to cut the parts. This is why I took the project to 75% to show this process.

Looking back, I would not do anything differently. This was the fourth boat I have drawn up, digitized the plans and cut the parts on the CNC and it all went to plan.

We then asked Stan if he has any tips or advice to fellow makers…

If you want to trace and digitize plans, then using the drawing board is a very easy and efficient way to output them as *.dxf files. These files can then be easily edited and checked using Aspire.

I have found Aspire to be very good for what I do which includes: plasma cutting, cutting vinyl graphics, CO2 laser cuts and using the CNC router. Aspire saves me from learning many pieces of software for various machines and tasks.

Stan’s hard work has clearly paid off and shows in this project and hopefully many more to come. Before we let him go, we asked Stan what plans he had for the future…

I also wanted to share a full-sized 10.5 hands high wooden horse I built, drew, and cut out using a similar process to the boat. I called her “Penetangore”, she is now on a small farm!

As for my next project, I am considering a European rowboat if I can find some good plans or diagrams.

We wanted to say a huge thank you to Stan for taking the time to talk to us about his project so that we could inspire our community to try something new. If you have a story you would like us to feature, please get in touch, simply email online@vectric.com. We would love to hear from you.