Letting water off a tug's deck

[meechingman]

It was a breezy day at the pond yesterday with a lot of water breaking over both my tugs as they headed into wind and waves. [Sod's law says that just as I was packing up the sun came out and the wind dropped to nothing!]

One of my tugs has no way of letting shipped water off the after deck, so I need to cut some holes in the bulwarks for this (the other tug had slots already cut). Any suggestions on the best way to go about this with limited tools. I suppose I could just drill out some simple holes, but how do you cut nice even slots- and what tools are best for the job?

Thanks
Andy

[Kmot]

Determine what the size of your slot will be. For sake of discussion, let's say 1/8" high x 3/8" wide. Get a 1/8" drill bit. Half that bits dimension is 1/16", so mark your slot on your tug and make the line you draw 3/8" long, exactly. Now measure in 1/16" from each end of the line, and make a dimple mark with a punch. Now you can start your hole with the drill. But start small first, maybe a 1/16" bit, then step up to a 3/32" bit, then finally the 1/8" bit. Now you have two 1/8" holes spaced apart so the total width is 3/8". Draw two lines, top and bottom to mark your total height limit. At this point, you can punch and then drill another hole in the middle or just start cutting the material away. In either case, the idea is to cut away the material in-between the two outer holes being careful to not go outside your 1/8" height limit. Cut inside the lines, and finish with a small needle file.

[LtDoc]

Andy,
The quick-n-dirty answer is, "very carefully!" - lol. About the only thing I'd add to 'Kmot's suggestion is to make the bottom of the cut-out level with the deck. How you go about cutting the holes is up to you, what you are comfortable with. I've found that with the way I tend to do things, starting at deck level then working 'up' means more uniform cut outs. Slow and easy beats too fast almost every time. Good luck!
- 'Doc

[jerryj98501]

If you want, do a search for "scupper jig" in the scale part of the web site and you will see some fixtures for doing this or get an idea of how to go about cutting the outlets. Jerry J

[Ghost 2501]

It was a breezy day at the pond yesterday with a lot of water breaking over both my tugs as they headed into wind and waves. [Sod's law says that just as I was packing up the sun came out and the wind dropped to nothing!]

One of my tugs has no way of letting shipped water off the after deck, so I need to cut some holes in the bulwarks for this (the other tug had slots already cut). Any suggestions on the best way to go about this with limited tools. I suppose I could just drill out some simple holes, but how do you cut nice even slots- and what tools are best for the job?

Thanks
Andy

drilling holes in it is EXACTLY how I did the same on my Graupner Neptun, using a 4mm drill bit, having them Round is perfectly adequate

[t00fatt]

You could always buy a dremel, by far my favorite tool in the shop. 1,000,000 uses and counting.