2x4 RC Sailboat

Hello and welcome to my instructable. Lets make a remote control boat out of a single 2x4. Please consider voting for me in the One Board Contest.

To construct your boat you will need the following tools and materials.

·       2x4x8 board

·       Wood glue

·       Clamps

·       Belt Sander

·       Table saw

·       Pencil

·       Brass eyelet screws

·       2 water proof servos

·       RC Receiver and transmitter

·       Wood screws

. zip ties

·       Drill

Cut two lengths of the 2x4 and glue them on top of each other. Clamp down the boards and allow them to dry as per your wood glues instructions. I cut my boards to 20 inches but you can make your boat any size.

Start by marking the rough shape of your boats hull on the boards with a pencil. I looked at some common sailboat designs to get a reference. After marking, remove as much wood as possible from your block with a table saw or band saw. The goal is to leave the curve you've drawn intact. After making the rough cuts smooth the block of wood with a belt sander to reach the curve you have drawn. After roughing out the bow and stern of the sailboat I cut the bottom of the hull with two 45 degree angles forming a rough trapezoid.. It's important that the bottom of the hull is flat so that it can be clamped securely to a table for the next step.

Sketch out a rough pattern on the top of the hull making sure to leave about a 4mm gap from the edge. You don't want to punch through the hull with the router! After sketching, securely clamp the hull to a workbench and use a router to hollow out the hull. Remember to increase the bit depth incrementally to reduce strain on your router. As you get deeper into the hull stop periodically to check how close you are to the outer edge of the hull. I hollowed out the inside of the top board but only a small amount of the bottom board. I did this to provide ballast to the boat.

Late into the build I decided I didn't like the shape of my boats stern so I cut it at a steeper angle and used a belt sander to smooth out all of the sharp edges. I rolled the hull back and forth over the belt sander checking often to make sure that the hull is as symmetrical as possible. Over time the rough lines disappear. The goal is to look more like Game Cube graphics than N64 graphics ;)

Using cutoffs from the hull I created a rudder and secured it to the stern with a wood screw. I drilled a hole in the stern large enough to allow the wood screw to rotate freely, but not fall through. Then I cut off three pieces of scrap wood and glued one of them to a servo horn and the other to the rudder. Then I used small brass eyelet screws to attach all three sticks together. I experimented with servo placement until I was able to make the servo move the rudder in both directions. Then I glued the servo in place and secured it with screws.

I shaped a long piece of scrap wood from the hull to create the mast. I sanded it into a shape that I liked and drilled a hole close to the bow of the sailboat. Then I secured the mast in this hole with wood glue. Next I used another scrap of wood to create the boom of the sail. I secured it to a servo horn with glue and zip ties. I then glued the second servo to the hull as close to the mast as possible. In this design the boom is not actually attached to the mast but rather placed close to it and moved via the servo. After the mast was done I used a bit of cloth to make a sail. I sewed a quarter inch sleeve to hold the sail to the mast, but glue would work as well. I added an eyelet to stop the sail from tearing and used some string to tie the end of the sail to the end of the boom. Make sure the sail is high enough on the mast to prevent it from tangling with the servo.

I applied some finishing oil to the wood to give it a nice color. Once that was dry I applied several coats of urethane to prevent the hull from becoming water logged. When that was dry I installed a receiver and battery and was ready to set sail! I hope this inspires you to go make something. I have been feeling stressed with school lately and working on this sailboat has been very relaxing, there's something special about woodworking!