Railing construction on Dutch VOC using AutoCAD and 3D printing

[Johnny Mike]

I started building the railing on the Batavia a stick at a time and finding it very difficult

to get the pieces cut to the length, the correct angle with the deck and equally 

spaced. And I just was not happy with the glue joints I had on all these small individual pieces, up to 13 per section.

Plus it took forever to do each assembly. I tried to build the assembly then fasted to the deck and build

each rail piece by piece on the ship.

Then I thought if I drew the rail assembly on Auto cad I could get all the angles, lengths and spacing

exactly correct and print it 1/1 scale. I could cut it out check the layout by placing it on the deck for accuracy.

This worked great I could check out everything about the fit and look of the railing complete.

Then I could use the cutout to lay the parts on before gluing them together on the template. This worked

also and I had an exact rail assembly I could mount in place.

 

I have use of a 3D printer and thought why not print out each assembly using my drawing.

I had found some newer print material that looked and felt like wood and printed them out.

They look exactly like wood with perfect joints. 

 

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20250517_101404.pdf