Building the Tank Plug #1

Here are some pictures from the early stages of the gas tank mold building process.  I worked out all of the dimensions in Adobe Illustrator and printed templates to use for cutting out the various pieces that will make up the skeleton of the mold plug.  I built a mockup version using old scrap pine to see I needed to adjust any of my dimensions.  I'm building the final plug skeleton out of oak.

Here is the template for one half of the tank base.

The template has been traced and the locations of the "ribs" have been transferred.

2 pieces were screwed together and cut out as one to ensure that they are
symmetrical.  I cleaned up the curve using the sanding disc on the table saw.

I drilled all of the holes while the pieces were still together.  I used a drill press
this time around to avoid some of the accuracy issues I ran into with the mockup.

I cut our each of the ribs pairs using the same process as I did for the base.

Here is basically what the rib setup will look like.

In the mackup I used the same 3/4" boards that I did for the ribs and base but
it created too much of a flat spot long the spine of the tank so for this version
I'm using 1/4" thick oak.  Unfortunately our local Home Depot only sells it in
5 1/2" wide boards so I'm just using some scrap prices to bridge them together.

Here is the spine after cutting and sanding.

Everything fits very well, the benefits of doing a mockup version first.