in a vacuum formed hull, I want to add a cabin sole. I guess I could measure down from the top of the hull.

Q: is there a better way?

thanks

Assemble the hull and make it watertight.

Block the hull in such a way that the hull is sitting level as if it were afloat in calm waters (or chalked in a dry dock.)

Now fill the inside of the hull with water up to the level of the desired sole, yet to be constructed, and mark the floor line on the inside of the hull using the water level as an indicator.


If you have a drill press:

Block the hull as stated above. Then chuck a pencil into the drill press and lock the press at the appropriate depth so the tip of the pencil is at the desired level of the sole. Then slide the blocked hull around on the drill press table (being careful to keep it level) to allow the pencil to mark a level line on the inside of the hull.

perfect! thank you. it's a static model so I will use suggestion #2. appreciated.

In aircraft design they (at least used to) call this "lofting a line". Meaning to place repetitive lines, or two duplicate mirror image lines, within a 3 dimensional volume of space (as in a hull or fuselage) and do it precisely.

Machinists will often use a perfectly flat, machine ground, "stage" similar to the table on your drill press. To this they will magnetically attach an adjustable mechanical "finger" and set it at a given height. This finger can be arranged to arch over the side of your hull and reach into the interior while holding itself at a pre-set height. This would allow them to mark a straight and level sole line on one side of the hull interior and then move the entire arrangement to the the other side of the model hull and mark the exact same line on the opposite side of the hull.

I think you guys are on to me. as I pondered how much stuff I would need to move getting to my drill press under the workbench, I spied my seldom used surface gauge.

I think a pencil or fine-line sharpie, taped to the bent point end, will do just what I need.

thanks for making me think outside of my box.

. . . . now I think you are onto me! ;-).

Did not know if you would know what a surface gauge was.

So I kinda snuck up on the idea.

Best of luck on the model. Enjoy!

I sort of knee-jerked at a Micro-Mark tool sale thinking "hey - I could really use one of those" and there it's sat for about 3 years. now I really can!