Creating the Pentagon Shape
In this step you will cut the floats lengthwise so when you reassemble them with the cut faces together you will form the pentagon shape. If you have a saw in which you can tilt the blade or table all you need to is tape down a guide 7/8” from the blade and tilt the blade away from the guide at about a 12 deg angle. With the top of the floats on the saw table cut two of the floats lengthwise starting from the nose end of the float. Cut the remaining two starting from the tail end.

If you can’t tilt your saw like by 40 year old jig saw then you will have to use shims. For 2” thick blanks tape a 1/8” thick piece of wood down on the saw table 7/8” away from the blade. (I angled the guide so the float will clear the arm that supports the blade). For the shim take a 3/8” piece of wood and tape it 1.75” away and parallel to the first piece. (If you are using 1 ½” foam then change the shim to 1/4" and put it 1 3/16" away from the 1/8"guide) Now with the top down and one side resting against 1/8” guide and the top resting on the shim cut two floats lengthwise starting from the nose end and cut the remaining two floats starting from the tail end. The halves you will be using are those that have the wider bottoms. Note the distance of the guide from the blade determines the width of the float. If you increase it by 1/8” the floats will end up about ¼” wider. If you change the distance to the guide still keep the distance between the guide and shim the same.



Squaring the Top
The next step is to square up the tops of the floats. Tape a ¾” thick piece of wood 3/16” away from the blade. Take the cut halves from above and with the cut face down and the top against the guide, cut along the length of the float to square up the top. You will notice that you will be cutting two from the nose end and two from the tail end.