WHAT IS BLUEPRINTING?
“BLUEPRINTING” is racer slang for bringing anything like the engine block, blades or bottom of the boat to specific dimensions. When mass-producing parts, manufacturers allow some deviation from the original design specifications or “blueprints.” Racers re-machine parts to reduce these “errors,” and that process is called “blueprinting.” i.e. When a stainless wheel is investment cast, a soft wax blade set (called a “plug”) is made from a master mold. All deviations found in the original mold are transferred to each “plug.” Further, while this wax plug sits waiting for the next step (ceramic coating), gravity will slowly sag its wax blades. The time between de-molding and ceramic coating (or how long coffee break was) can affect how different each blade on a finished wheel will be from the engineer’s original design. Depending on how far off a part’s tolerances are (and in what direction), a performance gain is often realized when the deviation is reduced. At any rate, it makes for much
