I have been taking pictures of everything i am building. Here is a series of pictures for the past 4 weeks. Progress is steady but I would really like to put the turbo on and go sailing soon...
Cutting beam sides with MDF template:
Using my own templates to cut as many parts as possible. The way Ray Kendrick designed his floats creates an enormous number of small parts. I redid the nesting completely. I now only need 32 sheets of corecell instead of 41!!!
Cutting parts. These are beam ends doublers:
A pile of parts:
I end up with lots of small bits and pieces. I break many of them as a quality check of my panels:
Rolling epoxy on another panel. I am now only using a squeegy and an aluminum compacting roller:
Removing the breather/bleeder from a panel. I loose a lot of epoxy in this. I think I would waste less if I was using resin infusion for my big panels:
Close-up of a corner of a big panel. The top peel ply has been riped off. The shiny section is where the peel ply was off to the side. It is hard to align all the different layers accurately when I am laminating the panel so sometime this happens. It does not matter as long as most of the panel is made right:
Verifying the full size paper templates. They are very very accurate:
I am using carbon paper attached to a piece of carboard to slide it under the paper template. I then use a ruller and a pen to trace over the template and transfer the lines to the panel. It works like a charm but it takes about one hour per hull panel. I tried the method of poking holes through the paper but it does not work, the holes being invisible on the peel ply of the part:
Cutting hull panels with a jigsaw. I wear a dust mask and ear plugs. My wife hates the noise that it makes! I use 2" thick cheap blue foam as a spacer between the panel and the table and cut right through, works like a charm:
First float panels bananas:
More bananas!:
Bonding 2 layers of 600 gsm DB glass on float bulkheads. This is not as specified. Look at the small compacting roller:
Using the squooygee on another panel. Look at my gloves! They are the best, I hate the condom like ones...:
Checking for air leaks on a new panel being born. Check out the big breather material roll on the left:
Cutting strips for the float shelves. I am not following the plans here as the method was way too wastefull:
8 strips for 2 floats ready to have their edges "raked" and filled with putty:
Using a nylon wire wheel to dig out about 10mm of foam from the edges. This is AWFULL. If you ever do that, use a dust mask and a good fan. The dust is not too bad but the foam heats up and the fumes are not pleasant anymore after a few HOURS:
Applying the putty (looks like...) on the strip edges. It takes a few liters. This is heavy, slow and expensive. I am sure Ray Kendrick will come up with a better concept:
Another panel being vacuum-bagged:
Cutting panel and tracing cabin side with paper template:
Lets go sailing!!!:
Laminating a bid fiberglass sheet for the beam caps:
That's it for now!
Next pictures will be cutting up this sheet and then float assembly!