quarta-feira, 10 de novembro de 2010

Taping and waiting

To align the two halves to join I used a set of small plywood squares with a 5x50 mm M5 screw across about every 1/2 meter and where it called for extra clamping pressure.
Then , after aplplying putty, I used 80mm wide tape in between the plywood pads to lock in the joint. The tape beds were previously rebated to avoid glass build up on those areas.
It seems to have worked very good.
Now the join line is ready for sanding and final taping acording to plans.
Temperatures are falling which is delaying curing.
I'm trying to get to the fairing stage which takes a long time and can be done in adverse conditions. Just hoping for a couple of days with decent weather to complete the exterior lamination.
Here the clamping pads acn be seen in more detail. It's very easy a quick to install even single handed. The use of a tubular m5 socket (?) on the power drill makes tightening the nuts much faster. In some spots it may be necessary to drill 6mm holes through the joining line if there's not enough clearance.


domingo, 7 de novembro de 2010

Getting ready to join the two halves which is the first significant millestone of the project.
I never tought I could move around so easily the port half and I was planing to get help from a couple of friends. By now I feel pretty confortable moving the stuff around. In the photo the daggerboard case can be seen already in place.
Next step is actually joining the two halves.

As a tip to level up the case on both ends I used a plywood strip ( with plastic tape!) . This way it's very easy to do the necessary adjustments at the same time as it acts as a back mold plate to stop putty from spilling out inside. Not all ideas work as planed but this one turned out to be just perfect! Simple and very efficient.
Now have a lot of taping to do along the comimg days. I hope the project keeps going as well as it's been happening until now.

quarta-feira, 3 de novembro de 2010

Trying to climb and stay up on the steep section of the hull can be a tricky business. Good solutions are straight forward. This one works very well. Several plywood boards are kind of stitched together with plastic straps and the whole set is suspended on the bow edge.
Today I wasted way too much time trying to lock in position the bow web. At first tried to use wedges but they couldn't hold position. Then I decided to drill fore holes and sandwich the web in between. By using a set of 4 nuts on each screw it was very easy and reliable to level the web. It worked just perfect.
On the underside I used a 5mm drill bit as a spacer to garanty center alignment since I lined up the bottom face of the template with the centerline of the hull.
The corrugated tube is .... well... a head bump saver!




segunda-feira, 1 de novembro de 2010

Productive weekend

The weekend has been quite productive. Since I had borrowed a laser from a local plaster wall company I wasn't sure if I had enough time to do all the alingment needed before having to turn it back. Fortunately Monday is a national holiday and the extra time really come in handy.
All simetrical parts have been aligned.

I put some foam on the main hatch edges since I was getting tired to bang my head ( ouch!) everytime I climbed in and out.
This laser is excellent. It has two cross lines ( vertical and horizontal) and four point markers on the plane perpendicular to the cross lines. I couldn't ask for more. It even comes with a great tripod. Nevertheless I still insisted on the plumb line as a complement to line up the bulkhead center holes.