Another Day

Spent my free time today pulling the staples out of the deck mould. I used a pair of 45deg wiring pliers, they worked great because I could use a rocking motion to pop them instead of a brute force jerking motion. I would recommend them to anyone who ever needs to pull a couple thousand of those little bastards.


I also got a chance to nest the foredeck stanchions, so after I PDF them it's another trip to Kinko's. (then more fun with saws)

Done........(with wood)

I finished off the stripping on the stern VAC area. I tried to bend a piece of ply in there, but no go.


Did the same on the bow. Still have to trim the stripping and sand down the front plate.


Here's the whole plug, ready to get all the staples pulled and all the ends trimmed. Then hauled up the mountain to be sanded and filled and glassed and faired. More to come soon.

Upside down (or right side up) depending

The deck plug from the underside (Bow). I glued on the side vac decks, and I'm working on decks for the bow sides.


Here's one from the stern, the structure turned out well I think, not super heavy like the hull plug, but nice and strong for its weight.


A closer view of the stripped bow vac decks, its harder than it looks to get those strips to bend into there without cracking. I originally tried to bend a one piece side onto this area, but it snapped. More of the same (the other side) tomorrow.

just some pics......

Finished off the stern strips, now its time to move on to mounting the side vac decks, and of course, every one's favorite part, pulling the staples.

Wait, there's more.....

Now that I'm back up to speed with Rhino and in a drawing mood, I've decided to start spitting out the changes/improvements that have been kicking around in my head. Change number one, the original rack (above), the plan was to have this adjust from 180cm out to 2.5m, But I think it was a hair brained pet idea that really wouldn't prove to be worth the trouble.





Here is the NON-adjustable rack that will be going on the boat. Much simpler and lighter than the original adjustable design. It's fixed at 2m wide, that's 62cm (about 2 feet ) to the gunnel, (slightly more than a Musto skiff), not to close but definitely a doable step distance. I beefed up the tubing a little bit as well (63.6mmod foot tubes, 45mmod stump, 57.6mmod side struts, and35.6mmod stump compression struts, all 1.8mm wall). There is less of it so it should save some on weight. I think its a better design. Feel free to tell me what you think of the changes. (Not to be a spoiler, but coming soon: a reverse transom and a new cooler gantry).

Foredeck.....

No "physical" work today, but I did finally draw my foredeck plug. Its been so long since I used Rhino OSX that I had to mess around for a while and figure it out again. Its been updated like 15 times so some of the tools had moved and some of them did different things than they used to. Oh well, the joys of software development, anyway, I got the drawing done. Now I have to do the nesting for Kinko's and convert it to windows PDF files. Its almost time for yet another build.

2/3rds Done......

I cut some strips this morning, I only ended up needing 4 1/2 more 1'' strips. It went together pretty quickly after that. Just have to mount the side and stern strips and it will be time to start pulling staples, sanding, and bogging again.

Today

I stapled another couple of strips on the deck mould, then ran out of strips, I knew I hadn't cut enough. So tomorrow I need to cut some more. I got home and my arm was feeling a little better, so I went out and sanded fiberglass for a couple hours. Its looking so good, I'm not sure if I shouldn't skip the last fairing/filler coat and just move on to Duratec ( I'm pretty sure I wont skip it though, but it does seem a shame to take a smooth surface and put another coat of goo on it, just so I can sand it off again)

Deck hand

Made some progress on the deck portion of the project. I need to take a break from the hull plug, I somehow pulled a muscle sanding so need to take some time off to let it heal. But its not like I don't have a million other things to work on in the mean time.

The end is near

So after waiting most of the day for the slow cure epoxy to finish hardening, I was able to get out and do a little sanding. I was impressed with my glasswork, no bubbles, no puddles, so I guess I did OK. Sanded the flat decking area's and the glass seams with 80 grit on the orbital, then used the fairing board on the bottom of the hull to smooth that out, I still need to sand the sides, but its looking good. I'm not sanding all the way to smooth, but just taking the roughness off and leaving a slightly textured surface. When I'm done with that I plan to brush on one final coat of filler compound (4:1 epoxy/qcells) and than do the final sanding before the primer coat. (I'm planning to wait till all the moulds are ready for primer so I can do them all in one messy paint session). More sanding tomorrow. I know I'm taking a long time, and that I could probably skip some of these steps, but I'm basically doing this on my own, learning as I go. I'm one who thinks the process is just as, if not more important than the result, and I'm enjoying every little step along the way. If my moulds are perfect, the boat will be to. I see the development of this boat as the development of myself.

Kickin Glass and Takin Names......

What a day. Sanded the taped seams and decided it was a good day to lay glass, so I got everything ready and went for it. Its 12am and I just finished, I'm going to pay for it tomorrow. (This evening session sponsored by Monster Energy Drink, now if it would just wear off so I could go to sleep)



Layed out the 6oz glass, I'm glad I took so much time pre-fairing, look how OCD perfect the shape is. Watched a couple of youtube video's about fiber glassing boats then went to town. (I've done a ton of glass work, but never something this big)



I'm glad I bought Slow-cure epoxy, because it took me forever to wet the whole thing out. Now its sitting in the oven and should be cured by tomorrow afternoon. I "borrowed" this mould process from Bill Beaver of "Hungry Beaver" Moth fame, now I need to get in touch with him to see what the best way to prep the glass is before I apply the sandable primer (Duratec) finish.

More staples......

Ready for strips. This is as far as I got on the deck mould because I didn't have any building materials, but I did get a chance to go pick up a sheet of plywood. I hope to cut it up on Monday and get to glueing and stapling again ASAP.

Glass Tape

I epoxied on some 6oz glass tape over the bottom/side seams last night (I sanded a lot on that area, so I felt I should add some extra reinforcement). I'm going to sand and fair the tape in preparation for 6oz glass over the whole mould. I also started skinning the deck mould today, I should have pictures of that tomorrow.

update.....

I've been out of town so not a lot of boat stuff has gotten done, but I've been studying wing shapes and things of that nature, so making mental progress at least. There is something about sitting on an airplane at 20,000 ft, reading a book on fluid dynamics and looking out the window at the wing to see exactly how it works. I would recommend this to anyone looking into this sort of thing, it makes all the concepts very easy to understand.

And I have settled on a boat name............

Futurist Manifesto

Background Link [HERE]

Fair Enough.

Here is where the hull plug is at, I'm not sanding it anymore, the seams are getting taped and the glass is going on. I'm glad I'm making moulds, because it's giving me the skills I'm going to use on the boat itself, so instead of messing up the hull, I'll be all practiced up.



The deck mould is coming along, I should be skinning it in no time. I like its smooth organic shape.

look........

Started on the deck mould as something small to do on my lunch break, its a lot smaller and easier than the hull.... Its going together easier than the first one, I have gained some knowledge from the process, should have built the deck first before the hull, but that wouldn't have kept my interest. Anyway, I'm going to glue in all the ribs then take it home for skinning. Should be sand it and forget it. And of course sanding has comtinued on the plug, Ive got my fiberglass, just waiting for the pre-fair to be done. Then I'm going to tape the seams, fair them in, and lay the glass skin. I'll keep you posted.