Friday, March 28, 2008

waxed and ready

I think this is turning into a way for me to summarise my days work, so i can swich off and so it doesnt keep me up half the night planning anf recapping. and mistyping.

anyway i thought id get the foil laid up today, but kinda ran out of time and oomph.

made a last minute alteration to the mould; something id been planning to do but forgot about. its made out of some thin acrylic filled with araldite/Q-cells, took 5 minutes to set. stoked. i wanted it to be quick as at that point i still thought id be putting some carbon down over it tonight.

Its there to create the gap between the foil and the flap, so i dont have to cut a gap and thus stuf up the carbon skin. also last time i had to reinforce the centre of the flap from the outside after id made the cut, this time i can do it from the inside and it will all be flush. saved some time. its a bit rough cos i didnt sand it at all, just chucked wax straight on, but itll do. may have to bog the foil slightly (probably will anyway, as the fibres wont want to bend around, and i dont have a vacuum set up yet.)


Came to the realisation that i should have wet out the flap hinge in position in the mould, and stuck the plastic spacer strip on it there too. now i have to glue it in with PVA, and glue the spacer onto it. hopefully the mould type PVA will stick it. I wasnt organised yesterday to do that, so it never would have happened, but for next time...

Also completed step 2 of the cams, ill see how they come out tomorrow. ill bake them with the foil so ill post a photo of the finished product. i think they will be ok.

The carbon is now cut out too. its such a shame to cut up those big perfect sheets, but you gotta grit your teeth and do it. and hope you get it right. the hull became a pretty good bench, at 21kg bare, i think it is almost better as a bench than as a hull. anyway thats a couple of projects down the track. Oh also i cut a hole in the hull that i really shouldnt have cut... more on that later.

Finally i just want put it out there and say thanks to Andrew and Scott at CG composites for being so helpful with the resin and reinforcements, bog, glue, and peel ply etc. and to Mel and Miller and David at Glascraft Marine for putting up with my crap. From those two places i've been able to get 90% of the materials I need to keep this project going, and some good sound (and patient) advice, which has probably been the diference between a semi success (so far) and a complete cock-up. also Bretts/Bunnings you're both wankers, though 'Tube Sales' at Yatala i like.

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