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Interior forward beam bulkhead laminations complete

May 2nd, 2010

Apparently I forgot to take any pictures of the mold-plate we used around the forward beam bulkhead to form the uni-directional lamination.  It consisted of some very thin wood-laminate from an old cabinet project and on the sharper radius bends towards the bunk-top, some of the black-plastic lawn trim.

We did the uni-directional and inside B-spec cloth last night, followed by some sanding/grinding this morning after removing the mold plates.  The areas right next to the bunk-top are extremely difficult to laminate, but I think it should hold together just fine.

Here’s the bulkhead looking forward with the perimeter laminate curing.  It will get trimmed to 2″ wide once fully cured.

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Here is a quick-shot of the rudder-web and stern-deck dry-fit.  Still need to cut out the notch at the scoop for the rudder, then laminate the starboard-side stern deck and rudder web in place.

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Author: Ed Categories: Main Hull

Finally back to work

April 21st, 2010

Been a while… too long…  For various reasons there was a pause in boat-building, but hopefully now we’re back.

Was a short weekend but got the cockpit panels (wet and dry) laminated and taped in place.  Decided on putting the safety compartment on the port side.

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Next steps will be to fair and prime/paint the inside of the cockpit areas while we have access, then make the seat tops and put in place.

The forward beam bulkhead is prepped and ready for the massive perimeter lamination on the inside, so that should be a fun mess.

Author: Ed Categories: Main Hull

Forward beam mount lamination – part 1

November 6th, 2009

… or…  That’s a lot of fabric!

We did the forward side of both forward beam mounts late last night – I don’t have a picture of it due to lighting, but it was a long 3 hours in a pretty cramped space.  If you’ve thought about putting in the anchor-well before laminating this area – DON’T! :)  I’m very glad we haven’t installed it yet.

The following two pictures are of the unidirectional fabrics and compression pad hard-wood.  The only fabric missing from the picture are the sheets of C-spec (8 pieces) since they were below-deck, but you can get an idea of just how much fabric is used for this.  This also does not include the fabric required for the perimeter “flange” around the bulkhead or bolt-hole “doublers”…

yeah… it’s a lot of fabric… :)

We’re going to laminate the aft side this evening and I’ll make sure to take some pictures then.

Unidirectional fabric for forward beam mounts Fabric and compression pads for forward beam mounts
Author: Ed Categories: Main Hull

Cockpit work and starting on the forward beam mounts

November 2nd, 2009

Been slow going, but I took this week off from work to hopefully get “caught up” on things.

Last time we managed to get the forward beam compression area formed up and laminated

Forward beam compression area Forward beam compression area

This was relatively straight-forward after confirming with Ian that the portion of the former that protrudes into the hull can be sanded more “flush” with the interior before laminating.   The former is cut straight (90 degrees) relative to the beam mount, but the interior has an angle at this area.

Took some “core samples” of the cockpit area by drilling the drain holes for the two “wet” compartments we’ll have and cutting out an area for the safety hatch (went with 8″ Beckson)

Safety hatch and drain Aft beam mount and drain

Finally, dad built the mold for the companion-way area and we laminated that with peel-ply on the inside (on top of the taped wood mold) since grinding that would prove difficult (or impossible).  Also put peel-ply on the outside.

Companion-way trim

Decided to pull the mold out while the epoxy was still slightly “green” – was a good idea since it was a difficult release.  The bottom mold is still in place until cured as I’ll need to trim the fiberglass first since it covered up the screws (oops).  We’ve decided to let the flange go down further than the plans specify to give an area to route wiring if needed.  Will do the inside part of the lamination either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Author: Ed Categories: Main Hull

Port-aft beam mount laminated

October 6th, 2009

These pictures are from two weekends ago;  everything has been slow going the past 2 months.  Dad had some stuff come up that kept him unable to work on the boat for about 6 weeks.  We managed to get this “little” bit done, and now I’ve come down with a nasty case of strep throat for the past week that isn’t reacting to antibiotics so I’m going back to the doctor tomorrow.  Needless to say, it will probably be at least another week before there’s another update.

Whew…  so all that being said, here’s what we did manage to accomplish last time :)

Dad built the mold plates for the aft beam mounts and we got everything situated on the port side.  Here’s a view from the outside

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and here’s what part of the inside looks like

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It took me a little longer than I had hoped to get all the fillets cleaned up (some of them are quite thick and you must go a little at a time to avoid kicking it off)

Here are the laminates for the port-aft beam mount

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and finally the results after slaving away for quite some time

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It actually all went together relatively easily.  I will share a piece of advice that might be obvious to most of you, but escaped both of us at the time — laminate the aft side of the mount first!  I did the forward side first and found myself having to contort every way possible to laminate the aft side because of the epoxy-goo.  Do yourself a favor and do the “hard” side first ;)

Author: Ed Categories: Main Hull