ready-set-glass

One interesting reality about building a Cat is that you tend to learn a little bit each time you do something. Since cats have two of a lot of things, the second piece of work that you produce sometimes ends up being nicer than the first........of course, that's not always the case.

Here, the small tidbit of knowledge I learned about laminating the centerboards is that having the glass pre-cut and ready for layup should make the process go quicker.

So......the first board took a solid 8 to 10 hours of flittering about; cutting glass, mixing and rolling epoxy and donning numerous sets of gloves....... Tomorrow I plan on vac bagging the second board and we'll see how long it takes.

Upper center: 30 layers of uni
center: 1 glassed board 1 to go
lower left:  12 oz biaxial
lower right:  4 pieces of 24 oz tri.

The unfinished board

This photo shows a few details that are important to the workings of the centerboard system. 1) the upper flat part of the board 2) the unidirectional glass along the center 3) the taper on the trailing edge where the board will exit the slot and 4) the trailing edge indentation that allows the glass to bond together before the actual trailing edge. ( the groove will later be filled and tapered with micro balloon / epoxy mix )

Success

Opening the present.

ugly post cure oven

Improvised post cure oven......not too pretty but when the ends are covered the temp inside this simple enclosure tops 120 deg.

Board in the bag

Perfect vacuum from an imperfect vacuum pump.

glassing the port board

This is the beginning stages of what became a solid 8 hour session of laying glass, mixing and rolling epoxy, and vac bagging the port side centerboard.  Notice the kevlar insert along the leading edge......just in case. The schedule for the boards went like this: 

1) 24 oz tri axial glass over all
2) 15 layers 12 oz uni glass down the center line.
3) 24 oz tri axial glass over all
4) kevlar along the leading edge.
5) 12 oz. bi axial glass over all

Then the vac bag process......

6) laying peel ply over it all
7) covering the board with perf.
8) covering the entire board with breather
9) sealing the whole deal in the bag.
10) building an insulated "oven" around the bag with a 1500W heater to post cure.
11. Turning on the vacume pump and watching oil pour out of my very expensive Robin-Air Vacuum pump.@@$(^&#$*#&@*;;;!!!

YIKES.....!!!!!!..  Have no Idea why the pump blew a seal but all I could do was to place the pump over a barrel and spend the rest of the night adding oil as it leaked out..........

Uni for the boards

This is what 60 lbs of 12oz. Uni-directional glass looks like.