Spinning the bow pole

it's pretty amazing what can be done with the judicious use of clamps.  Seen here is  an embarrassing arrangement of clamps that allowed me to spin the bow beam so that a final carbon braid sleeve could be applied and wrapped with shrink tape. The horizontal clamp provided a method of adjusting the RPM of the tube.

starboard aft cabin top

The aft cabin tops become an integral part of the sail handling system so it' important to anticipate mounting positions of the hardware. Here, I've laid down a few layers of 32 oz.Tiraxial glass reinforcement panels over the high density inserts, pulling the glass down and around the corners of the structure so that the forces applied to the winches and rope clutches will be distributed to a large area.  I plan on covering the layers with full large lengths of 32 oz. triaxial glass all at the same time. Unfortunately, the heat build in the shop till late in the evening so I am forced to begin the lamination in the evening as things cool down.  Even with the "slow" hardener, I don't like to feel like I'm trying to beat the clock, so working on the trailing edge of the heat seems to work out better during the summer.

port side rudder box panels

.......on to boxing in the port side kick up rudder box panels. It still surprises me that this involves dealing with twenty two individual panels in all.  After this vac bag batch, I'll have all panels needed to box them all in.

Here's a shot of the aft cross beam final exterior lamination.  Again, the process that I settled in on is pre-cut the glass, put it in place, flap a portion back onto itself then roll out the epoxy, flap the portion back down and roll a good coat over the top then do the same to the other portion, place peel ply over the lot and squeegee all excess to the sides.

paper patterns

After trimming about 10 panels in an unusual way, I discovered that it was fairly simple to tack butcher paper in place with a few trim nails and use a box knife to cut out the pattern and transfer the pattern to the foam.

Self made Bow poles

Done.......now I guess I'll go out and buy myself $8,500 dollars worth of  TV dinners with all the money I saved......maybe I'll even get the kind that has the baked in brownie desert.

Then.....

pull the tube off the mandrel with my 1955 TO35 Fergusen Tractor  

Carbon over plastic lined PVC

The trick for me to insure that the tube will slide off the mandrel is to tape a thin sheet of plastic in place over the mandrel.

Post cure oven

Dig this custom post cure oven......

Vac Bag Bow pole

I then rolled two raps of 45-45 12 oz DB carbon then six wraps of Uni Carbon, sheathed this with a 12 oz DB braid and vac bagged the lot over the PVC mandrel.

Bow pole

Self reliance has gotten the best of me....  Upon hearing a quote from the local composite tube supplier saying " you're not gonna find anyone who will build the bow tubes for under $10K" ,  I said to my self........"Self" ...I'll build them for free. + materials.

Since Boeing decided to build it's Dreamliner out of carbon, material cost alone for the bow poles comes in at $1400. So..... if I pay myself zero dollars per hour, It makes good business since to build my own tubes. 

First step was to build a nice table that would allow me to roll the carbon onto ready made mandrels.  I built a couple of articulating "L" brackets that I could operate with a foot pedal and would allow me to handle the rolling process by myself.  I trimmed schedule 40 PVC pipe down to the  correct diameter by slicing a segment out and taping the seam back with 3M packing tape.  This allowed me to create a custom mandrel diameter for very little cost.  

a few tools

While working on the starboard rudder box I noticed that the shop floor looked like a bowl of spaghetti.  I looked up and realized I was using eleven power tools at the same time.

Protective suit

While working with epoxy, it is important to wear protective clothing. Here I am with my full anti static chemical suit with hood and boots.  Being of small stature, I find that is sometimes difficult to work with the hood covering my arms.

blogger issues

For some reason my server is rejecting photo uploads.  Not sure why.

kjkh

boxing in the kick up steps

You wouldn't think it but it takes over ten individual panels to box in each kick up rudder assembly. The panels shown here will get bonded into the openings in the stern and four more are needed to box in the sides of the steps. The tenth panel will be the horizontal bulkhead that will support the upper rudder bearing.

chopping the starboard boarding steps

I've chosen to build the under slung kick up rudders.  I chose this over dagger board rudders to minimize the chance of sucking air down the rudders and reducing the effectiveness of the rudders at speed. Having experienced this as windsurfer this usually results in a "spin out". In the case of a cat this would just result in a little induced drag.  Truth be told, I just like the clean, functional lines of unobstructed boarding steps

port side boarding steps

Before mixing any epoxy, I've draped a single length of 34oz.triaxial glass cloth over the two aft boarding steps and trimmed it to fit.. I then marked the corners of each step with a sharpy so that I can lift the glass up to roll on a good coat of epoxy. I then laid the fabric back in place, rolled on another coat of epoxy and topped it all off with peel ply.

baby birds

 In preparation for glassing the cabin top and decks, I'm spending a little extra time and effort making sure that all surfaces are as clean and smooth as possible.  Notice the thick plastic that I had to put up over the rafters of the shop. With spring and summer comes baby birds and mother birds spreading lots of used bugs and worms all over the place. Now the birds can go about their business without spoiling the decks. As much as I dislike the mess, I just don't have it in me to outcast a nest of baby birds.  

100 percent certianty

The carbon fiber chain plates are in the bag and it's nice to know with 100 percent certainty that all reinforcements are fully saturated.  This vac bag session involved laying 34 pieces of both glass and unidirectional carbon fiber. The key to being able to manage such an involved process is all in the preparation.   Before the first batch of epoxy was mixed, I measured and cut each piece of fabric and laid them out on a clean table in the order in which they were to be applied. The vacuum bag was also ready to go with a layer of breather, perf and peel ply in place.

To make it easy to apply the laminates, I mounted the two chain plates on a base standing up on ends. This allowed me to apply resin between each layer of unidirectional carbon offering an additional opportunity to squeegee the resin downwards insuring that all of the unidirectional carbon was aligned.

I have little doubt that something else will break first before these chain plates fail............Now I will be able to sleep like a cat when waves are bashing the cabin top.