Misc Update

The ply for the hull is on its way so we have been puttering around doing misc projects on things we can get done before the hull materials arrive.

Finishing up the slot for the Uni Carbon on the keel.

First time using a standard hand plane this thing worked awesome i should of used it before when trying to get a rough shape on the keel.  Its a great option inbetween sanding and power plane.

Driling the holes in the bulb.

Huge pain in the ass to get the holes straight.  After i drilled the first hole i put a pipe thru the hole so i could make sure my second hole was at least the same axis as the first.

Doing some shaping with a rasp.  Works well but i still have allot of lead to take off.

Keel Foil fits nicely.

We got bored so we figured we would add some decoration to the shop.  We projected the i550 logo on the wall then masked it off with tape.

Me doing some painting.

Finished logo.  We also plan to add some exploded views of the boat.

Nick cuting out the Bow Stem.

Bow stem is cut out of White Oak.  We read thru the build guide on how to build this which helped but a few of there dimension and angles were incorrect.  The dimensions on the plans are not possible at least we could not figure it out.  We improvised with what we thought would be correct.  This also started an idea for a boat name.  (Good-E-Nuff) Thoughts?

Cradle is Finished!

So the cradle is done!  Now i just need to order my hull materials and i can start building an actual boat.

Beer to keep myself and others hydrated.

We used two laser levels to get the cradle aligned.  One was down the center mark and we used a self leveling rotating level that gave us a mark about 4 inches over the entire cradle to measure down from to get the correct height and level.

As you can see i used 1/2 inch bolts o bolt each support piece to the cradle base.  Also the 3/4 ply supports are drilled out larger than the bolts.  This allows me to make small adjustments if i ever need to.

Done!

Hours: about 65

Cradle Supports and Barn Finishing.

Making big gains on the boat and the shop.  We have some more help in the shop Nick.  He has done a huge amount of work in the shop taking it from Sketchey Barn to Nice Wood Shop.   The cradle Base and now all the supports are cut.  Now i just need to mount the supports to the base and then bight the bullet and buy the hull materials and start building something that actually looks like a boat!

Attempting to cut out some fair curves.

Cradle supports are in place but not bolted down. 

The shop after it was cleaned with walls and benches added!

Cradle Base Done!

So the base of the cradle is done.  From the transom to F110 its 7 feet wide.  Then it angles in to about 1 foot past the bow.  The Cross members are spaced at each bulkhead.  Now i will be adding plywood at each cross member to mirror the shape of the bulkhead at each location.  This should help with making sure the hull is the correct shape and each bulkhead lands at the correct elevation.  I used a laser and a chalk line to keep everything straight and true.

My miter saw wont cut angles that extreme so i added a little piece so i could attach the "bow" pieces.

Cradle Time!

So i started on my cradle.  I plan to build a support for the boat at each bulkhead at the correct height and shape using the bulkhead shape + 1/4 inch for the plywood.  This should allow the boat to be the correct shape.  I will have more on my design as i build more. 

Doing some serious math!  Trying to figure out all the leingths to cut up the 2x4s.

Beer helps with math.

Here is the base of the cradle.  This is from frame 214 to 89 its 7 feet wide. There is one cross member for each bulkhead.  One is not shown.

Beer: 2

Hours: 4

Keel Fairing DONE!... Kinda

I finished the first round of fairing on my keel foil.  I can now pass the template the entire way down the foil.  Also we cut the notches in each side to lay the 4"x1/8" carbon strips down each side.

My friend Ben from Newengland Boat Works stoped by to give me a few pointers and get his sand on.

Fairing with a good longboard and 32 grit paper does quick work.

Cutting the slices in for the the carbon strips.

This is by far the coolest tool ever for this job!

Ben Hand Planing off the extra material left behind by his Track Saw.

Next step.  Fill that hole with Uni Carbon!

I will say just talking with someone for a few hours who is an experienced performance boat builder and knowlageble with carbon and fiberglass was a HUGE help.  I got allot of good ideas and am excited to get my hull under way!

Lead Casting!!!

Well lead casting was a success!! 

I decided to go with a single pour bulb instead of halves.  I dont have any awesome technical reason for doing this besides it seemed like one solid bulb would be better than two bolted togeather. 




The video below is not my video but i used the basic principles of this video for my pour. Bolting the mold halves togeather is super important.  We didnt bolt them tight enough and the weight of the lead will actually lift the top half of the mold off the bottom and let lead out inbetween the halves.

Here is a video of my crucible test using water.  The only thing i added was a handle to the pipe.  This is just threaded rod and a threaded angle from a plumbing store.

After the Crucible was built i decided to cut my big chunks of lead down into smaller ones to make it faster to melt.  I dont know if this helped or not.  Cutting lead is a pain in the a$$ so we decided to use our wood splitter and shear it apart it worked great!


                            



Here is a short video of mealting the lead.  We used a standard turkey fryer and a ground torch.  we went thru about 3 standard propane tanks it took slightly over an hour to get all the lead melted and no chunks floating around or stuck in the corners.

                             


Here are a few pictures of the process.

Warming up the Concrete mold in the powdercoating oven.  We slowley warmed it up to about 245 degrees.

Raw Lead Before Melting.  We filled up the crucible to make sure it could take the weight.

Myself mealting the lead.

The mold just after the pour.

Here is with 1/2 the mold removed.

The moment we started taking it apart my mold just crumbled.  I would recommend wire mesh that might help hold it togeather.

Here is the bulb fresh out of the mold.

She is a bit heavy.  Time to start fairing and put her on a diet!  I am thinking this should weigh about 165 lbs all said and done.

Started cutting off the pour and vent holes with a sawsall.

Took awhile but got them all cut off.

Here it is in comparrison to my plug.

Using a crappy rasp from auto zone to start shaping and getting the crap off the mold.  It works amazingly well and fast.  It only took 2 hours or so to clean up my bulb.

Beer Count: 3 (i was pouring molten lead give me a break)

Total Beers so far: 69

Hours:30

Hours so far: 168