2nd float half

Spent the week getting the foam planks laid on the 2nd hull half so not to many exciting pictures this week. This time I put a skim of fairing compound over the deck flange to create a small radius where the hull and flange meet. This was a bit of a problem area when I glassed the first float 1/2 as the fibre glass didn't like the sharp step where the flange and hull meet. The small amount of bog will make a nice smooth transition from the hull to the deck flange so I shouldn't have any problems with the cloth not wanting to sit down on the foam properly.

Also made up a cradle to suport the joined floats or just a half after they come out of the frames. Seem a little bit extravagant but should make it easy to fair and glass the floats as I can stand each float up in the cradle or lay it down on either side. I will also make up some wheels to put under each end of the cradle to make it easy to move around.

1st float 1/2 finished!

Had a busy week again. Laminated the bow stringer and chain plate pad with the appropriate layers of fabric as per the plans. Glued in the bulkheads and then did the bog fillets and taping on each side of the bulkheads. Lastly removed the hull 1/2 from the frames ready to do it all again!


The only unfortunate thing is I forgot to take many photos apart from the one below after I removed the hull.

Bulkheads, bulkheads and more bulkheads

Got busy this week and made all the bulkheads for both of the floats. Even though I haven't finished the first 1/2 yet it does give me a bit of a head start on the next half as the bulkheads will be done already.


Making the bulkheads was speed up considerably by making two seperate bags so that I could do four bulheads at the same time.








Also got the bow stringer and chain plate pad glued to the hull ready to glass on once I have cleaned up the fairing filler around the edges.



Then at the end of the week I glued in the first bulkhead just to make it look like there had been some progress!

Bulkheads

Started vacuum bagging the bulkheads for the floats today. First time I have tried vacuum bagging and I was suprised how easy it was. Admitidly I am only doing some small panels and I can imagine that I would get a bit pushed for time on a large panel.

I was worried about how difficult it would be to achieve a good vacuum pressure. Although I did have some small leaks when I first turned the pump on, only got 15" Hg vacuum initally,it was easy enough to find the leaks and eventually got a vacuum of 28" Hg.

Vacuum setup. I put the extra layer of sealing tape around the edge mainly because I didn't know what I was doing and turned out to be completly unnesaccary.

minor repairs

After removing the peel ply there were three spots that required

some carefull attention with a grinder. These spots were not wetted out and had lifted from the core. I ground these spots down and applied a suitable sized patch results are as per the picture below.

Laminating 1st Float 1/2

After spending a couple of nights during the week cutting the fibreglass to shape and putting a bit of fairing filler along the keel join to smooth it out I am ready to glass the first float 1/2. Then I had to make a few phone calls to get some mates around to give me a hand to lay down the cloth, the promise of beer and food can be a great motivator!

You can see the fibreglass in the back ground just waiting for some eager volunteers!

As you can see plenty of helpers turned up which I am very thankful for. It meant that I was on resin mixing duty for the greater part of the whole exercise,hardly even got my hands dirty!


A bit of final quality Control before the peel ply goes on.






I tried "poor mans vacuum bagging" which I had seen being used by others and as I hadn't seen it before thought I would give it a go. Checked on the results the next day and I am not convinced as to the effectivness of using the plastic over top of the peel ply and the jury is out at this stage. I can see that it may be useful on flat areas but when there are some curves involved it may not be as effective?

1st float 1/2 planked

Had a bit of a delay over the last few weeks while I was waiting for the foam and fibreglass to arrive from the suppliers. Amazing how retailers are very quick at taking your money but not always on the ball when it comes to delivering the goods. However now that I have got the foam it only took a couple of days get it onto the frames and glued together.

ready for laminating the fibreglass

I decide to glue the foam with epoxy glue rather than a polyurathene construction type of adhesive. I did a trial with some polyurathene glue but I had some concerns with the stength of the glue. After I had left it to set for a few days I could still pull apart the foam pieces I had glued together along the glue line. I also had some concerns if the glue was water proof or not. It said on the label that it was weather proof but I wasn't sure if that meant water proof.