Folks,
I've been off on a holiday up the coast with extended family. Bike riding, Kayaking and bush walking. Camped on the grass just above the beach. It's a damn hard life but someone has to do it- well I suppose I should get some more boat building done. I'll probably pull the first float half out of the mould on monday,if I can get around to it. I'll post some some more pics beforehand.
It's all fun and games.
Regards,
Phill

A couple more pics have been added to my F85SR building Albumn.
Below is just a pic of the bulkheads and stringer forward of the main beam.

The first float half is out of the mould. I'm very happy with how fair it has come out. Just the tougue of the rebates are pushed up a little but this will get fixed very quickly with a long board. Then I'll fill the rebate gaps and it will be ready to glass after it is joined to another float half.

I've put more pics in my albumn as per below:-

The first float half has been hoisted to the ceiling out of the way and yesterday I spent 2 hours cutting and cutting rebates in the foam for the next float half.

Today I planked the second float half in 4 hours. The oven we made makes it so easy. Each foam plank needs 5 mins in the oven and when it comes out you can make almost any shape out of it, but you have to be quick because it cools very quickly.
The time taken to make the oven was well worth it.
I was helped with my 3 x 5kg bags of rice. They hold the foam down really well while I screw the foam to the mould.
I will probably apply the inside laminate later in the week when I can get some friends together to help. It's not so much that I need help but extra hands really make a difference when chasing the smallest of details to get everything just right.

Hi Phill. I see the trimmer is still working, More butt than class,hopefully it'll last the whole process. Then it might be time to retire it??
Richard

Richard,
You missed out on a fun day today laminating the second float half. It must have taken us around 30 mins to find all the leaks when we turned the vacuum pump on but it was worth it. We managed to pull 25 inches of mercury,12 pounds of pressure on every square inch of the laminate.

I'll fit the bulkheads later in the week and then the lifting foil center cases that arrived a couple of days ago.



They forecast rain for the rest of the week so that should give me more time to work on the boat.

Regards,
Phill

Hi Phill,
I sent you a pm but as a new member perhaps it didn't go through. If you could send me some blade plans I'd like to send you some money.
Thanks.
pat

Hi Phill
A fun day laminating, Is probably better than a night shift. I'll catch up again when you are ready to join the two halves, Sing out when

Richard,
I don't think I've touched the Tri in the last two weeks. Too busy taking advantage of the good weather, after all that rain and renovating our kitchen. Hopefully the kitchen will be finished by the end of the week and I'll get stuck into the third float half. I'll give you a call when I'm about to join them together.

Regards,
Phill

I've glassed in the first Lifting foil case and added some pics to my album.

A couple of them shown below.

I've hoisted the second float half to the roof.
Backed off the screws holding the battens to the mould (after numbering them so I know where each one goes). Lifted the battens up and reversed all the frames and then screwed the battens back in the mirrored position. So now I can start cutting foam to make the other side of the two floats.
Leaving all the screws in and keeping the battens in the same relative position saved me a heap of work.

Richard,
I foam planked the third half Friday. If the rain stops I'll laminate the inside tomorrow and join them together Sunday. So if you are out and about drop in.

Hi Phill You are joking if it stops raining, I hope you can fit two of each animals in side the tri. I'm busy Sunday and going into nights next week, I'll PM you . Might catch up Tuesday
Richard

Richard,
There was a break in the rain for a while so the third float half got laminated. Again pulling a really good vacuum. (25" once again)

I used slow hardener and to save having to run the vacuum for 15 hours I brought the laminate temp from the teens up into the 30s with the simple setup using a fan heater in the transom. The setup is shown below.

BTW:- is Monday any better for you?

I pulled all the vacuum layers off the hull yesterday including the peel ply. The laminate looks perfect. I've been right over it and there are no pin holes in the weave and the fibres all look properly wet out.
When doing the laminating I have some friends that come around and help so I have the luxury of being able to keep accurate records when mixing the resin. The weight of the hardener and resin for each mix is recorded.

We used 5.7kg of resin mix to wet out approx 7 sq metres of 400gm E glass.When the absorption fabric was removed I weighed it and weighed samples to work out how heavy it was before it went in.
This allowed me to work out how much of that 5.7kg was absorbed and how much left in the laminate. So it looks like the laminate took up 3.2kg of resin to properly wet out both the laminate and foam.

Now the interesting fact is that people have been talking about 250 to 300gms of resin per sq metre being needed just to wet the foam. Assuming a 50/50 glass resin ratio,it seems that with a really good vacuum and a little heat at the right time it may be less than 100gms per square metre needed for the foam.
Only one more float half to go. I'll probably do the same measurements on that one to see if I get the same results.

Glued the starboard float sides together today.
I posted some pics in my albumn like below.

It's time to get started on the 4th and last float side.
I have suspended the joined stbd float from the ceiling and cut and rebated the foam. I've taken a pic of all the foam required to make one of the float sides. See below.

I managed to place all the foam in the float mould before lunch today
however due to other commitments I won't be able to apply the
inside laminate for nearly a week.
Hopefully I'll be able to get to it next Thursday.

I laminated the inside of the 4th float half a couple of days ago and glassed in the lifting foil case today. Over the weekend I hope to join the two halves of the second float together.
I'll post some more pics once that is done.