Date |
What did I do today? |
Hours |
10-10-99 |
Cut out and hot glued the H4 wood and foam peices together and then test fit it to the aft end of the
stringers. Cut the foam for the aft engine/fan deck. |
1.00 |
10-12-99 |
Cut the hole in the rear deck panel for the fiberglass fan shroud. Drilled the holes in the fan hub to mount it to the
fan pulley and shaft. |
1.25 |
10-13-99 |
I repaired my error on the H7 panels. I added the reinforcing strip across the top of H4 and epoxied H4 to the
stringers. I added an extra brace on each side from H7 to the stringer between H1 and H4 because I will need the support for my "hard" deck. I am not going to install the
fabric deck as shown in the plans. I think my dog would tear it up very quickly. I cut the foam peices for the H10 and H12 panels. |
2.50 |
10-14-99 |
I cut the wood peices for the H12 panels and hot glued the wood and foam peices together. |
1.00 |
10-16-99 |
I finally got to flip the hull upside down! I started by installing the engine deck. I hot glued foam fillers
into all the corners and then hot glued the fan shroud into the cutout. I added a second layer of foam, surrounding the fan shroud, on the bottom of the deck and going out about 6 inches
from the fan edge. I also attached a peice of heavy guage steel mesh (1/2" mesh) to the aft side of H1 and filled the holes with putty. The 3 pounds of extra weight makes me feel
a little safer if the fan swallows something and fails. I glassed the bottom side of the engine deck and around the fan shroud. I cut out the two H2 panels. (I made another slight
modification again here. Look for the pictures soon.) I glassed one side of each of the H10 & H12 panels. |
7.50 |
10-17-99 |
It seems like all I did today was lay glass! I covered both sides of the H2 panels and the forward side of H4 with 6
ounce cloth. Then I glassed the aft side of H1 with biaxial. The H2 panels were now ready, I trimmed the edges and installed them. I put all the foam fillets in for the H2
panels and got half of the seams glassed in. |
7.50 |
10-20-99 |
Glass!! Glass!! Glass!!
There are so many corners to glass under the engine deck. That's all I did again tonight! |
1.25 |
10-21-99 |
Its getting dark early now so I only get a little done each day. I trimmed, straightened and sanded a few edges around
the H2, H4 & H7 panels. I cut, trimmed and hot glued the H12 panels in position. |
1.00 |
10-24-99 |
Finished taping in the H2 panels. Taped the H4 to H12 joints. Puttied and taped the H2 panels to the two outboard
H4 drop extensions. |
2.00 |
10-26-99 |
Cut the Starboard H10 panel to fit. Painted on the primer to the inside parts of the rear bouyancy compartments that
you can't get to after the H10s & H11s are installed. I wanted to make sure I protected all the surfaces from future deterioration from moisture. |
1.00 |
10-28-99 |
Painted the inside primed areas with paint to finish sealing the fiberglass. Assembled the fan with 9 blades.
This is an unapproved modification to the original plans which call for 6 blades. I am expecting to be near the maximum payload limit most of the time and with the 3 extra blades I'm
expecting to gain about 150 pounds of additional payload capacity. The 18HP Kohler engine is 2HP more than the Vanguard engine called for in the plans so I should be able to maintain the
designed speed characteristics with the additional lift. |
1.50 |
10-29-99 |
I cut the second H10 panel and the two H11 panels. I hot glued the H10s & H11s in place, then sanded the
joints smooth and rounded them over to allow the glass to lay down tighter. Then the gaps in the joints and the holes in the foam got filled with Isophtholic putty.
= = = = = = Here's a trick I've been doing = = = = = =
I've been using 1.25" and 2.0" drywall screws to hold the panels together while I put just a little hot glue in the joints. When the glue sets up I sand the joints
close to the final shape I want and then carefully remove the screws. Then I fill the gaps and screw holes with putty and then sand to the final shape before glassing. |
1.75 |
11-02-99 |
Cut 3 strips of foam and hot glued them to the bottom of the hull as stiffeners. Due to the large unsupported area of
the bottom I felt the strips would add a measure of strength to help support my own concentrated weight. I started to sand some of the putty in the joints but my belt sander gave out.
Down to the hardware store again! |
0.75 |
11-06-99 |
Finished puttying the joints, then smoothed the edges and corners to allow the glass go around without getting air bubbles.
|
1.50 |
This pretty well finishes the construction of the aft flotation compartments. On to glassing the
bottom. I have tried to follow the plans as closely as possible but I have also tried to deviate slightly where ever I could increase the floatation slightly. Overall it has been a
fairly straight forward assembly as long as I look ahead to what is coming up next.Please follow me along to the next construction phase as I glass the bottom of
the hull, do more interior glassing and frame the deck
Now I am really beginning to get a good overall view of what craft will really look like. |
TOTAL TIME THIS PHASE..... |
31.50 |
