Monthly Archives: April 2012

what’s inside the beams

Aside

Here are four copies of the web that will go on the inboard end of each beam. After curing each one gets an angle-bracket assembly on the end, and those will form the backing attachment point for the big 1″ thick main bolts (that secure the beams to the hull).

Tonight’s lamination, including cutting out 40 pieces of various cloth fabric and prepping the epoxy, was after dinner, from the 5th thru 9th innings of the Giants/Phillies game (bumgarner got the win). So about 1.5 hours in/out of the shop, which is about all I have available on weekdays. We’re not pursuing any vacuum bagging because I think it would take more time, so lots of little steps wouldn’t happen every possible day – and the boat would take more years! That’s the rationale, anyway.  So what happens instead of bagging?  Peel ply, then some plastic sheeting, and low tech pressure…

Ready to break the mold

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Finished the core of the final (aft port) beam, so we get the satisfaction of busting up the beam mold. The plans called for 3/4″ particle board, but I think OSB sheathing would have worked better. Particle board chipped and split too easily.

Ian answered my question about orientation of the DBM1708 (tape with red stripe in it) – I should have been using the non-backed DB170 cloth instead. Got a 100+lb roll – that has made covering the aft beams much faster.

We received 800′ feet of one-foot wide carbon fiber rolls this week, and the first layers went on the bottom of the Forward Starboard beam today. Amazing to think they’ll be getting 20 layers of carbon on the top side!