Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Starboard Outer float half infused

Dad click here

(LOL, I think that's so funny)
;-)

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Trees Down - Finally

Well that's mostly done!
A bit nerve wracking as you might imagine.
The trees ended up being right at 75' (23m) tall and were really close to the house as you can see in the pictures. But a length of chain, some ropes, careful cuts and eight hours of maneuvering resulted in everything being safely cut down and only the bases are left standing.

I'll get those knocked down once we get the debris cleaned up and hauled away.
No sense in making a bigger mess for myself at the moment.

Prior to doing this, I did contact three tree service companies and requested quotes to simply knock the trees down and drive away. All three came in at $2000!
 
Ridiculous - Screw them!

I rented the lift for $230 and picked up a spool of rope for $90 and did it myself.


First branch cut and hanging by some chain. Once in this position I simply went back up the lift and cut chunks from the bottom of the hanging piece up to the chain before tying off again and pulling down the next section below the chain

View from the basket

Shop view from the lift.
In this photo you can see the left over stump after cutting free the hanging mess from the previous photo.

Tree bases left up for now while we clear the debris

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Boat Bling! (and a new compressor)

Still working on some projects around the house, so no boat work for still another couple of weeks.
This coming weekend (depending on weather) we will work on cutting down the two big trees next to the house. A bit scary, but we'll try to be as safe as possible.
Last weekend we got the garage door installed along with building out the front walls of the garage to accommodate the smaller/taller door. I also got the fence rails in place for the section between the house and shop. No fence panels installed yet since the season is over and they are no longer stocked at Lowe's. Next spring we'll get that finished up.

In other news, I received my first pieces of "Boat Bling" in the form of three Chain Plate Distributor blocks from Colligo marine. They took a while to be delivered, but absolutely worth the wait! Very nice pieces of hardware.

CSS93BLK with 7/8" insert:
 - 23,500lb (10,659Kg) Safe Working Load
 - 47,000lb (21318Kg) Break Strength

And finally, I picked up a new air compressor.
In this case, I literally "picked it up"...
I was on my way to Lowe's to get some lumber for the garage door when just up the road I see an air compressor set out for trash. I stopped and asked the guy if he was getting rid of the compressor and what was wrong with it. He said the motor was getting old and it was tripping the breaker every once in a while. I told him I'd be glad to take it off his hands and he helped me load it up into the truck.

Once I was back home and done with the garage work, I took some time to go over the compressor and clean it up a bit. I plugged it in and it started up just fine. I did change the quick disconnect air line fitting and tighten up the air filter. But other than that it has worked perfectly. The motor is rated at 5HP and requires quite a bit of power at startup, so I'm thinking he may have had this unit plugged into a shared circuit which might be what the problem was.

So with a new compressor for "free", I guess I can zero out the cost of the Chain Plate Distributors?
:)










Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Parts wrapped and ready for sanding

Now just to find some time here and there over the next month...
Dad Click --> HERE

;-)

Monday, October 3, 2016

Under the weather... :(

It was a great weekend to get some work done, but it seems the whole family was under the weather and just not feeling up to doing much... I still have everything prepped out for some wraps, but just waiting for a good time to do it.

Also, I sent a note out to the Epoxy supplier requesting another batch so we can get that other hull half infused. Hopefully no issues with that one like we saw with the first one.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Updates from this past week

A bit slow on progress due to Labor Day weekend.
Some updates pictures of the Beam Anchor replacement parts here.

and some float progress here.

(Dad, click the hyperlinks above)

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Arno replies with a cutting solution

The solution to ripping my LFS Beam anchors turned out to be much easier than expected.

Dad Click Here -> Thanks Arno!

Lol!

Monday, August 29, 2016

Progress Notes

Not a whole lot accomplished this weekend and next weekend isn't looking much better.
But we did get a few things taken care of and I'm back to square one with some beam parts...

(No fun spending time and money creating JUNK parts!)


Note: 
I spent some time with my father weekend before last showing him how to use this blog site.
So this next part is for him:

Dad Click Here -> Float Progress
Dad Click Here -> Beam Progress

Love you Dad!
:)


Monday, August 22, 2016

Louisiana flood cleanup and demolition

No boat work this weekend.
Instead, I drove down to Louisiana to lend a hand to my sister.
She was impacted by all the flooding in the Baton Rouge area.
18" of water in her home destroyed just about everything in there.
The waters came up so fast that they were really unaware of the situation until receiving a knock on the door from a guy cruising around on a boat doing evacuations!

We spent two days doing sheetrock demolition and insulation removal.
We were able to get the electricity turned on and took a chance on the HVAC system.
(It spent a couple of days under water). We cleaned the contacts and hit the breaker, figuring the worse that could happen is that it would go up in smoke... Turns out it worked just fine and helped a lot in cooling down the interior and pulling out some of the moisture.

It'll be months before this area is back on it's feet.
The devastation was huge and people were working themselves to exhaustion.

It was really sad.

Driving into the subdivision.
Trash is just starting to pile up

So much destruction

This car was run over by a boat.

This house had water rise to the eves (soffit).
I bet it's a total disaster in there!

On the bright side, I did get some boudin!
(A Cajun delicacy for sure)
Missing out on food like this is probably the worse part about living in the Mid-West.

I stayed with my dad for a couple of days.
In this picture we are all soaking wet with sweat from spending the previous 2.5 hours in the attic changing out the water heater.
My dad on the left and my two younger brothers on the right.
(Great timing to have us all there and able to help with water heater replacement)

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Some time away and "Honey Do"

This past weekend my wife and I were able to "get away" for a couple of days and spend some time together in St. Louis. It was really nice if not a bit too hot, but we did get to do a lot of sight-seeing and take care of some shopping.

We did the Anheuser-Busch tour which was really cool. The factory itself is amazing and since a lot of it was built around the turn of the century there is a LOT of interesting architecture in there. I'm sure it's probably one of the most visually interesting factories you'll find anywhere.
It's really too bad we don't build buildings like that any more.

Forest Park "World's Fair Pavilion".
This was actually built AFTER the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904


I haven't been spending much time on the boat build for the past couple of weeks due to other items that need my attention:
  • The fence is about half stained now, so I'm hoping to have that finished up this weekend.


  • Remember the pool we "might" get... Yeah, that didn't take long to show up at the store for pickup. I spent about twelve hours leveling the ground by hand and then applying a skim coat of sand. I used a bull float to get it smoothed out and then we erected the pool. It's filling now and at 4 gal/minute it will take almost 60 hours to fill, so by this Sunday afternoon we should be in business. This Fall we plan to build a fence and next Spring we will work on some decking.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Foam Delivered

A new box of foam now sits on the shop floor.

The transport company wouldn't come down my street due to weight restrictions, so I had to meet the driver at the Truck Stop.

No worries as the box just fit into my little trailer. I couldn't close the door all the way, but a bungee cord did the trick for the short drive home. I also received another roll of Enka-Fusion as I'm sure I'll need it for the floats infusion.

This evening after work I will be able to do the final sanding on UFS #2 and #3.
UFS #4 will need bulk sanding and then probably one more small gap filling session followed by a final sanding to wrap that project up.




Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Foam Delivery tomorrow

I was supposed to have this delivered today, but the freight company ran out of room on their truck to slide the pallet in and shut the doors so it was re-scheduled for tomorrow. No problem though, that works for me since I have one more cheek block to take care of to finish up UFS housing #4.

I should be able to get that laid up tonight and then sand it down over the weekend.

UFS housing #3 is ready for a final sanding tonight, then I'll work to prep the shop for ripping down a couple sheets of foam to finish up the inner middle section of the Starboard float.

I'm looking forward to getting back to bending foam and filling the seams. I really enjoy working with the epoxy filler material.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Skid Steer Rental

Not boat building related, but maybe you want to see what I did all weekend.

A bit of a learning curve and some bruises from getting thrown around by the machine, but the end results are pretty good and I can finally cross this off the list!


Only two big thing left on the "list".
  1. Stain the fence
  2. Cut down and remove the two big trees next to the house.
    • Those trees make me nervous...


I estimate the man-lift will only reach a little over half the height of these trees.
Lots of rope and block action I guess.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Some things work - Some things don't

By no means an exhaustive report, but in the time I've been working in the shop I found a few things that work and some things that just don't.

1) Chip Brushes:
As they come from the factory, they are very nearly worthless but a quick modification with a pair of scissors turns them into an awesome tool for spreading epoxy, working out air bubbles, smoothing out wrinkles and scraping out the bottom of the bucket. I also found that if you wrap it in a piece of scrap plastic and throw it in the freezer it'll remain usable for at least a full weekend.
Cut about half the bristle length off to turn this piece of garbage (top) into a really useful tool (bottom)


2) Tyvek Suits:
These are a necessity when spray painting for sure and I'm guessing they can be really nice when sanding as well. But for working with epoxy, they are worthless. They tear easily and if any epoxy gets on the zipper you are done. Instead, use a Tyvek apron. They are much cheaper, last a long time and actually get better with use since any epoxy that gets on it simply cures and reinforces that area. I have several hanging around so I never have to use a sticky one.

Make sure to tie it off either behind your back or preferably against your chest between the apron and your clothes. You want to avoid getting epoxy on the tie straps.

As a bonus, when you are all done you can stick one epoxy coated glove behind the apron near the bottom and pinch a clean section of Tyvek.
Use that to pull the epoxy coated glove off of your free hand and then use your clean hand to pull the other glove off  before removing the apron.

All that epoxy would have been all over my clothes.
Of course they would probably last longer as a result...


3) Oscillating Tool:
No need to say much about these tools except that I'm not really sure how people built fiberglass things without them.
I use a diamond blade to make all my cuts and then swap over to the sanding attachment with some 60-grit to quickly take down an area before switching to 80-grit and then finally over to some sanding blocks. I have the original Rockwell Sonicrafter.
It works great, but I believe newer models of these tools (across the manufacturing lines) have some sort of "quick-release" mechanism to change out the tools.
I'd highly recommend that option if available since I have to use an allen wrench every time I need to swap things around.

4) Sanding Blocks:
I LOVE my sanding blocks and highly recommend a good set like the "Dura-Block's".
They are simple, light weight and easy on your hands.

5) Stir-Whip mixer:
LOVE IT!
Easy to clean and does a great job of mixing epoxy and filler without adding a lot of air.
(Depends on speed of course)

6) Bio-Solv epoxy cleaner:
Here
Expensive, but totally worth the price!
The 5-gallon bucket is the most economical way to purchase.
I just transfer some into a smaller HDPE container and squirt out what I need.
I can clean a bucket and tools with about 1/2cup (120ml) of cleaner.
Normally I clean everything three times.
The first time is just to get the majority of material removed and then the second time does the real cleaning while the third time gets out anything left behind. I follow up with a clean dry towel to polish everything and that's it.

7) Paper towels - NOT rolls:
Get this, thank me later.
The rolls are less expensive, but if you only have one hand free (like when you are pouring epoxy and need to wipe the lip) it's nice to be able to reach over and grab a sheet instead of unrolling a piece.
Of course if you'd just REMEMBER to have a sheet ready BEFORE you start pouring epoxy you won't have to worry about that. <Grrr!>

8) Nitrile Gloves:
These are the best gloves I can find for the price and my latest order will be the last time I purchase the 100-count box. (Next time, I'm going for the 1000-count box.)
I do wish the cuff was just a little bit longer, but the "diamond texture" is not just a gimmick. It really does help out when working with slimy materials.
We literally use these gloves for everything!
Not kidding - car repair, gardening, drain cleaning, materials handling, gutter cleaning and of course epoxy work, sanding, painting and fabrics handling.
Side note here - I have really dry skin and usually have to deal with cracked, bleeding hands during the winter months. Since I started wearing (any brand) nitrile gloves so often in the shop this is the first time I remember having "nice" hands all winter.

UFS Housings Nearing completion

UFS Housings nearing completion

Friday, June 3, 2016

Foam on Order

I'm finally getting past the IRS beating I received earlier this year so I was able to place an order for a carton of foam. I'm guessing it'll be delivered in the next few weeks, but I've got plenty of work to do in the meantime so it's OK. Once I get the foam delivered, I'll be able to finish the planking on the middle inner half of the starboard float.

I did get the fence completed on the side of the yard - which only led to discussions of installing another fence between the house and shop with an addition of a pool and associated decking...

Tomorrow I'll be renting a small skid-steer to finally take care of the dirt work around the shop and level out the area where we may end up putting a pool. I'll also need to dig out a shallow drainage "swale" behind the shop over to the field as water tends to pool in my backyard during a heavy downpour.

As for the two big trees in my yard right next to the house that need to come down, they are still on the "To-Do" list, but a little lower on the priority rating.


Still some cleanup to do, but I'll be letting this dry up and air out for a couple of weeks before applying the stain.




Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Build pause

The weather has finally cleared up around here providing an opportunity to take care of some projects around the home and some rental property maintenance.

This of course cuts down on time spent in the shop - but that's a temporary setback I'll be working around every year. I suppose that must be normal.

We got a permit to erect a fence in our back yard which my wife has been wanting for a while now. It's going to look really nice I think and will provide an area for her to plant some flowers and etc as time goes on. I also have these two huge trees next to the house that need removal, but I'm still waiting on a nice calm Saturday/Sunday to rent a man-lift.

My house is on the windward side of town and we get plenty of wind around Central Illinois. In fact the rake trim on my house was torn off a month ago during the last wind storm, so that's another thing I need to fix when I pick up the man-lift.

Anyway, some pics attached showing the fence install and the wind bracing.











Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Infusion Reply & musings...

I received a letter from one of my fellow boat-building friends and since I spent so much time on the reply, I thought I'd go ahead and post it here and open it up for further dialog.

================================
Have you seen the RIC from airtech? 
(This is a HDPE molded "puck" that is used for in bag connections. It is reusable)
Yes, I have - in fact I have one or two but you still have to clean them before reuse.
I used it once a while back and it's available if I want to try again, but it's getting hard to beat a disposable one made from scrap foam. So far, I think it takes less time to make one with a sanding block and dremel than clean the RIC.

Also I'm not sure why you would get resin starvation if there is no vacuum
leaks?
I apologize for the lengthy reply, but this is a VERY INTERESTING topic and I've spent a lot of time reading up on it.

(Although I freely admit that I'm far from becoming an "expert" on the process.)

So let's start with my first assumption:
It seems logical that if you arranged your infusion stack with a peel ply resin break and there was NO leaks in the bag you should be able to open up the resin supply until the resin front completely moves throughout the fabric and into the resin break before shutting off the supply. Now that the resin supply has been cut off and there should no longer be any resin movement in the bag and it should simply stop flowing and cure in place. However, in reality that is not at all what happens, what does happen is that the resin "blob" continues to migrate toward the vacuum source until it begins to gel and then resistance to flow is what finally stops it. During that "migration" time, the resin will move out of the previously saturated fibers in various degrees and leave behind a dry laminate.
As for leaks in the bag - so far I really haven't had much issues with an airtight bag. The big leaks are easy to find and the ultrasonic leak detector plus watching the digital readout on the pressure guage has proven that my bags have been really tight so far, so while nothing is perfect - I'm mostly confident that the bag is tight.

Regarding the infusion process itself, I have completed several infusions to date and continue to make modifications to my process. The good news is that I am making progress and my last infusion came out nearly perfect with only a small dry spot (and I already know how to fix that for next time).

So beginning with the layout itself (flat surface - eight layers) configured to infuse from one side to the other using Enka Fusion for both the supply and vacuum feeds.
(Note - I REALLY like the Enka fusion over spiral wrap as it's just easier to work with and there are no concerns with it putting a hole in the bag or leaving an impression on the part itself).

Now before we get started, I'll switch gears for a second to talk about epoxy volumes.
I've found that I can get a really good estimate on the epoxy quantity required by figuring out the TOTAL square inches of all the fabric layers in the layup and then multiplying that number by .31. (.31 grams is REALLY close to what is consumed per square inch, this number includes epoxy left over in the peel ply, perf film, distribution media, the underside of the bag and the amount left in the tubing.

So for example, with my 100:30 epoxy mix ratio:

***********************************************
4380 square inches*.31 = 1357 grams of epoxy required.
1357/1.3 = 1044.4 grams of Part A
1044.4*.3 = 313.3 grams of Part B
===========================
1044.4 (A) + 313.3 (B) = 1357 grams of epoxy
===========================
***********************************************

Anyway, in previous infusions I have allowed the resin front to reach the resin break before shutting off the resin supply. I have also experimented with adjusting the vacuum from 15mbar to 50mbar to slow the resin movement, but that didn't really do anything but allow the stack to cure at a lower vacuum level (which creates a less than ideal fabrics compaction).

With my latest infusion, I allowed the Enka Fusion VACUUM STRIP (left side of photo) to become maybe 5% saturated before CLAMPING off both the vacuum and supply lines ( I did leave the vacuum line attached to the pump to slowly compensate for any vacuum loss in the bag if necessary). What I was hoping for was that excess resin in the stack would migrate into the empty spaces of the Enka Fusion and then stop for curing. What actually happened is that the resin did continue to move into the empty spaces, completely filling up the Enka Fusion VACUUM STRIP and moving up into the vacuum tube toward the clamp. Overall, a much better infusion already, but in hindsight, I could have eliminated one small dry area by allowing maybe 20%(?) Enka Fusion saturation on the vacuum side. That way it wouldn't pull as much resin from the stack. I guess with experience you can do a better job of this, but that's where I'm at now.


Now with all that being said and in the spirit of continual experimentation my next infusion will incorporate a "reverse pull" line. (Vacmobiles had a poster detailing the process, but I can't find it at the moment - Found it (Picture at bottom of site)) and a slight adjustment to the VACUUM STRIP flooding.
This just means that I'll have a vacuum line from the RESIN SUPPLY side of the stack over to the vacuum pump. When I do the actual infusion, I'll allow the Enka Fusion on the VACUUM side to become maybe 80% saturated before clamping off both that line and the resin supply line.
Once that's done, I'll open the clamp on the "reverse pull" line for a little while to remove some excess resin from the supply side and bring the vacuum level back down since this Resin supply area is actually very near ambient pressure. My "thinking" is that since the stack is now flooded this process will create a "hydraulic lock" situation (probably not the correct word to use). Since the epoxy itself as a fluid is incompressible, it won't move around on it's own other than (I assume) responding to gravity itself by attempting to level out somewhat. My thinking is that the ~20% vacuum space within the Enka Fusion will allow the resin some room to move into if needed, but in reality I believe the resin will mostly stop flowing and cure in place.

We'll see what happens...

This process, (if it works as expected) should mimic the flow characteristics of the "MTI Hose" by stopping the resin flow when it hits the semi-permeable sleeve (in this case, the Enka Fusion saturation) but going one step further than the "MTI Hose" by restoring vacuum on the supply side. I suspect this will produce a more compacted stack while eliminating any dry spots.

Further testing will either confirm this process or prove that I (still) have no idea what I'm talking about.

For resin break I use peel ply wrapped over a spiral wrap (RIC fits over that).
Try the Enka fusion, I think you might throw that spiral wrap into the trash can.
:)


Oh, and bonus notes here:
I will pour out a small amount of left over resin from the bucket directly onto the surface of the infusion bag. Anywhere is fine I guess. This provides an excellent reference to the state of the epoxy curing inside the bag.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Monday, February 22, 2016

Time Chart

2/14/2015 - 12/7/2015     Boat Shed Built
12/9/2015 -                      Starboard Float
2/18/2016 -                      Beams