Fruits Of My Labor (A-113)

[Tony G]

Ebb, this post is for you. Not a whole lot to look at yet.

The s.s. bolts stick out about 5/8". The outside it ready for a little more fairing compound.

I took CPete's lead and bought some barrel nuts. Each port will get 6 of them to hold the trim piece on inside. The rest of the bolts get washers and nuts to hole the lite in place.

I'm leaning toward butyl as a sealant and then run a bead of whilte 101 around the opening to hide the black. I dunno...that's a ways away yet. things can change here in a day!

[ebb]

Whal arl be hornswaggled!
Believe I got the concept, didn't imagine the outer unframes so smooth. No doubt 'see' it better with the shiney finish coat creating some shape and shadow. And you'll paint the cabin color right up to the lite, right?

Can't see why it won't work - it's truely hydrodynamic - great idea! If I hadn't restored my frames I might steal it for 338. It's real stealth! Got a shot of the molds? You must have said already but what reinforcement if any did you use in the pieces?

Might finish your system with butyl for the mere ease of maintenance (replacement). Don't know what curves you got but they must be like 338's. I'd guesstimate that the lites theirselves have about a 1/4" curve. Curved lex will fit in there like hand in glove.

(Noticed with most sheet material and my piece of 4X8 3/8" lexan that sheets have a natural side they want to curve to. You know, balance the sheet on edge, sight down its length, and lo! there's a side that wants to bend more than the other, imco. Anyway it's that curve that the plastic wants most to spend its life in. Even after a piece is cut small like the window lite and it looks flat, it'll want to take a curve one way best. This curve adds a lot of strength to a flat panel. And I'd guess the natural curve has little stress. You can persuade lexan into more of a curve with hot water, or even weight in the middle of a span for a period of time. My method for 338's. Don't think 1/2" lexan can be 'naturally' bent. Aside from smoke grey lites. 338 will have a lexan main hatch slide and probably drop boards too. All the curves, real & imagined, will be facing out! )

Your window invention is great! Maybe the arguement is that if the butyl doesn't work for some reason you can easily upgrade to something nastier! But the combers will slide right on bye! And those bolts, what are they? 1/4" - and how many? well, Nuttin' is gonna stir them babies.

[Tony G]

Ebb,
The basic mold/form for the ports is pictured in post #124 on this very same thread. In that photo the holes have not been drilled yet. The bolt spacing/placement was determined and holes were drilled on the mold to act as drill guides so every port should be the same (mechanically, and in theory, of course).

The mix was a relatively loose mix of epoxy and cabosil with milled glass fibers(hate the stuff) and hand chopped roving fibers 1 1/2" to 2" long. What a MESS! The molds were clamped onto the previously shimmed and spot filled port openings. Then the 'mix' was added, poked, twisted, pulled into place. It really moved as one glob from the pot to the mold, and more than once I thought this is never going to work. I was almost scared to knock the molds off when it was cured. Thought for sure I'd be grinding the whole mess down and going with plan D or E. But I'm stubborn and did the job in managable stages.

The bolts are 1/4". I drew the original concept with smaller ( I forget the # size) but when I was standing in the aisle at the store I kept thinking these are way too small-I'll bend them trying to sand the filler.

There is a little bow in the openings. That's why I'm leaning toward a butyl seal. The stuff can fill iregularities with ease and it's not so bad to work with.

Sure wish I could get that high-build primer that you've been using. The local SW can't/won't get it.

[dasein668]

I'm leaning toward butyl as a sealant and then run a bead of whilte 101 around the opening to hide the black.

You should be able to find white butyl. I got some at Ace Hardware for something like 2.50 a tube. I used 4 tubes, I think, on Dasein's 4 deadlights, 6 ports, and a couple of odd plastic fittings.

[Tony G]

Nathan,

Thanks for the heads up at Ace. I love my neighborhood Ace store. While they may not be a true chandlery, it is the only place around here to find 5200 or a decent assortment of stainless fasteners.

Mike,

Well, the vacuum pump was a complete wash...We applied the K.I.S.S. principle and it worked just fine. It was like sand casting, sort of, and upside down.

I taped the mold with packing tape, being the PVA turned out to be a PIA, then stapled the matt in place to keep it from sliding out of place. The matt was heavily wetted and a layer of FG fabric was worked down over the top. Cover the mess with lightweight plastic wrap and pack it six inches of sand.

After about four hours I dug it out and put some filler on the back and added some styro pieces for build up and waited another hour or two. When it got to a real tacky state, I wetted out some more matt and covered the back again. By night fall it was ready to come off the mold.

Here's what the cat coughed up...

[Tony G]

Here's the top side. You can see the lines from the tape. Of course it still needs sanding and some filleting and fairing on the 'pretty' side. The bottom will get some more reinforcing.

[Tony G]

After nearly a week away from working on the boat I'm starting to fear I may not finish her in time for launch next spring

Here's a mod job by one of the previous owners. While moving the backstay chainplate to the outside of the transom was a great move the knee adaptation left a little to be desired.

If you can see it on this archival photo, the modification consisted of sistering two pieces of 3/4" oak to the original knee, wrapping it with a piece of fiberglass( pasted right over the paint), then drilling four holes betweenthe sister and the original knee but only using the bottom three holes for attachment.

[Tony G]

That just wouldn't do...

I dug around and found a 1 1/2" X 2 1/4" piece of white oak that should work just fine. It was coated with epoxy and fitted, along with some styro fillets, into the lazarette. I also added some transverse stringers back here for strength.

[Tony G]

And while we were in the neighborhood I thought we'd remove the old mainsheet block pads. This way, when we get to installing the traveller we won't have to do any custom scribbing and cutting. I mean-come on-who's got time for that!