Sunday, June 3, 2012

Polystyrene and polyester resin coating part1

This shows the glass on the polystyrene The rough area is where the polystyrene was not protected. 
This shows the glass on the polystyrene with the bondcrete glue
The bondcrete glue below again showing the glass ripped off.This is the epoxy spray paint note the parting is both on the polystyrene and the paint
The paint aloud the fumes from the resin to penetrate the polystyrene
This is a section of where the resin was laid thinly and the separation was on the beads in the polystyrene.
This shows where the resin was able to penetrate the glue when applied thickly and at the edges there was only resin thinly coating and there was no penetration of the resin fumes.
This is the cheap sample glue
This is the expensive glue sample
From the observations the best way is to use PVA glue and allow to dry for two days and then paint on resin with catalyst thinly. Followed up with thicker layers of glass and resin. Applying the resin thickly allows the resin to react with the pva glue and burn threw to the polystyrene. I think the cheap and the expensive glues performed about the same with a lean towards the expensive glue.
More experiments will be needed to confirm what I have done.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

New hull bottom

 This shows the finished bottom, note the shiny surface from laying plastic sheet over the wet figreglass
 Another shot of the bottom with clear water going to the propellor. It might need a keel of some sort.
 This is the amount of the bottom cut away. There is about 200kg of boyancy in this. I am redoing the steering in steel for more strength.


Saturday, April 21, 2012

Surgery and the Titanic




I could have just added ballast to the little tug but this would have been in the vacinity of about a 1/4 of a ton. Then the launching and retreval would have been a major undertaking with this much weight. I also thought of small pieces of lead placed in the bottom and the job of doing this every time was not worth it and if the thing took on water it would have beaten the Titanic to the bottom with me in it. So surgery was the only way. It took less time than it would have taken to load all the lead ballast into the boat before launching. It was also cheaper. Some time was taken away from the build to explore the bush near here, so here is a couple of photos.
 The above photo is of the entrance to Jervis bay and the back waters of St.Georges Basin.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Drastic surgery

 This is taken from the bottom of the boat
 This is the removed section and will take away the need for about 100 kilos of balast
 Bottom glassed on, by removing the bottom I hope this will make it more stable and I know it will take away the need for ballast.
Plastic was laid over the wet resin and smoothed out to eliminate some of the sanding.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Tiny tugboats

My sons have ganged up on me and am now not allowed to build any more little tug boats. They think that I will drown myself so I bought a mini motor bike and this has been confiscated and is being sold. Party poopers. They think I am getting too old would you believe,Old. Now I have bought a canoe fourteen foot long and they want training wheels on it (outriggers) Wait til they see it go with a five hp motor on it. I am gathering steel and bits for a mini submarine that should scare the crap out of em. They only come down once a month or so and I will hide the sub bits and launch it between visits. If they find it and ask what it is I will tell them I found it and am going to scrap it. Kids dont ya love them. You wouldnt believe it photo uploading is not working again.






Thursday, April 5, 2012

drastic surgery


I launched the tug boat and it floated but will need drastic surgery as it is not floating to the water line. Will update in the near future.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

update

These contain 5 "D" cell batteries connected in series to get 12 volts.
Bending the timber to fit on the edge of the cockpit.

Glueing the edging on this is to cover end grain of the larger piece if timber..
Cabin roof done in two different timbers one being Origan floor boards the other is of unknown imported species that I got from Extreme flooring sales at south Nowra for free as these were offcuts. All the timbers are milled to size on a DeWalt flip flop saw.
The switch is wired for forward and reverse with stop in the middle.