tiny tug boat

It has been some time since writing, I am still here and am putting on the finishing touches to the steering. I think I am going to call it the "Arc" as it looks more like that than a tugboat.

My new touring commando boat

The seats slide on the black runners to adjust the weight to get the right trim.  Power is either 30lb  thrust electric outboard or 3.3hp outboard. It rows easily as well. This is a stable platform and will be used for photography on the local river, The Shoalhaven. It is 12 feet long.There is four fishing rod holders. Fully loaded it draws 300mm. There is room to sleep between the black bars when the seats are removed. Plastic boxes are tied to the black bars to hold all the gear for the trip and these rest in the top yellow hulls. If one was to fall from the boat it is easy to haul yourself back on board as the sides are very low.

resin over polystyrene part 3

There is another technique to lay up for the resin and that is to lay up using the same methods as for fiberglass.  Use pva wood glue and toilet paper and then allow this to dry paint with catalyzed resin then fiberglass as normal. This is the end of this  experiment. I would like comments on this maybe to enhance the process.

polystyrene and polyester resin coating part 2

The final results have come in and it can be said that polystyrene can be coated with polyester resin with a barrier of good quality PVA wood glue. If the following steps are taken.

Apply a coating of pva wood glue to the polystyrene and allow it to dry for two days.
Apply a coating of catalysed resin over the pva wood glue as you would apply paint and allow to harden
Apply glass and resin as normal over step two. If a thick coating is applied directly over the PVA glue then it will react with the PVA glue.
I would suggest that a coloured pigment is added to the PVA to allow you to know where you have been same goes for the first coat of resin.

 This photo shows wet resin with no catalyst added to the surface without the styrene dissolving.

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.

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.

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.