Working on DS 1795 #3A
Last evening I went out to look at the boat and learned that some the core on the starboard side was not bonded to the hull. The fix was to take the affected area out re apply adhesive and put it back in, which was easily done. The foam core consists of separate square pieces held together with some fiberglass scrim on one side. There were perhaps 12 pieces that were not bonded properly, all in one location. I cut the scrim, and removed the loose sections, mixed up some more putty rebonded each piece.
The pressing clamp apparently did not do such a good job, and if I were to grade my own design I'd give it a C-. Things I'd do differently:
- Use very thin strips of wood instead of the 1" X stock to allow conforming to the compound curve contour of the hull.
- Ensure that the strips are placed such that the hinges have as small an angle change change as possible. I was not at all happy about this. It became obvious to me after the second core was pressed in that the middle strip was acting like a person's ankle when twisted in stead of a proper ankle providing support to the body. I'm not sure if I'm communicating that very well, but that's all I can think of to describe it at this time.
- Use a different material than the acrylic. The plastic is prone to cracking.
- To secure the wooden strips to the acrylic, I'd probably secure them only at the center point, rather than at the center and each end, to allow it to flex more easily. This would probably alleviate some of the cracking I encountered.
I hope this will work, in any event. I have little choice but to press on.
Posted by Bob at January 13, 2005 08:07 AM