I have really enjoyed following the build logs posted on this site over the past year so decided I would post mine here as well.
This Mini40 project has been something I have been chipping away at for the last 12 months, it was put on the back burner for the last 4 months but I am now back in the workshop when time allows so will be starting this log at a point where most of my plugs are ready for moulding.
A big thanks to all forum contributors for their assistance and direction, particularly Ernst aka “disabled” for his “Nightmare” set of plans that got me started on this obsessive road.
I really fell for the Orma 60 tri’s , particular this one.I had to build one just like it!.
I am building moulds for everything so I can produce multiple units, won’t bore you with the details of how I got to this point but here are all the plugs I have completed thus far, they are polished, have 4 applications of release film and now ready for tooling gelcoat/ moulding. They are the Main hull, Ama hull, Rudder,centre fin,transom parting board flanges and enclosures for radio gear/batteries.
I have done a bit of bagging over the years but have never vacuum moulded onto a table.I have been playing with the idea of table vacuuming the hull plugs so thought the foil moulds would be a good place to practise as they are fairly simple plug forms.
So over the past couple of weeks I have been building these foil “half” moulds.
First off, pressed the 4mm stainless posts into post channel with plasticine and then screwed on a block of “sacrificial kitchen breadboard” onto each corner of plug to act as key lock for the two final halves.Then brushed on two coats of epoxy gelcoat, cured , sanded and coved the key locator edges with epoxy filleting mix.
One of these pics shows the two plugs sitting on the table with bag prepared and ready to laminate.
Bagged down a couple of more layers of 9 oz. Once these were past initial cure, glued a backbone of 20mm ply along the spine and then bagged a couple more layers of 9 oz over the ply.
Gave the whole thing a week to fully cure before pulling mould. Elevated temp/ cooled cycle etc…
Ran the angle grinder around the plug edge this morning and pulled the mould,The mould surface came up pretty clean with a easy release so i will now give them a few coats of release and build a few foil halves.
For those out there with a technical interest in my bagging of the above foils, attached is the graph of the first laminate vacuum I data logged for future reference.
For those out there with a technical interest in my bagging of the above foils, attached is the graph of the first laminate vacuum I data logged for future reference.
For those out there with a technical interest in my bagging of the above foils, attached is the graph of the first laminate vacuum I data logged for future reference.
Pulled the first set of foil halves from the new rudder board/centre board moulds, fitted the transom flanges to the hull plugs and a few half round keys to the flanges.
Hey Alan, cheers mate…not yet sure on rig but leaning towards traditional fixed rig, soft sails but would like a rotating mast and would love to play with wing concept … but its been a long road so for now only really focussed on getting hull /deck and crossmembers buillt…
The main hull mould has been sitting on the plug for a couple of weeks now and finally got some time to release the mould yesterday, here’s a couple of pics, so far have only given it two applications of mould sealer and I am very happy with result, very clean mould with great depth.
Started working on the deck plugs many months ago, built these out of MDF and florists foam- heres a few pics of the main hull deck plug under construction, very fast way to build a shape but difficult to get perfect symmetry with this method; close enough for a deck methinks.
Have now released the ama mould from plug, very happy with this result and have applied two coats of mould sealer and two coats of release film to the mould so far.
After a bit of experimentation with various paints I settled on Altex 2 pack polyurathane as a gelcoat for my first hulls out of the mould,sprayed a few coats onto both hull moulds and foil mould halves.
Pulled a few foil halves built with 2 x 3oz glass cloth on a 45 bias with a 6 oz uni carbon sandwich…heres a few pics of how these turned out straight out of the mould…
In fact I have completed both these hulls over the weekend and am presently baking them for another 12 hours, then will release them next weekend from moulds.
Home bored with a terminal case of manflu, cannot do the resin thing cause the sinuses protest , besides the temps have dropped here to 10 degrees c, winter sucks so relieve the tedium I broke my promise and parted the Ama hull from mould.
Nice result…gelcoat seems to have bonded well and the laminate is fairly rigid.
Maybe a little heavy at around 300 grams, resin/glass ratio stacks up at 50/100 approx so I am picking a carbon layup next time will help.
Another day at home with a head full of sand, I would like to say thank you very much to all the methheads in NZ who have succeeded in having all pseudo ephedrine products removed from the pharmacy shelf…and thanks to the pharmacies who now sell a pseudo- pseudo ephedrine product disguised as colddrex and coldral which absolutely do not work like in the old days , would have been better off finding a local dealer in P precursor.
Anyhow…I digress…pulled the 1st main hull of the mould today and it is all good, once again maybe a little heavy at 360 grams but I can improve that next time round.Pic here shows the actual size of max beam 1220 cm…sure are big boats.
