Garage Works - 3/20/2025

And this morning I got to reshaping Dennis's rear stabilizer.

For this work, the bench grinder is best.

Got outline dialed in and the tip foil redone with the grinder.

Then I used the random orbital to do the final shaping and the initial sanding runs.

When the shape was good - I went ahead and wet sanded to 1000

Once the sanding was all done I looked it over and noticed that the core just poked through the carbon.

I went ahead and placed a thin coat of epoxy over the core showing to makes sure it was waterproof. 

I had to file some of the epoxy creases off -

And Dennis already stopped by to pick it up.

Good stuff!!!

Chop Shop Uni 300

I've been hitting the bottom lately with this Uni 300 rear stabilizer.  Instead of just filling/sanding it, I decided to go ahead and cut the tips down.  At full size, this rear stabilizer has a lot of stability and lift.  Cutting down the tips while keeping the chord width should loosen up the ride without losing the lift (which helps with not having to pump all the time).  Here's the paper template and the outline transferred to the rear stabilizer.

I used a dremel to cut the bulk off.  Then I used the bench sander to get it rough shaped.  Then I used the sander to fair in the cuts so the foil blends in, and to get it close to the finished shape and thickness.

I cut into the core layer - exposing a layer of kevlar.  I'll mix up some epoxy and fill the cuts and scratches.  Then I'll have to sand again to thin everything out.

Not too bad.  I plan on using this rear stabilizer for surfing and ripping turns!

Grinding Down the HS1550

Got the squared off cuts from yesterday ground down to flow with the foil of the uncut portion of the wing.

This wing had more core material - and in order to get the shape, I had to open up the carbon and expose the core material.

This is fixable - just have to add carbon cloth, sand, add more carbon cloth, sand... you get the idea.

I'll take it step by step over the next several days.

Bench Sander and Scroll Saw Day

Yesterday afternoon I put in more time to getting pieces and parts lined up.  I used the bench sander to get the kitefoil front wing and two fuselages roughed in.

I tried sanding down the reinforcement blocks (for the mast tracks) with the bench sander, but it was taking longer than I wanted.  I cleared the scrolled saw (serves as a garage shelf when not in immediate use) and set it up to trim the blocks.  It worked perfectly!

Next steps here (as this now makes 5 concurrent projects) are using the random orbital sander to fair in the foil parts, and using the plunge router to clear a void for the mast track boxes to fit in.

Making Base Plates

Put the bench sander to work again - nothing takes off a 1/4" faster (except a full on planer). 

Also drilled in the holes for the mounting bolts.

More Rough Shaping

I had a couple of hours to work on the foils yesterday. 

I knocked out a couple of rear wings and struts before my belt split.  And for all you tool geeks out there - this is a handy device to dimension out your projects -

Getting Back on the "Horse"

It's been a while since I have shaped anything.  Most things I've been working on recently have been repairs or modifications.  Well - that changed today.  I have been rearranging the garage to get the tools into an area that is more conducive for using.  With that completed, I broke out the new bench sander and shaped the front hydrofoil wings I templated out (unfortunately a while back now).

The Porter Cable sander was strong and removed wood easily.  It still took some time because of the large size of the wing, but I got the three wings ready for detail sanding.

Tomorrow I'll try and get the struts and fuselages rough sanded.