Garage Works - 7/29/2023

And before heading out to Noe's flute concert, I had enough time to place a seal/fill coat on to the bottom deck of No.32

5.6 ounces of aluzine epoxy mixed with 9 scoops of Thiksil and Aerosil.

Next step is to cut out the handle slot on the bottom and the footstrap/Foil Drive battery insert slots.  I may get to that later this evening (or maybe not if the wind kicks in).

Garage Works - 1/9/2023

I epoxied in the mast track boxes and got the seal/fill coat over the bottom deck.  I drilled through both stringers in two spots to make sure there will be pathways for the air to move between both sides of the blank (I'm only putting in one vent).

I'll have to sand down some spots under the weight I used to keep the boxes from moving around (they will move if you don't keep an eye on them), and also at the nose where I used epoxy/thiksil to rebuild the foam that came off during the shaping process.  The seal coat helps fill the spots where the shaping process gouged chunks of EPS, but also adds a layer of epoxy that will later stop pinholes (where the EPS blank sucks in the epoxy - and this is a whole other topic but you should only apply laminates while the temperature is falling).

After I sand those spots, I'll be ready to laminate the top deck.  I'm still debating the color tint - some type of blue, international orange, or a darker green....  It's funny what ends up being the hard parts of board building.

If I can figure out the deck color, I might have both sides laminated and the rail tape on by this weekend.

Garage Works - 1/8/2023

I got some work done on No.29 this morning.

I had done some calculations to determine the position of the mast tracks - and even after that I made a last minute adjustment (more forward).  Measured multiple times -

before cutting.

Getting the trak slots cut out of a narrow tailed board is not easy - shims, cantilevers and lots of measuring.

But you gotta cut sometime - 

And these came out perfect!  For reference, these are centered to bias the asymmetry (the middle of the stringers was where the templates were centered - I adjusted over to the starboard side by just over a centimeter).

And after that work I rearranged the garage and disposed of a bunch of things that weren't needed (like over 3 garbage bags of stuff).  Finally - before running errands with La, I added a seal/fill coat to the top deck - this is to try and avoid air bubbles in the fabric under the laminates.

When I get home from the grocery run, I'll seal/fill the bottom deck and get the track boxes epoxied in.

This is the view from the top - the Regular Foot Asymmetric Prone Foil board is coming along nicely.

Garage Works - 7/3/2022

I was having to answer work questions over the course of the day - so I opted to not go far today.  I ended up mowing the lawn, resolving an issue with a generator, making sure lots of trash was dumped and then I went to the garage.

I routed out the footstrap insert slots, prepped the inserts with acetone, then epoxied them in.

3.5 ounces to get the inserts set in the slots, then I went ahead and placed a thin skim coat over the top deck of the board (to seal the blank in preparation for lamination) - 4.9 ounces.

The two assemblies for the rear strap had some technical issues - the router bit blew open portions of the reinforcement block (I think next time I'll use the tile grout removal bit - more passes but less drama).  Nothing that some epoxy couldn't fix (in fact - it's probably stronger now).  This last one seems to have recessed a little bit - I'll probably have to drop the innegra so I don't have to grind down to open this strap insert. 

Tomorrow is top deck lamination day - I'm still debating, but right now I envision a dark blue base, and when the board is ready for the final top coat of epoxy, I'll use Posca pens to place some light blue stripes.

Garage Works - 5/1/2021

After we got back from winging/sailing, I did some work on some projects I had in the garage.  First - I did the fine sanding on the new 4'8" foilboard.  Got the top and bottom decks done.

After that I went ahead and sealed the top deck with epoxy and thiksil.

I didn't take a picture, but I did patch the Wide Wing Foil Board - there was a small crack in the glass on the nose.  I sanded it and filled it with epoxy.

Next, I took a batch of epoxy that I had separated from the 4.9 ounces I mixed for the seal coat and mixed milled fibers ad black pigment into it.  I used that to patch the pinholes in the HS1420CS (which will require another round of sanding) as well as filling Roland's fuselage.

Yes - the fuselage I just finished fixing - he cracked it along the same line.  I went ahead and opened it up again, cleaned it out, sanded the exterior and placed a bunch of the epoxy mix inside.  Tomorrow I'll sand off the excess, drill through the fuselage (using the hole nearest the front foil), open the top to accommodate a 1/4 20 locking nut, bolt it together and add another coat of epoxy to fill in the gaps and keep the nut/bolt protected from saltwater.

I'm always up for a challenge!!!