Saturday, May 14, 2011

Supports, Support and Supports

Now that the seat back is attached to the hull, it is time to sand it, remove any large bubbles in the fabric or flaws in the resultant glass covering, and check how things are progressing.

The holes drilled for the gearbox support and the hatch were drilled again as the bolts no longer fit due to the resin used to seal the wood. In doing so, some of the wood surfaced, so I decided to use the next size larger bit and re-drill the wood. This way, after I apply resin again, and drill again with the proper sized bit, the wood should remain coated.

A couple of the corners of the seat back needed to be patched as the cloth didn't stay flat against the wood.

Otherwise, the grab tube and glass around the grab tube was very nice and pretty clean. The construction seemed to be very strong, and I could lift the boat by them. Still, I am concerned that there really isn't that much other than the seat back itself structurally securing the tube in place, so I decided to augment that with some 12 oz cloth wrapped over the grab tube and secured to the sides of the hull.


I took advantage of the 12 oz cloth's ability to bunch up by having it bunch up over the top of the grab tube and then spread flat where it attached to the hull. Wrapping the joint a couple of times with shrink wrap helped to keep the glass tight against the side of the seat back, too.

In addition, on the right side where the cloth securing the seat back to the hull extended onto the hull for only an inch or so, I added some 3.5 oz cloth that extended a couple more inches in both directions beyond the 6 oz cloth.

I decided to try an alternate way of securing the wooden reinforcements for the aka supports to the hull. Originally I was planning to sandwich some 12 oz cloth between the deck and wooden reinforcements to accommodate the thickness of the stainless T-nuts. Now, however, I decided to have a thick layer of structural fillet putty there instead as this would better handle the slightly warped wood and fill in the gaps around the T-nuts.


I marked and drilled (on a drill press) the four 1/2 inch holes in the aka support tube bracket. The holes were positioned somewhat close to the outer sides of the bracket, but leaving room for the fender washers.

After marking the deck with the positions of the reinforcement pieces, and measuring (4 times!) the distance to the stern from both sides of the aka support tube bracket placed on said reinforcement pieces, I marked the positions of the drilled holes from the bracket onto the reinforcements. Half-inch holes were then drilled through the reinforcements.

I double checked that the T-nuts fit through the reinforcement pieces, and when mated with the aka bracket the assembly then fit where the markings on the hull indicated. Success!

I cut a 13 by 15 inch rectangle of 3.5 oz cloth on a 45 degree bias to cover the reinforcements and the deck in that area, extending several inches down the sides. I chose a bias angle to enhance how the cloth laid over the corners of the reinforcements and the irregularities between the two pieces.

The T-nut holes were marked on the cloth and, using a home-made die cutter I cut the holes in the cloth for the T-nuts to fit through.

The die cutter was made from a half inch diameter steel tube I had laying about. I sharpened one end of the tube on the bench grinder. After placing the cloth on a piece of pine I took a hammer and pounded out holes in the positions marked on the cloth.

The die cutter worked pretty well. I just had to make sure the cloth was positioned over a fresh area on the board so the fibers were cut.

The fabric fit over the T-nuts like a glove.


Finally, I cut the remaining outer fiberglass tubing into six 3/16 wide rings and two 2.5 inch wide tubes. The 2.5 inch tubes are to be the outer bearings for the dipping rudders, and the rings are to limit the side to side motion of those tubes.

The remaining two rings are to be used with the aka tubes to limit how far they can be inserted into the aka support bracket. I found this feature to be quite useful for the Cadence aka tubes when hunting for the push pin hole.



Rather than rig up another wooden plate support for the rudder axle assembly I decided to merely use fillet material and 12 oz glass, and secure the smaller diameter fiberglass tube to the top of the deck. Two additional 12 oz pieces were used to secure the tube on either side in the same fashion as the grab tube.

The end result was perhaps not as pretty as something done with some sort of wooden reinforcement, but it was a lot faster to make. Perhaps it could be sheathed in wood later on to make it look nicer. All I know is that the aka bracket took way too long and does not look all that good to me!

When doing all this, I mixed 6 heaping spoonfuls of fillet material. There was a bit left over so I spread it onto some shrink wrap. It sort of looked like a Power Bar. Anyway, it might be useful as spacers for the aka bracket if I need to raise it a little.

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