Team Seacats

I worked quite a bit with the one meter this weekend. I had been contacted by someone who was looking to purchase a raw keel bulb for a similar r/c model so I sold him one although I hadn’t planned to get into this part of the project until much later. If you remember from a long time back, I drew up a common bulb NACA foil shape in 3D on the computer (using Solidworks) and calculated it’s volume / size to achieve a 4lb bulb. With some printed templates transfered to a piece of sheet aluminum, Neville turned a solid PVC plug of the bulb on his lathe. We then built a plywood box, greased everything with Vaseline, screwed the plug to one side, and filled it half-way with Rock Hard Putty (similar to plaster of paris). Once that set, we greased the top of the hard Rock Hard Putty and poured the other half of the mold. Everything separated perfectly and we left things to sit in Neville’s garage. The mold had quite a bit of moisture in it from the curing process and during the next several weeks, the mold started to grow mold (he he). Since I was planning to pour molten lead into the mold, it was important that the mold be dry since any water could flash boil and cause the mold to crack or explode which would likely put molten lead in and on places I would rather not have it (including myself). In order to dry the mold I placed it in the oven set at 150 for about two hours, then at 185 for another two hours. Then I moved it up to 225 for an hour (above the boiling point of water), and then at 350 for about 20 minutes before molding. I did this while I prepared the lead.

The lead was prepared using a propane camp stove and a coffee brew pot with a lid. Using a skimmer / ladel, I would hold used tire wheel weights above the pot and melt them with a map gas torch. Pretty soon I had about 12 pounds of molten lead cooking in the pot. WARNING: if you try this, note that some very toxic gases come out of this mixture and it is imperative that you work in a well ventilated area and wear adequate breathing apparatus. I kept a fan blowing from behind me to help move the fumes away from me as well. Once the mold was ready, I heated the spout of the pot with the torch (to make sure the lead didn’t cool and clog) and gently poured it into the mold. After letting things cool down for 20 minutes, the mold separated easily revealing a pretty clean bulb. I was concerned about the 1st half of the mold that was poured because it had numerous bubble ‘pocks’ left from when the liquid putty made contact with the bulb. The concern turned out to be pretty founded as there was some air trapped just below the surface of the mold that expanded and cracked big flakes on the inside of the mold when the lead got things really hot. In general, there are several hair line cracks in the mold that showed up after the drying process so it will need to be remade – and when we do so, we’ll use fiberglass reinforcement and use one of these half molds to form the 1st bottom so any air bubbles will end up on the side opposite the plug.  That, or I may just make the investment in a machined aluminum mold complete with fittings for the keel blade slot.  Oh, BTW, the bulb weighed in at exactly 4 pounds.

I also worked on the fence for the hull a bit and it’s almost ready.  I used some cradles I made on the hull several weeks ago to mount the hull securely on it’s side.  Then I transfered the hull perimeter to a piece of Lexan using a square and a sharpie.  Then I cut out the Lexan and because the opening was just a little too small, had to split it in two to make it easier to fit it exactly to the plug.  I have to rejoin the two halves of the fence with just the right amount of space between them, fill the crevice that’s left, tweak some of the spacers to get the height of the fence just right on the plug, and then do the final spit and shine on the hull plug.  Once that’s done, I’ll fit the fence to the plug using clay to seal the two together tightly and start the molding process.

I think I’ve got it figured out – I believe the photo gallery plug-in was pounding the database that runs the site and I would get shut down when there was over 50,000 polls to the database within 59 minutes (server limit). I disabled the photo gallery and we’ll see if that takes care of it. I’ll have to figure out a plan B.

Yes, there is such a thing as good press and we just got a bunch at High Octane One Designs.

This has been circulating for a few days (was on Sailing Anarchy and recently posted by Ding at 1design.net). Watch this wreck. (we’ll have some more progress on the one meter this weekend! – stay tuned).

What do you think, is this an acceptable end?  I think it was a Hobie 18?