Happy birthday Don!
The Adventures of Thumper
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Thanks George
Cheers,Don
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Cold rainy day at the boat house. If your doing glue work on Hapalon or PVC boats remember this: Rain or high dew point is the enemy of successful bonding, wait another day. That said I put in some time sanding my speedtube or LBT (lower buoyancy tube joint area on the starboard MBT (Main buoyancy tube) with a flexible 180 grit block then wiping off all the dust with MEK solvent with gloved hands. Then it was back outside for hydrodynamic evaluation of my model hull.;)
Rest of today will be spent redesigning the trailer bunks to fit the new hull shape.Cheers, Don
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I hate to say it Don put that last picture you have is the first time I have seen your boat on water. Im hoping that you get her on the open seas soon . She must be getting antsy for some fiah to land on her deck.
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If I don't hurry up Thumper will just be a watertoy puller for me grandkids.;)
Cheers, Don
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Don't get me wrong Don I love this thread. Great seeing the progress. Hopefully this summer will be her maiden voyage.
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This is a job that is boring and no fun.
My new Milpro zodiac F470 speed tubes came with excess glue that needs to be removed before a quality bond can be made when I glue the speedtube skirt to the tube, followed by then gluing the 3'' wide rubstrake on the bottom. Remember the golden rule for gluing Hypalon fabric: New glue does not bond well to old glue.MEK is a solvent that can be used for fresh glue clean up but fully cured 2 part Zodiac glue is too much on this opp. I use a plastic paint removal disk and a med grit cone stone along with steady hands and patience. The preped surfce should look like swede. Do not sand too deep into the Hypalon top layer and do not expose any fabric. No easy way out on this one and after 1 hr am half way finished with one 14' speedtube.
Here is before and after. I just need to wipe down the thin film with MEK. Good gloves are a must to keep the chem off your skin along with a good mask.Cheers. Don
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Methyl ethyl keytone is nasty stuff. We use to use it to polymerize urethane sprayed on guitars as a base coat. Work looks clean.
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Methyl ethyl keytone is nasty stuff. We use to use it to polymerize urethane sprayed on guitars as a base coat. Work looks clean.
You probably used MEKP as the catalyst. MEK + Peroxide I think.:confused1:
Looks good Don!
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MEK is banned in Socal for sale in most hardware stores, but is can still found in PVC pipe primes pint cans.
Cheers. Don
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You probably used MEKP as the catalyst. MEK + Peroxide I think.:confused1:
Looks good Don!
Perhaps. It's been a while since I built guitars. I remember I had to wear a tyvek suit with air hose to work. Special face shields where mandatory when refilling the MEK.
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This Sat I plotted out the Starboard Speedtube location on the Main hull tube or MBT (main buoyancy Tube)
and today the tedious, boring glue removal on the Port speedtube. I'll hope for warm dry weather next week so I can start the first phase of gluing to the port MBT. Girl is out food shopping....so the boat bits get to come inside for a pix.Cheers, Don
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Will you have to inflate these tubes separately or are you connecting them to the main tubes for an easier fill?
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Will you have to inflate these tubes separately or are you connecting them to the main tubes for an easier fill?
They will be isolated from the other 5 chambers for added safety, the air valves/hose at Port and Starboard transom brackets. The Avon CRRC also has each chamber feed by one way valves connected to a high pressure tank. My also has a Bravo electric pump within the console to go with the Navy manual air pump as back up. If you look back at the stern image 531 you will see that Zodiac F470 has a metal clamp which pinches the hose that leads to the main tube. These are fitted after the boat is pressurized to isolate each speedtube in case of puncture.
Cheers, Don
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This weekend along with hiding Easter eggs I managed to bond on the port speedtube to the MBT and plot the location of the speedtube skirt,tape out and sand the bond area.The second image shows the 3'' wide rubstrake that will protect the lower tube bottom.There are 4 more steps to complete the port side. No bonding could be done today due to the humility. I wont BS, this hull redesign has been complicated and labor intensive. I never seem to take the easy way out....I'm tired.;)
Cheers, Don
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Had great weather for inflatable boat building this weekend. Just finished 90% of the 4 remaining steps of the Port speedtube construction. Ploting, solvent preprep, sanding, double coat gluing, rolling, and taping. That grey thing on the bow is called a tabling strip, it is not bonded to the bow at this point. I'm beat and tired of looking at this blow up toy for a few days. Next week the Starboard side begins. WoooHoo.
Cheers, Don
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Last ones.. The wax paper is use to keep the parts from sticking to another until aligned and set. The long wood 2x6 is temperately used as a sanding/ gluing base. The last image shows the 3'' rubstrake finisher strip.
Cheers, Don
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During this weekend I put in the 8hrs necessary to sand and prep the starboard hull and speedtubes and begin the steps to bond the speedtubes, skirt and rubstrake. One big problem though is my local Zodiac/Milpro dealer is backloged on Z7098 glue. I had to go to my backup plan and put a call into Dave at Annapolis Inflatable in Virginia and have some ordered.Those wrinkles will leave when I fully inflate the keel.
Cheers, Don
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Looking good. I'm thinking there will be a lot of stress put on those little tubes. If they don't tear off it will be a testament to the quality of your work and the glue of course.
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The only thing crazier than spearfishing is boat building. Obsession x 10. Looks good DP.
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