Beam Molds Painted

I got these back from the paint shop yesterday. Darren used some excess paint from one of his auto jobs to paint the molds with a base coat then a clear coat. They turned out really nice.

All packed up and stored in the basement for use later on.

Beam Molds Primed

The paint shop called to let me know that the beam molds were primed and ready for pick up.

They look nice but the paint really makes all the little imperfections show up, so I've got some touch up work to do in addition to some wet sanding. Then back to the paint shop for a final coat.

Beam Mold Progress

After spending some time filling and sanding the Beam Molds, I got them off to the paint shop for a coat of High-Build Epoxy Primer. They should be back next week for another round of sanding.

Beam Bolt Recess Molds - Do Over

After the glue dried on the beam molds, I got out the ruler and angle gauge to verify the final measurements before moving on with filling and sanding. Unfortunately, it appears that I over-complicated the construction with all the various angles involved and failed to account for some things. The end result was close, but I wasn't happy with it.

So off to the store for another sheet of MDF.
This time, I opted for a much simpler solution and built a jig to ensure the parts would be held to identical angles.

Once the jig measurements were checked and re-checked (and then checked one more time), I cut all the tops, sides, fronts and internal bracing members. This all took about five hours.
This stack of wood pieces was cleaned up and brought inside to warm up so I could glue it up later while watching the game.

This process was MUCH faster and allowed an opportunity to check and make slight adjustments to the final shape before the glue set up. The next morning I checked all four molds and confirmed the angles were either identical or off by only a tenth of a degree!

After that, it was off to the garage again for some work with the router to round off the edges.
(I still can't find my dust masks from the move, but the paint mask was quickly found and worked quite well. Besides, my seven year old thought I looked like a Storm Trooper).

Beam Bolt Recess Molds

With a day off for New Years, a sheet of 3/4" (19mm) MDF and a brand new Track Saw in hand it was time to build some Beam Bolt Recess Molds! I plan on building all four beams simultaneously to simplify the material cut-out and layup process. Since the beams are absolutely critical to the integrity of the boat, I'll also build a fifth "scratch" mold to use for layout training and sequencing. It'll also serve as an end result for testing and inspection.  I believe the extra time and materials invested into this will help to determine the best way of building the highest quality parts. I'm not so much concerned about all the carbon wraps on the outside, it's getting a high quality internal layup that I'm mostly concerned with. If you look back through my earlier posts, you'll find that I've already spent quite a bit of time trying to work out some of the intricacies of the materials layup within that part. From what I can tell, it appears to be the most complex part of the entire build. (Time will tell...)

Anyway, due to the number of dissimilar fabric layers and my overall inexperience, I won't be infusing the beams. I'm dreaming up some sort of modified Vacuum Bagging solution to make it all come together... I've got some ideas on how that might work, but we'll see if that works out or not.

In the meantime - some pictures of beam molds being built.

Notice the great cut quality on these pieces via the Track Saw:

Once all the pieces were cleaned up and positioned for folding on some painters tape, they were simply glued and folded into the correct shape. That part was easy... getting all the angles right was not!

I still have quite a bit of work to do on these, but for now the glue is curing.