All four beam molds cut out and (mostly) prepped

Once you start cutting MDF, you might as well do whatever you can to get it over with.
Man I hate cutting that stuff, it kills blades, makes an unbelievable mess and is just ridiculously heavy! When I was finally done, it took two hours to clean the shop since the dust just settles everywhere.

I ripped and cut all the battens and spreaders for both the top and bottom molds, so hopefully it won't take much to get them all put together whenever I get some foam.

Probably the most nerve wracking part is making sure the Upper and Lower holes for the struts are placed exactly where they are supposed to be. I still need to make the doublers for those holes, but I'll do that next weekend as I've had enough of it for now.

Anyway, here are some progress pictures:

This is the full size template used to make sure everything lines up in the beams before you start gluing things together.
I've called it the "Last Chance" template, I think that's appropriate.

Remember those Beam Molds I made last year? The ones that were not quite up to spec?
Well, I found a good use for one of them. I cut it in half to represent the real thing.

If everything is cut to spec, then the "Last Chance" template should line up with the upper and lower strut holes while matching the face and top of the beam mold which is represented here with the scrap piece I cut in half.

Looks good from this angle

Nice fit on the face and top

And more importantly, the holes line up just right!

I squared up two sheets and then screwed them together on the outer edges. Then I traced the template before adding in some additional screws near the cut off area. The Track Saw worked great to get the tops of the molds  really straight before switching to a jig saw for the curve. The blue tape above marks the stopping point for the Track Saw.

First set Starboard Forward Top and Bottom matching set is ready for assembly

And another couple of days later I have all four sets ready for assembly.

More than enough battens pre-cut and waiting for assembly later on.
At the bottom, you can see the boards that will be used to separate the halves.

Building beam mold side frames.

I'm trying to keep busy while waiting for materials by starting on the beam molds.
In light of this, I have started the cut out's for the Forward Starboard mold.

I have a lot of work left to do, so hopefully I can get most of it taken care of over the weekend.

Also working on getting a heating blanket for the epoxy post-curing.

I had previously glued on an extension to these 3/4" (19mm) sheets of MDF, so it was simply a matter of screwing two sheets together (to ensure both sides are the same), double-checking the template against the plans and then tracing around the outer edge to get the cut-out shape defined.

Carefully marked holes for the pivot pins.
These holes will be double-checked with a gauge template included in the Full-Sized Plans.

Cut out and ready for sanding.
The pivot pin holes have been bored out as well.

The matching "top" side can be seen behind the dolly.