Thursday, December 06, 2007

Done setting up stations, we hope.

Here Frode is clearly realising that we are getting good at this. At least we hope we are getting good at it. It looks fair, and we hope the end result will be fair as well. Next time we will be able to do this a heck of a lot faster! Next time we will be much more careful when we mark and cut the stations as well. One millimeter here and one there can spell trouble. CNC cut stations would be fantastic to work with!





Now all stations are up, except station 5 and 30. They should be quick work next building session. We have experimented a bit with handheld circlesaws for ripping the strips. So far the two cheap chineese saws we tested have not been straight. Even a 1mm offset between the frame and the blade spells disaster when ripping. We are now trying to borrow a decent saw so we can rip some strips next week. If we can't get a good saw, we will have to fall back on a table saw. We might have to do so anyway if we dont master the technique, but if first time kayak builders manage..

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is "CNC cut stations"?

Rolf Nilsen said...

Instead of plotting and cutting the stations by hand, you let a CNC router cut the stations. Perfect shape make such stations easier to set up and align. End result should also be better.

Vidar Haugsvær said...

A couple of people collaborating investing such a beast, could perhaps be time and cost-effective depending on the value of your time? ;-)

http://www.cncrouterstore.com/

Could the cnc router also cut the strips?

At my fathers farm we have a saw mill. Grap a couple of chains-saws to chop some fast-growing norwegian west-coast spruce and we're into mass-producing F16 Blades? ;-)

Rolf Nilsen said...

I dont think so Vidar. Building wood boats as a commercial venture would be very risky. It is so much easier and faster to produce a fiberglass boat with consistent quality.
If we had found plywood we wuld definately have gone that route for this project instead of strip. A much faster building method.
We hope that the hulls we build in strip plank will be stiffer than a ply or glass hull, but we dont know yet. That and being able to build at all, are about the only advantages to strip planking in this project.

Anonymous said...

Guys, have you tried to weigh the wood you are using to get an estimate density ? Curious how heavy spruce is in comparison to the the catalogue numbers.

Anonymous said...

hi, would you guild me where to buy the building plans?

i'm looking for small beach catamaran to built like blade and taipan for hobby and experience purpose

Rolf Nilsen said...

Joseph,

go to http://www.catsailor.com/forums/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=Fleet45

Make a search for Phill Brander, the designer of the Blade series. Search for home building and you will get lots of good advice.
If you want to, you can build the older design, Taipan, as well. You used to be able to buy plans from Greg Goodall at http://www.ahpc.com.au/

If you are to build, I suggest you register at catsailor as well and present yourself and your motivation to build. You can always reach Phill and other builders trough the F-16 forum there.