In between boatbuilding - CNC mill!

In between the boatbuilding I also work on converting a table top mill to CNC control. Great fun as metalworking is an almost unknown skill to me.

Picture of the first motor mount with stepper.

Homemade carbon chainplates.. Experimental

Just two quick photos showing our carbon chainplates installed and the blank they were made from. Chainplates are glued into the hulls.

Inside the hole in the chainplate is a stainless steel tube to take any abrasion. This steel is isolated from the carbon by two layers of 200gsm glass.

You can read about the stress test we did here: http://www.catsailor.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=247737#Post247737

Here are some pics from the stress test:

Getting the test rig ready:

 Test rig in operation:

 End result was a bent 5mm 316SS bolt and our last reading was 3.8 tons of load sustained. I think we have a good margin of strength to work with here.

Been a while..

We have been working on repetitive tasks for a while now. But finally something more interesting to show!

Hulls are now mostly complete. Still some details to do under the beamseats to make it all waterproof and the rear plywood deck to install. But major work is now done. Well, at least all major work except fairing and painting..

The picture shows the geometry of the finished platform. This was before drilling the beams and beam seats.

Currently the mainbeam have been seated with epoxy and is now hardening in my workshop. Pictures later :-)


We are now going to work on more interesting stuff and new stuff, so updates will be more frequent.