C17 in New Zealand.

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OneWayTraffic
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Location: New Zealand

Re: C17 in New Zealand.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

Well the bottom and side panels are stitched.
I put the bottom on first to check alignment. Stitched the sides a day later. It went well once I removed the starboard chine panel from the port side, turned it the right way up, redrilled the stitching holes at the bottom rather than the top and restitched! :oops:


Mostly happy with it; it all went together well except I need to check symmetry in a few places.


I think frame B is slightly off centre: the side bulges out at B about 10mm (3/8") more one side than the other. Still need to put the transom on, the current plan is to support it on blocks and just lean it against the side and bottom panels. I'll use screws, then glue. I did fill the weave of the glass tape on the transom, and put a generous fillet under the clamping board. I really don't want water getting in there.

The inside of all the hull panels has a very thin coat of epoxy, just enough to hopefully moderate expansion and moisture absorption. It's dry this time of year, but we get rain in the winter. No snow I hope.

There seems to be some gaps between the panels and the frames, I am not stressing about these, but am wondering how much the Meranti will bend to take the camber if I leave it a few days before gluing?

Photos in an hour or so.
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OneWayTraffic
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Re: C17 in New Zealand.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

And the transom is on. Just screwed and sitting on a bracket at the moment. I think I’m nearly ready to glue this thing. Not much if any hook or rocker in the bottom and sides are laying nicely on the frames nearly everywhere.
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OneWayTraffic
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Re: C17 in New Zealand.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

That last photo should indicate what I plan with the transom. I’ll cut the sides diagonally between Frame E and the transom either before or after flipping.

OneWayTraffic
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Re: C17 in New Zealand.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

I tacked the hull yesterday. Today I went around with a power planer to round off some of the hard edges and remove excess glue. For better or worse, the hull shape is set.

I'm not sure if I will get time to glass it this weekend. Expecting showers tomorrow so I've wrapped a groundsheet over it. The tunnel house has a leak or two. :help:
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OneWayTraffic
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Re: C17 in New Zealand.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

Well I found a bit of rocker in the hull. I posted a question to the 'Power boats' forum. Hopefully I'll get some age advice before I jump in and start fixing or glassing.

MikeyGnz
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Re: C17 in New Zealand.

Post by MikeyGnz »

What part of NZ you in OWT?

OneWayTraffic
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Re: C17 in New Zealand.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

MikeyGnz wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 3:06 pm What part of NZ you in OWT?

Amberley. You are welcome to drop by and have a look sometime. PM me.

MikeyGnz
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Re: C17 in New Zealand.

Post by MikeyGnz »

OneWayTraffic wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 4:41 pm
MikeyGnz wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 3:06 pm What part of NZ you in OWT?

Amberley. You are welcome to drop by and have a look sometime. PM me.
That's about an hour from me. Give me a yell if you need a hand with anything.

OneWayTraffic
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Re: C17 in New Zealand.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

When I started this build I told myself two things.

1. That I'd do the best job that I was capable of considering my experience at the time.

2. That I'd post the bad and the good online, so I could get reliable advice. Brag posts are for my Facebook page.

So I had a bit of a setback during the hull glass layup. I've layed up glass before, but never so much.

Anyway day dawned fine and hot so I got into it. I had decided to glass one side of the boat at a time with secondary bonding along the keel.

One layer 400g along the bottom running down the hull side. Glass isn't required all the way down the side. A second layer on top. Wet on Wet Ouch

So I started. Cut out the first layer of glass, and got it wet out in about 3 hours. It got hot, probably about 35 degrees C pushing 40 in that tunnel house. Even with WEST Slow I had to hurry at times.

That layer actually wet out ok. There were a few air bubbles here and there, but nothing to cry about.

After finishing at about 2pm I was buggered. So I went inside and took a break. I was beginning to feel the heat, which may explain why I left my bubble buster roller outside rather than in the container of acetone. :oops:

Anyway time for the second layer. The first layer was barely tacky by then and I was beginning to worry about getting wet on green without sanding.

So after considering whether I should just stop at one layer for the day, I started being in "get 'er done" mode. Mistake. :help:

The problems started almost immediately. I managed to get the glass spread out fairly smooth with a bit of wrestling. But as soon as I started wetting out, bubbles! A lot of them, hundreds at least, mostly small buried under the glass.
I tried pushing them out with a lot of force from the squeegee, but I really needed that roller!

So anyway 7pm done, quick shower and off to a restaurant for tea. This morning I drilled out all of the bigger bubbles, injected epoxy in those that I could, filled the weave with epoxy thickened to ketchup consistency and put a first light coat of fairing on the sides.

But the more I look at the remaining bubbles the more it bothers me. I think that they aren't a structural issue, due to the first layer of cloth laying down well. I am worried about water getting in, and issues down the line.
I know now how to prevent most of this happening again: Fill the weave between layers, and apply in the pm when it's steady temp or cooling down. But I have a bit of pondering to do.

A lot of air bubbles around the bottom to transom overhang as well. I put a radius on but should have done twice as much. I got some of the glass to lay down, but not all.

Being my own QA, I am currently thinking that I will reject that job and introduce the layup to my Saw-max diamond blade. Then a belt sander, much bigger radius on the corner and retape with some generous overlaps.

I will mull it over a bit first, but that joint is very important; it needs the best work possible and currently that's not on it.

One of the reasons I chose to build rather than buy is I like solving interesting problems, and I wanted a challenge. Well I have no shortage of interesting problems so far, but each step is a step closer to launch.
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joe2700
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Re: C17 in New Zealand.

Post by joe2700 »

OneWayTraffic wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 4:56 am Anyway time for the second layer. The first layer was barely tacky by then and I was beginning to worry about getting wet on green without sanding.
I was about to let you know that you can still recoat without sanding after the surface is no longer tacky, but I looked up the west system documentation before I opened my mouth and it seems you can't with their epoxy. In the manual the only mention of the word recoat is below:
The mixture will become tack free about midway through the initial cure phase. While
it is still tacky (about like masking tape), a new application of epoxy will still chemically
bond with it, so you may still bond to or recoat the surface without special preparation.
However, this ability diminishes as the mixture approaches the final cure phase.
- https://www.westsystem.com/wp-content/u ... l-2015.pdf

With system 3 silvertip you have 72 hours to recoat without sanding, perhaps because it's blush free? You can keep working without sanding as long as you get about a layer per day, which I take advantage of.
Cures quickly to a sandable state (no sanding required between coats when recoating within 72 hours).
-https://www.systemthree.com/products/si ... poxy-resin

West system 105 is quality stuff, but some of its properties are falling behind the 2:1 high performance epoxies we have now. I know some are pretty hard to find in some places though, or people already have west on hand or can get it cheap.

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