Custom Fiberglass Extended Swim Platform

tpenfield

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Quick update . . .

The stretcy bagging material did not work out so well. I think I may have been stretching it too much in some areas and not enough in others :rolleyes: It ended up puncturing. So . . .

It's standard bagging material with pleats.

I'll probably infuse later this evening. The Admiral fell & hurt her arm, so got to have the urgent care place take a look. :(

Probably fractured . . . hurts wicked bad to twist her arm.

Meanwhile . . . here is a picture of where I am at . . .
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tpenfield

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Evening update. . .

The Admiral's arm is not broken :) She'll be wearing a sling for a week or so, but at least no cast.

I did the infusion . . .

I had trouble getting a good vacuum, but managed to get it done

Here are the first few moments . . .
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I had to coax the resin a bit with the roller.
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The bag sprung a leak at the resin fittings, so I had to do a little bit of patchwork on the fly. I probably needed another set of feed lines in those 2 areas. I'll see how things look in the AM.
 

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tpenfield

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I did a 'secondary infusion on the 'wings' this morning by adding resin under vacuum. Hopefully, they wetted out OK. :noidea:

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It seems that I am short 1 gallon of resin . . . I thought that I bought 7 gallons, but maybe it was 6 :noidea: Anyway, I have a little under 2 gallons left, so I will probably order 2 more gallons. I used an extra gallon on the main infusion, because within the first 10 minutes or so, it did not look like enough.

Next steps will be to de-bag the mold and get ready to lay in the core pieces.
 

sphelps

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Glad the admirals arm is ok !
This infusion thing is really cool ! Thanks for. Pics ! Time lapse video would be awesome!
 

tpenfield

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Thanks guys for the well wishes. The Admiral is learning to do things with one arm while the other heels.

I got the platform de-bagged and did some grinding to clean things up. Here are a few pictures.
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Tomorrow, I plan on adding a layer of glass to the flat areas and laying-up the core pieces.
 

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tpenfield

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Lamination Update . . .

I had Friday off and also took a vacation day today (Monday) to make for a 4-day weekend :)

An early start today, working on the lamination of the glass layers and core material. I figured if I could get the large flat area done up to enclosing the core, that would be a decent amount of work.

The flat area that goes over the existing platform is going to have 2 bolts going through the existing platform (along with lots of 4200 adhesive). The Tech Assistance group at Formula shared their method of fastening the extended platforms, so I'm using a similar method. My plan is to embed the bolts into the underside of the platform, so I got some squared SS U-Bolts and cut them in half.

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Here is the 1708 all laid out and rolled.
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Next will be the core material (foam strips that can be seen stacked on the rear of the platform). The core is a bit tricky, as it is strips with 8 oz cloth woven in between to make a corrugated core (aka 'navtruss') rather than a solid core.

It looks like I will be a bit short on materials (glass & resin), so I'll see about getting some more before next weekend.
 

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tpenfield

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I just ordered some more resin & glass, along with a little bit of pour-in foam. I'll pick it all up on Friday AM. VE resin prices have gone up quite a bit in the past year . . . now more than 2X the price of poly, it seems. :eek: :faint2:
 

tpenfield

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Update . . .

I laid out the core material and secured it (with resin) to the platform. Next step was to embed the 'J' Bolts in the platform.

Here are a few pictures . . .

Core material laid out.
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I have about 1/2 gallon of resin left, so not really enough to do anything meaningful. So, that's about it until next weekend. :)
 

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Scott Danforth

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Looking good Ted....i feel lucky that I have a 'glass supply house near by
 

tpenfield

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Looking good Ted....i feel lucky that I have a 'glass supply house near by

The nearest glass guy to me is about 90 minutes away. He is a bit expensive, but to order elsewhere the shipping costs eat up the difference real fast. I don't mind driving the 90 minutes once in a while to pick up stuff.
 

tpenfield

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Quick update . . .

I will be picking up the additional resin, some more DBM1708 and a small pour-in foam kit today.

I have been searching for a few better methods on wetting out large sheets (2' x 8' ) of the 1708 biaxial. In my past boat restoration work, I have used a large shallow pan for the resin and laid smaller pieces in the pan to soak. Working with larger pieces on this project has been more tricky to get the resin spread out evenly and soaking in on large (2' x 8') pieces.

A couple of methods that I have come across so far are to . . .

1) Lay the cloth out on the substrate, then fold half of it back on itself . . . wet out the half of the substrate and the half of the underside of the cloth that are exposed. Then fold the cloth back onto the substrate. Repeat for the other half.

2) Use polyethylene sheeting on a table . . . put the cloth face side down on the sheeting, pour the resin on the backside of half of the cloth. Fold the other half onto itself (sort of like booking wallpaper). Then put another polyethylene sheet over the cloth and use a rolling pin (or squeegee) to move the resin around.

I am wondering if there are some other 'tricks' that folks have used to wet out large pieces of biaxial :noidea:

Feel free to chime in. :thumb:



For this weekend, the plan is to . . .

Put layer #2 of 1708 on the 'upper' deck, then secure the remaining foam core strips.

Use a bit of the pour-in foam around the perimeter of the foam strips to fill in gaps. I am getting 2 lb foam, and for the perimeter, I plan on pre-cooling the foam liquid parts so the I get less expansion and a higher density. We shall see how that goes.

Then I will trim up the cured foam and start on the outer layers of glass

Time permitting, I will work on some structural support in the 'pylon' areas and rear edge areas. I plan on boxing in some beveled areas on the underside that will be near the waterline. I'll use more of the pour-in foam to fill those structures.
 
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