Stone Mountain Lake

I went fishing today. It was short because my ride wasn't feeling well and we had a slow start to the day. No fish were biting, I think fish skip lunchtime...

bad camera, just had the cell phone cam. I zoomed in so you can kind of make me out, the second one you can see the rod.

Peachtree Roadrace #2

Andrew pulled some pics off of his phone from the race. They should give you an idea of what it looked liked running along...

At the end he has the lost fishing pic, so definitely check that out ;-)

http://howarda20837.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/peachtree-10k-pics

Boat: Tested w/video

Sara and I went to Andrew H.'s place to test out the boat. Charles met us there and helped with holding it while I got in. The actual test was fairly uneventful, except my awkward first attempt and Sara getting a bit wet when she got in. Enjoy the pics and videos, we plan on using the boat this spring and summer.

Who wants a ride?

Boat: Finished and ready for test

Sara and I finished painting the boat last night. Some places need a little bit of touch up, the paint came off of the PL construction adhesive when it had been taped over.

Other that that, I am thinking of a test on Saturday because the weather will mostly cooperate.

Let's see if this baby floats!

Boat: Taped

The boat now has the masking tape applied before the next coat of paint. It is really close to being done.

We are unveiling the name of the boat here, enjoy! It will be painted on the bottom and sides with blue, so it will basically be opposite colored from what you see there.



Oh yeah. and I had some extra help with this. Nic came over and helped Sara and I get it taped up and ready to go.

Boat Paint-ed: Yellow

The boat has the yellow coat painted on.

Tomorrow or so we will mask off certain parts and finish up the painting in blue. Then we are off to test the boat.

Does anyone know of a good way to add a music to a video (avi)?

Also, who wants to see the launch? I think I have a fairly complete list, but everyone is welcome. The real question is if it should be on the weekend or after work one day. It might depend on the available lighting.

Boat: Primer-ed

The boat now has two coats of primer.

All that is left is to design the paint scheme and paint the boat. We have secured a testing facility and envision a test after school/work one day so that people can see it. There should be a youtube video soon of the test.

Does anyone know where to buy those foam noodles in the winter?

Bilge Pump

I made a bilge pump today, it was based on this design.



Parts:

• 3 : 1 inch 10-24 machine bolts w/nuts (you only need one nut)
• 1 : 24 inch dowel 1/2 inch diameter
• 1 : 24 inch pvc pipe 1 inch diamter
• 1 : PVC L connector
• 1 : PVC End cap
• 1 : cupboard pull
• 2 : 1 inch squares of duct tape
• 1 : 1 inch disk of plastic (I am temporarily using balsa, might use the plywood from the boat)

It should cost you around $10 at home depot. I used a tap on the holes where the bolts were threaded, I don't know if that is absolutely necessary. The duct tape was folded on itself and then cut into a circle. I used the outer diameter of the pipe as the size, the plastic or wooden disk is the inner diameter. I pushed the pipe on anything that needed to be a circle so that I could cut it accurately.



The pump works great (tested in the sink) and really gets the water moving. On the handle I had to drill the hole all of the way through, and then use a 1/2 inch bit to only drill down about half way. Normally a cupboard pull is held from the other side.

For all you haters out there, now at least I won't sink if the boat leaks :-p.

Water Tight Boat

The boat is now considered "water tight"

Attached are 4 pictures of the boat. The PL stuff gets very bubbly, I think that the curing temperature and taping are big factors in the looks of the glue. I cut into a bubble and some have air, and some don't. We will sand down or shave some of the excess glue off before painting. Sara helped me with finishing up the seams.

Left to do is choosing a paint scheme and buying/applying the paint. At that point I will give the boat the designation "Pond Worthy"

Boat: Self Supporting

Over the last week I put an adhesive (PL Premium Construction) on the inside seams of the boat. Yesterday, I removed the zip ties and the boat is now holding itself together.

The steps were:
Use popsicle sticks (for consistent gaps) and duct tape (for containing glue) on all seams.
Next I applied the glue in between the zip ties and the sticks.

Aft

Fore

Closeup

The next step is to fill in the zip tie holes and the gaps from the other side. One that sets I will patch up the inside seams.

The big decision is whether I should use epoxy/fiberglass, drywall mesh/PL, or nothing on the seams once I am done that.

Other than that it just needs paint and testing. I know everyone wants to see the first voyage, so I'll keep you posted on when that will occur.

Boat pieces and assembly

Tonight we(Sara and I) cut out the boat and put it together with zip ties.
The next step is to get some epoxy and fibreglass to make all of the edges.
Then paint + finish. Finally, use in water. I need to make oars and get oarlocks.

Here are two excited boat builders!

Boat drawing

I made the boat plans in qcad last weekend.

Here is a pic. The white line is the 4*8 piece of plywood. The grid is 1ft, and the dots at tenths of feet.


I couldn't find a plotter that could print out to 48 inches, so I am going to have to manually plot the points onto the plywood. It would cost me 16$ to print it out on two sheets of 2*8 ft. (the wood was priced at ~11$...)

I'll find a camera and post the model that I made out of index card material to make sure that it fits together. The curve on the side pieces is not drawn in, because I don't know what shape it will be. I'll use the other pieces to make the frame, then just scribe a line on the side pieces where material needs to be removed.

That actually brought up a good point. I may have to use a hand saw to do that cut, as it will be working on the boat after is it sort of put together.

The little red lines on the side pieces show where it should contact the back (or front) of the boat. The piece on the far left is in the middle to keep the sides apart and add to structural stability. I still don't know exactly what I am going to be doing with that piece.

I should label the pieces with a,b,c or something so that I can call them something other than 'the piece on the far left' or 'the side piece'.