GilBeQuick
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Well guys, I haven't been posting much lately and here's why. I mentioned in another thread that I was going to build a boat, and that's what I've been up to. I ordered plans for an outrigger hull from David Frank, and ever since the plans arrived in the mail I've been pretty carried away with this project. It's actually probably been the most enjoyable r/c project I've done. Here are some pics:
Here's the start of my latest obesssion! A scratch built, electric outrigger. There are kits out there that come with all of the parts pre-cut, but I wanted to have a go at it and give it a shot and doing it all myself.
Here's my workbench for this, the good old kitchen table! I used an X-Acto knife to cut all of the wood. 98% of the boat is constructed out of balsa. The other 2% is thin plywood (1/32 and 1/64), and carbon fiber shafts for the sponsons. The shafts are actually arrow shafts. No hobby store around here carries carbon fiber, or fiberglass shafts....after almost giving up on those I went to Wal-Mart of all places and saw the arrows! Aside from that, the only other things are a couple of bottles of thin c/a! Balsa wood really soaks up the glue.
The plans come as a large piece of paper (the size that a set of blueprints would come on) and all the pieces needed are accurately drawn out. What you have to do is cut the pieces out of the paper and transfer that to the wood, and then cut it out.
Here's a part of the plans that has most of the hull on it.
I started out wanting to document the build, but I got pretty carried away with it all and just kept on building! Here is the assembled hull:
The hull from another angle. You can see from this view that this boat isn't going to be a rough water basher!
Here's a top view of the hull. From this angle you can get a pretty good idea of the layout.
Here's where you really realize that this is no deep vee! Outriggers are made to be fast, not handle lots of chop.
Here you can see a little bit of how the sponsons are constructed. They have very sharp edges to glide over the water with as little resistance as possible.
This is just about as far as I've gotten. I've got most of the hardward to start installing, but right now I'm sealing the wood with a spar varnish, and then I'm going to paint it...not sure what kind of paint scheme though. It doesn't look like it, but it's actually taken up a lot of time. Everything has to be cut and trimmed and sanded just right to fit. But like I said before, this has been really enjoyable.
I'll take more pics and post them as I move along!
Here's the start of my latest obesssion! A scratch built, electric outrigger. There are kits out there that come with all of the parts pre-cut, but I wanted to have a go at it and give it a shot and doing it all myself.
Here's my workbench for this, the good old kitchen table! I used an X-Acto knife to cut all of the wood. 98% of the boat is constructed out of balsa. The other 2% is thin plywood (1/32 and 1/64), and carbon fiber shafts for the sponsons. The shafts are actually arrow shafts. No hobby store around here carries carbon fiber, or fiberglass shafts....after almost giving up on those I went to Wal-Mart of all places and saw the arrows! Aside from that, the only other things are a couple of bottles of thin c/a! Balsa wood really soaks up the glue.
The plans come as a large piece of paper (the size that a set of blueprints would come on) and all the pieces needed are accurately drawn out. What you have to do is cut the pieces out of the paper and transfer that to the wood, and then cut it out.
Here's a part of the plans that has most of the hull on it.
I started out wanting to document the build, but I got pretty carried away with it all and just kept on building! Here is the assembled hull:
The hull from another angle. You can see from this view that this boat isn't going to be a rough water basher!
Here's a top view of the hull. From this angle you can get a pretty good idea of the layout.
Here's where you really realize that this is no deep vee! Outriggers are made to be fast, not handle lots of chop.
Here you can see a little bit of how the sponsons are constructed. They have very sharp edges to glide over the water with as little resistance as possible.
This is just about as far as I've gotten. I've got most of the hardward to start installing, but right now I'm sealing the wood with a spar varnish, and then I'm going to paint it...not sure what kind of paint scheme though. It doesn't look like it, but it's actually taken up a lot of time. Everything has to be cut and trimmed and sanded just right to fit. But like I said before, this has been really enjoyable.
I'll take more pics and post them as I move along!
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