Dodgy compressor

I bought a second hand compressor off trade me.  Cost me a $141 vs buying it new from Super Cheap Autos for $250

Got it home and first deiscovered it had the wrong type of air fittings.  So had to go and buy the parts to make an adaptor.  $18.

Found a label hanging off the oil filler plug saying to remove the filler plug and fit the supplied air breather.  Well that wasn't supplied when I bough it so there is another $9

It seemed to charge up with air ok, but the output pressure wouldn't stay constant and the regulator seemed to vent pressure at weird times.  I decided there must be some dirt or something blocking it, so I took it off to take to bits, in doing so I discovered an arrow on the body.  The arrow was pointing back into the compressor, which seemed odd, I figured it was supposed to show flow direction.  A qucik call to a friend who used to work at Norgren confirmed this.  So I moved all the fittings around and put it back on the compressor, great that now works. Muppets at Super cheap or their suppliers.

Next problem, the pressure switch appears to have about a 2.5 bar differential.  This means that even with it set to turn off a 8 bar, it wont turn on again until somewhere between 5 & 5.5 bar.  The switch itself is a cheapy and has no adjustment for differential.

I have two choices, either try and figure out the mechanics behind the differnetial and try and "adjust" it, or replace it.  Thats another $50 + postage.

Second layer underway

I've been a bit slack at updating this blog lately.

In the weekend I finshed all the fairing and then got stuck into sawing up ply and cutting, dry fitting etc the second layer on the bottom.

Then last night I got home to find nobody there, so that gave me the perfect opportunity to test out my new compressor and glue some planks down.

Well gluing the planks down went ok, glue consumption is now up 3 fold.

The first photo shows the plank that I layed along the keel to butt my lamination planks up again.  Once they were all nailed down I lifted it to stop it getting glued down.  The result is a nice straight edge along the keel.  My guide plank is still nailed at the other end so I can put it back down accurately and carry on.

Second photo shows the results of my first glueing session of the second layer

First layer complete

Way behind schedule buts its done. The process got a little tedious towards the end, got tired of climbing inside the hull to scrap excess glue; but this was balanced by the ever more "boat" looking appearance as more planks went on.

As a round up of the process; it's pretty easy to do, my problems were that I didn't switch to narrower planks early enough on the aft end. The once straight edge of a plank becomes convex as they are bent in, and you need to make the next one concave so that I didn't have big gaps top and bottom. This is really only a problem from about frame 6 forward.

I also put a bevel on the planks to make a channel for the glue to sit in, that mostly worked.

I am glad I used the raptor brads, would have gone nuts using staples, I shot over 6000 on the first layer. My poor brad gun is encased in epoxy.

So now I am on to fairing again, so far I have only started on the bottom on one side, and things look pretty good, a portion of plank here and there is high or low but nothing major. I guess given the demands on my time it will take a couple of weeks before I am ready to start the next layer.

I went and looked at the schedule I published at the beginning of last year, based on that I am two layers behind. So time for another rough timetable.

Mid Feb, second layer on bottom complete

Mid March, second layer on sides and third on bottom complete

Starts getting colder

End of April, manufacture all the veneer strip complete

Next bit will depend on temp

End of August final layer on

End of October, fairing complete

End of November, fibre glass layer complete

Early December fit rudder, prop shaft, strut etc.

Xmas holidays, painting the bottom.

First layer nearing completion

Been a while since I made a post. Life has been a bit hectic lately and hence progress a little slow. However I am nearing the end of the first layer. It is starting to show many minor fairing issues and a couple of bigger problems. None that can't be dealt with in one way or another. I will have to invest in a bag of fairing powder to get things faired out nicely before commencing the second layer.

It's actually a little more complete than this photo shows, but it's the most recent photo I have at the moment.