The molds were thin and old. A bad combination. Had shrank and potato chipped off the lines. Ralph had a jig he installed the molds into for layup. Things move way too fast around here to tie up a bench with a mold curing in a jig. Spending some time blueprinting and reinforcement of these molds. Thought some of you guys might be interested in the process. First the keel was concave so each half spent some time at the chiropractor getting their spines straightened. When bolted together, the beam was 3/4” too narrow. Thwarted that with a thwart. Then laminated wide lips to hold the curve of the gunwhale. Then the keel is pressed to the spec depth and clamped across the gunwhales. Bottom is now flat as a pancake. Going to let this sit under pressure overnight to normalize the glass a little and let the stress stretch out the structure before adding ribs.
I have a Ralph: Biz Yam Nassau Iowa (yours) and find them accurate, but the hull bottoms could be flatter and thinner. The Iowa you layed up is perfect, Kudos.
Thanks Geek! Very important for us to make every boat perfect. People should know that. ....speaking of perfect. Mmmmmm Ribs! It’s whats for dinner.
Double laminate schedule on the ribs first layer. They need to be much thicker but didn’t want to have them go thermal while curing. Today we sanded down the cured first layers to prevent bubbles and add two more layers on the ribs ...and the 2 layers on the hull form to prevent any hungry dog looks.
I have piles and piles of scrap glass that is great for building molds after they get thick enough to handle the uneven curing thermal strain. This one is too thin, so I had to cut into the stock roll and custom cut the gaps between the ribs so the skin can cure evenly and not have thermal distortion. Still can use scrap to beef up the ribs themselves
All done. Can’t see it? Cool! Well laid glass is invisible. Tomorrow we make the best Bismarck combat hull the world has ever seen!
Total Success! Very Happy Right Now! Now to strip the gel, (installed as a sacrificial protector of the mold surface) wax it up and build me a sweet Bismarck!
New gel shot last night. So we’re ready to rock the Bizmarck (Tirpitz) First step is 60” of solid glass rope stem to stern at the deck level and tying in the top lip of the armor belt. Then we skin the entire hull in single layer mat and add an extra layer of armor belt. Have to let that cure before add 2 more layers of armor or will overheat while curing. Look how straight that keel is!
Hull halves were trimmed cleanly for a tight fit and molds bolted together perfect. 2 more layers of armor giving the finished boat 4 full layers of glass on the sides. A thick keel ties in the semi ribs on the glass pieces overlaps. 2 hours from now, will be ready with a set of fiberglass turrets and plans. Who wants it?
Mold for the full set of primary and secondary Turrets now underway. Will be followed by a weather deck mold soon.
This boat has been on fire. I have not been able to keep one around here. They keep leaving as fast as I can make them. The big cause of that is the molds I got from Ralph took 4 Gel Shots to make a full set of secondary turrets. Final dabs of touch up tooling gel went into the new mold that makes a full set in one shot. Really looking forward to getting the orders caught up on this one, so the customers don’t have to wait any longer and because I need to keep one here to finish the deck mold properly to her lines... I come last.
Always a tense moment when your first parts come out of a new mold... you just never know if it’s going to release clean, or take chunks of the mold with it. Thanks be to God for helping me out on this one. So many customers waiting for Turrets and the deck that will soon follow. If you’re one of those waiting... it won’t be long now. Thanks for your patience.
