Just wanted to double check. You're rather good with materials, so I figured if anyone had done something out of the Balsa norm, it might be you. My Balsa bow on Texas got glassed over with one layer of cloth, and has taken multiple penetrating hits, so I am looking at a possible Nose-job for the boat if/when I get around to the next refit. Gonna use Sugar Maple next time. Because I like taking days to make something out of one of the hardest domestic hardwoods available....
Probably a heavier glass or several layers would solve the problem. I've never had an issue with penetration. Y'all running legal guns out there? Lol
Why go for "one of the hardest" hardwoods out there when you're already using the hardest? Strength per unit weight
I did Jean Bart's bow and stern shape out of 3/8 baltic birch ply sandwiched together with epoxy and then sanded down. Glassed over that with 2 layers of the standard bondo fiberglass cloth you can get at walmart. Solid as a rock.
Yeah, I've seen that done before with Baltic Birch. decent results. I prefer to stay away from ply when I can. works great for ribs and all sorts of stuff, but there's a certain elegance to using a piece of Sugar Maple that I personally cut out in my forest as part of my boat. Strength per unit weight means nothing when facing off against a point impact. Sugar Maple is great for that. Ash would be better for shock absorption. I have tons of both. Firewood permits and access to a Lumber Miser, boys.
I can't generate that kind of sawtimber on a firewood permit. I wish I could, but combing closed timber sales for discarded wood means I'm usually grabbing the stuff that doesn't make for big pieces like that. Black Ash in a 4x4x36 would be gorgeous though. the grain on that wood is striking. here's a pic of a spoon I carved with a piece I found a few weeks back. also, a small spoon I made for camping from sugar maple. Best hobby for drinking beer ever.
Looking for guitar body and neck blank wood. The prettier the better. Spoons are cool, but I want to build myself a custom Bass.
I'll keep you in mind when I am searching this spring and summer. my max allowed length is 48 inches, but if I can find a good piece of straight maple or Black Ash, I'll hit you up
I can do the neck. the body is too big for firewood spec (anything over 18 inches in diameter must remain as coarse woody debris), and a log that can yield a guitar body is never going to be left on the ground by a logger. that'd be a Veneer-Grade.
Late night sheeting. Got the hull sheeted. Not my best job but it'll do fine. Looks better in person. Tomorrow I'll feather the edges and apply the silkspan on the outside, then paint. Hopefully everything still works ok, I haven't really touched her since last year.
Working on getting this boat up and running again. Changing a few things, adding new 24v drive motors, upgrading to high flow guns, adding drag disks since the rules got changed, and a few other things. Swapped out the belt drive brushless and put in the same motors as my France. Not enough room to fit my milled direct mounts so I went with dogbones. Yes, they're long. They're steel though and free. Been working fine so I'm ok with it. Added drag disks. Performance improvement, if any, is trivial. Lol Upgrading the guns. My old designs sucked pretty bad. Poor ROF and bad feed always seemed to plague me. Have since learned how to build better guns. This is the new MACHO MkIV being used on the sidemount. Shoots hard and fast. I'll be adding high flow feed on the bow guns too. Hopefully it hurts a little more to pull up next to her now. Lol My plan is to use this boat as a backup/loaner for future battles. With that in mind, I'm keeping it simple and hopefully reliable. The 24v direct drive has been very solid in my France so I'm standardizing here with the same stuff.
Belt drive works great and I liked it initially in this boat. The whole system started to fail due to poor component choice though and instead of investing in new parts for belt drive (which this boat honestly doesn't need) I decided to throw in the brushed drive. Twas cheap and fast.
Upgraded the bow guns to high flow. Soldered up new caps and tested them today. Work very well. Plumbed into the boat and I'm holding the Pololu 15A board that will trigger the bow guns. Potted in epoxy for waterproofing. Keep getting distracted with other boat stuff like these stainless props. I'll get her ready by spring though.
