Posts: 69
Score: 100 Joined: 7/29/2008 Last Login: 5/14/2012 From: BrisbaneQueensland, AUSTRALIA Status: offline
Another month, time for another update. J
2nd keel is getting some spray putty tonight. It is poured and assembled and fitted. The lead pour was done the same as last time, but didn’t go quite as smoothly. The mould broke taking it off this time, and the front of the keel had a huge cavity in it. This was probably due to a combination of 3 factors different to the first pour…
1) In pouring the lead, I didn’t hold a stick to keep the floating junk out of the mould 2) It was a 3-part mould this time, being a little less straight forward for the lead flow 3) I didn’t pre-heat the mould with a blow torch, so the lead may have cooled and blocked the pour hole more easily.
I ended up cutting off the front to expose the cavity, and salvaged enough of the mould to repour the front part, and used a stick to keep out the junk this time. The nose part of the 2nd pour was slightly wobbly, but a coat of epoxy solved that, and it’s all good in the end. The new bulb weighs 730 gms, which is pretty much spot on for the calculated weight, so I’m fairly sure there was only the one cavity. The 3-part mould was definitely an improvement, removing the need to drill the keel slot, which was a huge headache the first time. The keel itself was done using the same construction, but with the lighter bulb, I only needed 2 layers of 175gsm (3oz) cloth. The total deflection when horizontal is about 1cm. The photo shows the size difference between the keels.
Apart from that, it’s been little bits and pieces – making the hatch covers fit properly, fibreglassing the main sheet support down over the bulkhead, onto the inside of the hull, so it’s solid. I’ve put an internal mast support, so the mast won’t squash the hatch cover.
Dagger boards are Q-celled, and a few of the small parts are primed. I’m tracking down sail material this week, so once I have the material, I will get the paints to match colours.
I’m having to resort to spinnaker cloth, as it is the only light cloth that comes pre-dyed. There are some nicer lightweight stiffer cloths, but they are only in white. Colour is more important than sailing, so I’m going with the lighter cloth. I wonder if I can spray varnish it or something like that to make it stiffer? Otherwise I’ll just batten the seams to keep the sail shape. Anyway, that’s a while off yet.
Posts: 69
Score: 100 Joined: 7/29/2008 Last Login: 5/14/2012 From: BrisbaneQueensland, AUSTRALIA Status: offline
The sail loft hasn’t bothered to send out the material samples they promised, so I’ll have to pay them a visit sometime and get the sailcloth. Anyway, that’s on hold for a bit.
I’ve just finished the daggerboard slots in the hull. My original plan was possibly not to bother with daggerboards, but having gone with the canting keel, daggerboards are required to stop the boat side-slipping when the keel is canted right over and the boat is heeled.
So, having thought about the daggerboards for long enough, they are now officially part of the plan.
I made some balsa tubes, shaped to fit the daggerboards. The inside is fibreglassed with tissue cloth. If the daggerboards are sliding up and down, I don’t want them to rub through the resin and expose the balsa inside the tubes. That would a nightmare to fix, so the glass inside will stop this. Outside of the tube is just resined. Slots were cut in the hull and deck to fit, and the tubes Q-celled into place. Once dry, I cut and sanded them back flush with the hull, and another bit of resin and Q-cell to seal the exposed balsa ends, then sand it all smooth again. The result is a fully-sealed wet-tube from hull through to deck, that allows the daggerboards to slide freely up and down. I may initially just secure the daggerboards in place, with the option to add the servo control later. It will require more servo hacking, which I don’t feel like getting into at the moment. J
I’ve also done some more details for the deck – the on-deck containers, and the helmsman’s stands. The on-deck containers were fun to make, and I think will look great when painted. They are hollow boxes, so will add very little weight, and look really cool.
Oh, by the way some syringes have been very handy for measuring out the resin and hardener (seperate syringes for each!). It enables me to mix quantities of only a few mL, and get the ratios accurate enough for the resin to dry properly. Indispensible, especially at this stage of the game, where I’m often just doing a tiny bit of resin or Q-cell at a time. The syringes are a couple of dollars, and the extra tubing helps reach to the bottom of the bottles.
Now for some more photos. This now has the mini-keel installed. Daggerboards aren’t perfectly angled, but they are pretty close, considering I only measured the angle at the deck, and just hoped they’d come through at the right place on the hull.
Posts: 69
Score: 100 Joined: 7/29/2008 Last Login: 5/14/2012 From: BrisbaneQueensland, AUSTRALIA Status: offline
I’ve been spray-painting. Here’s some advice I’ve learned the hard way…
Always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS follow the instructions on spray paint cans EXACTLY. If it says shake for 2 minutes, then time it, and shake for 2 minutes. If it says spray 20-25cm away from surface, measure 22.5 cm, and stick to that, and remeasure every few strokes, to make sure you aren’t getting closer. When it says best sprayed between 15-30 degrees, get your thermometer out and wait for 20-25 degrees. If it says wait 5 minutes or 20 minutes between coats, then set your stopwatch, and don’t respray until time is up. Do NOT ever, EVER, EVER try to fix up spray painting mistakes while the paint is still wet, thinking it will be easier. Leave it dry completely before sanding. Spraying a new layer of paint softens the layers underneath, and doing anything while it’s wet will just peel back everything you’ve done so far, and you have to start again. After you spray, walk away, and do not look at it.
There are lots of things that can go wrong with spraying, and I’ve discovered that if you don’t follow the instructions to the letter, things will go wrong. I’m getting it all sorted, but on the first tries, the paint was coming out all speckly, and patchy matt finishes, even for the gloss overcoat. My masking tape is leaking paint under the tape, and taking paint with it when I pull it off, and I need to show a little more patience in waiting for the paint to dry properly before moving on to the next step, or trying to fix things.
In the end, it’s coming together, and looking pretty sweet now, but this is proving quite tricky to get it all perfect on my first spraying job, and I’m too impatient to practice on something else first.
Posts: 2
Score: 100 Joined: 6/27/2009 Last Login: 8/17/2009 From: camborne,
AB, UNITED KINGDOM Status: offline
well youve inspired me to start on one of these beasties! Ive kept it at the original scale cos I couldnt see how to change it, you guys make me feel a little dim witted when it comes to figuring out how to do all this stuff! So far I have just built the plug and have been busy fairing it. Thought I'd go down the plug, mold, boat route as I am a bit kak handed and this way I can build a plug without worrying about weight etc and then at the end shove A bit of carbon in a mold, bung it in a bin bag and suck out the air with the old vacuum cleaner, and hey presto a nice light hull. Looking at this post really helps to get an idea of some of the challenges involved. At the moment I am all into making a hull, then I can think about a deck.
Posts: 69
Score: 100 Joined: 7/29/2008 Last Login: 5/14/2012 From: BrisbaneQueensland, AUSTRALIA Status: offline
The painting is mostly done. Here’s what I learned about spray painting…
1) Shake the can. LOTS. If the paint is not mixed well, it won’t spray right. 2) Follow the instructions on the can for spraying distance and drying times. Otherwise is comes out matt instead of gloss, or bubbles in the surface. 3) Don’t forget to invert the can and spray to clear the nozzle after each coat. Without this, dry paint gums up the nozzle, and the rest of the can won’t spray right if the nozzle is clogged. 4) Blue masking tape works really well. After laying it out, I ran my fingernail around the sprayed edge to really stick it down. This was needed to stop the paint going under the tape. Where I didn’t do this, it ran under. I tried masking a few bits with vinyl, but it tends to pull up the underneath layers of paint when peeled off. Blue tape is actually fairly easy to mask around curves, so it is best for everything. To mark around some of the tight curves, I cut the tape into 5mm wide strip. 5) Where masking over a previous coat of paint, the first colour actually needs several days to dry properly, otherwise the masking tape will lave dents in the first coat. 6) If anything goes wrong, don’t touch it! Leave it dry, then if it’s still bad, sand it off and do it again.
I didn’t really follow this to the letter, and I can see the flaws in a few places, but overall, it’s looking nice. The decals will take a few weeks to get them done, and then the clear-coat over the top will finish the paintwork.
Beige is the primer/undercoat. Light blue is spray putty, which was then sanded back and reprimed. To line up the waterline, I put a flashlight on a tripod, and used a large piece of ply to get a horizontal line. Then I rotated the flashlight, and traced the shadow on the hull. The result was a nice accurate waterline on both sides of the boat. It probably won’t match the actual floating waterline, because I’m sure my boat will be overweight, but the waterline is accurate to the real boat colour scheme.
Just for reference, here’s the colours and quantities I used. The colours are all PowerPlus brand automotive spray cans. The Primer, Putty and Clear are Septone brand
Gloss White – 1 x 350g (Just for the record, I'm not happy with this white. It's actually quite greenish/grey colour of white, not a nice stark white. I wouldn't recommend this particular colour) Ebony Black – 2 x 150g Royal Blue – 2 x 150g Monza Red – 1 x 150g Venus Orange – 1 x 150g Septone Primer/Filler Beige – 2 x 400g Septone Spray Putty Blue – 1 x 400g Septone Topcoat Clear – 2 x 400g (still on first tin)
Out of curiosity, I weighed the hull before and after painting. Before was 706g. After was 733g. Not too bad, but still waiting the clear-coat before it’s done.
Now for some photos…
< Message edited by surfdabbler -- 8/16/2009 4:31 PM >
Posts: 69
Score: 100 Joined: 7/29/2008 Last Login: 5/14/2012 From: BrisbaneQueensland, AUSTRALIA Status: offline
Work and holidays have both been busy, so the boat has slowed a little. For our 10th wedding anniversary, we spent a week a Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef. Just by accident, it was the week after HI Race Week, so we got to see some nice race boats close up. I almost scored a ride on Illbruck (later Ericsson’s VO60), now known as Spirit of the Maid, but the boat was pretty full already, and the skipper declined. Fair ‘nuff. Just for fun, I’ve put a photo of me at the harbour, in front of the latest incarnation of Wild Oats.
Anyhow, back to my Ericsson VO70…
I used Corel Draw to make up an A4 decal sheet, and managed to fit everything onto one A4 page. There’s 68 brand-names and logos on the hull/deck, as well as a few little other decal details, such as the computer readout screens, warning labels, etc.
In making the decals, I got almost all the logos from www.brandsoftheworld.com. This is a SUPER site, with scaleable vector versions of heaps of brand names and logos, including the various Sony logos, Semcon, Inmarsat, Volvo Penta, and even the VOR 2005-2006 race logo! I was really stoked to find that one. The noteable exception was the main Ericsson logo. I could not find a scaleable version anywhere, and ended up making my own, using a 100 pixel logo from the ericsson website as a reference. The closest font I could find to the ericsson font is Frutiger Bold 75. It’s not exactly the same, but with some kerning adjustments, it’s pretty darn close.
Anyway, 6 weeks later, I’m still waiting for the hobby shop to print the decals. So meanwhile, I’m doing some work on the deck details.
I’ve made the rails around the deck, helms, coffee grinders, and done some work on the hatches and mast attachment.
Most of the details are hand-shaped from various bits of balsa. These will be given probably 2 coats of epoxy resin to make them nice and hard, then painted and stuck to the deck.
I’m particularly proud of the helms. The rim of the wheel is made from whipper-snipper line. With a length cut to match the circumference, I used my mini butane torch (which we actually bought for making crème brulee!), and fused the ends together to form the circle. I had to make about 10 before I achieved 2 that were close enough to round, and the right diameter. Then, for the spokes, I drew the 3-spoke wheel in CAD, and printed it 1:1 scale. I used this as a template for cutting out the spokes from the black bit of a CD case. Rough-cut with hobby knife and tin-snips, and final shaping with a dremel sanding drum. The centre was drilled to fit a short length of 1mm diam alum wire. The post was hand-shaped from balsa, and the wire poked through to join the two.
In making the little hatch window cover on the front of the deck, I used some of the clear part of the front of the CD case to make the window, and then edged it with some plastic angle, which I painted silver. I couldn’t get any alum angle small enough. I’ll try to get a scrap of window tinting film to stick on the inside of the window.
I’ve made up the mast with shrouds, standoffs and mast crane. At the bottom end, the hatch bolts down onto an internal post, and the mast sits on top of the bolt, with some special adjustments, so that it slots perfectly on top of the bolt. So, the internal post takes all the mast weight/force and transfers it down to the hull and bulkhead instead of pressing on the deck. If I'd planned everything from the start, the little red bridge behind the mast would be closer to the mast, for better access to the keel servos, and it would also then act as a brace for the internal post, but it's not a major issue. I’ve ordered some eye-bolts and rigging screws, so those will arrive in the next day or two, and I can set up the mast properly. That’ll be nice.
But most of my progress is awaiting the decals and final gloss coat. Most of the details can’t actually go on the boat until the decals are done. So, I’m waiting for those decals. Patience is a virtue.
Posts: 2
Score: 100 Joined: 6/30/2009 Last Login: 2/5/2011 From: sharjah, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Status: offline
What did you make your mast and spreaders out of? im stuck at that stage with my VO70 i want aluminium but cant find a small enough cross section that i like...
Posts: 69
Score: 100 Joined: 7/29/2008 Last Login: 5/14/2012 From: BrisbaneQueensland, AUSTRALIA Status: offline
My mast is 8mm carbon fibre tube (I had one lying around). 6mm wide would be better, but I didn't have one, and ideally you'd add a second small tube behind to make a longer profile, and then smooth between the two tubes with Q-cell or balsa. But that's a lot of work in itself. For the spreaders, I used 1.5mm ply, cut into strips, and then hand-sanded to the required taper and roughly elliptical profile. A bit of black paint, and bob's your uncle.
i would like to build that model and totally lovin it. who got vor 70s plan if sent to me i ll be glad.in adding i found that plans from velarc web site and i have send mail them bur still they have not came to back. thanks for everyone cheers
Posts: 69
Score: 100 Joined: 7/29/2008 Last Login: 5/14/2012 From: BrisbaneQueensland, AUSTRALIA Status: offline
Hi, it’s me again. It’s stormy outside tonight, so I can’t do any spraying. Time to update my build-log.
I finally got my decals. Yay. I’ve put them on, which was a lot of fun, and really makes the boat look great. One of the decals next to the hatchway, I sized it completely wrong, so you can see in the photo that it had to go around the corner. I left a couple of the bow decals for later, because the paint had been sanded there, and the shop recommended if I’ve sanded the paint, to put the first gloss coat on before the decals, so they have a good surface to go onto.
So, spray can in hand, I started on some of the smaller pieces, and they went on really nicely. Great gloss finish, didn’t upset the decals at all. So I proceeded on to the hull. Imagine me carefully spraying along the big decals on the side, and watching the decals bubble up and crawl as the spray went over it! Aaaah, panic. No, don’t panic. I’ve learnt from spraying so far that nothing good comes of doing anything about problems until they are completely dry. Fortunately the decals settled down and smoothed out again, and by the time the clearcoat was dry they were fine. One of the Sony logos on the deck is slightly crazed, but you only notice it looking up close, and it just looks like bits of white dust in the finish. The deck was pre-sanded, and I didn’t wait for the gloss-coat to put those one’s on, so the decal probably didn’t stick as well, and I’m blaming that for the crazing. I should have waited for the gloss coat. Anyway, no big problem. I can’t expect every detail to be perfect, and overall it just looks awesome.
I did mask off some of the deck to spray some black markings before the final coat, and silly me managed to get masking tape on top of the transom decal, and it tore the decal off. Again, the transom had been sanded, so just a touch from the masking tape was enough to rip up the decal. Fortunately, this is one of the 2 decals that I randomly chose to make a spare of to fill my A4 sheet, so it was a simple matter to clean it up and put another one on.
Around the bow and transom areas, where the final decals were to go, the gloss-coat had gone on spotty. I have decided that that was where I’ve been picking up the boat, so there’s probably finger grease around those areas. So, I sanded back the spotty areas again, washed it really well with detergent and put a second gloss coat. There’s still a little spottiness, but the decals are on now, and hopefully the remaining gloss coats will go on better. I’ll be very careful to handle the boat only with gloves on until the final gloss coat is complete. Then I can stick my greasy fingers all over it again.
I’ve also been keeping busy with some more details. I made some winches – that was a lot of fun. I don’t have a lathe, so I put a bolt through a block of balsa and used sandpaper to turn up the winches. An evening later, I was covered in balsa dust, and I had completed the 9 winches required. My wife thinks they are very cute. I’ve also done the inmarsat systems for the back of the deck, so I think that’s all the deck bits, just waiting for paint.
Posts: 2
Score: 100 Joined: 3/11/2009 Last Login: 2/10/2010 From: San NicolasBuenos Aires, ARGENTINA Status: offline
Hi kingplank, I was wondering if you could send me those plans, because I´m looking foward to build one. My e-mail is solano_2651@hotmail.com. Thank you solass
Posts: 69
Score: 100 Joined: 7/29/2008 Last Login: 5/14/2012 From: BrisbaneQueensland, AUSTRALIA Status: offline
No photos today, just a quick update. I’ve been working on the gloss coat for the paint, and still having lots of trouble, but the problems seem to be resolved, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I was having lots of trouble with the gloss coat not coming out glossy, but a frosty white matt finish. In the end, I rang Septone, who to my surprise actually sent a sales rep to my house! Talk about good service. He looked at my spraying, and said that it is actually OK to spray much closer to the workpiece (as was my tendency, but I was forcing myself to spray further away to follow the instructions on the can.) He said it’s OK even down to about 10cm. Anyway, I resprayed a piece for him, and showed him the white frosted matt finish that I was getting. He told me that’s called blushing, and said to hold it in the sun for a bit as it dried. Sure enough, several minutes later, the gloss had improved considerably.
Turns out it is water that causes it. The spray comes out of the can and the gas cools rapidly as it expands. (Spray your hand and feel how cold it is!) This collects humidity from the air on the way, and also chills the workpiece, and it collects and holds moisture from the air. The moisture ruins the gloss on the finish. It’s particularly a problem with small pieces which cool down quickly, unlike a car, which won’t chill so quickly from a spray can. Now this is where a humidity and temperate controlled spray booth would come in handy. Dew point here is often above 20 degrees C at this time of year!
It’s no issue to respray over the top of blushing, so it’s only a problem in the final coat. It can also be buffed out in the final polish, but the small pieces are so fiddly, I really wanted a good finish straight from the can. However, I think I’m going to have to buff them out.
Anyway, I’m now waiting for warm, low-humidity days to spray the final coats, and on the small pieces, I’ve even used a heat gun to very lightly warm the small bits before and after spraying.
Working on the hull, I’ve got about 3 coats of gloss, and then 600 grit wet-sanded. The sanding has nicely hidden the edges of the decals, which were still visible in the surface after 3 coats. I’m planning 2 more gloss coats, and the final coat will get wet-sanded to 2000 grit, then polished with a very mild abrasive polish (Meguire’s Scratch-X), and then Meguires Wet-look wax finish over the top. I’ve done the boom as a test piece, and it’s looking nice…although I did get it stuck to the newspaper during spraying, and ended up doing some minor damage to the decals and paintwork. I forgot my rule – don’t touch anything until it’s dry, even if you muck something up.
I’m looking forward to getting the paint-job finished. It’s a very time-consuming part, and I would estimate more than half the cost of the final boat. I hope the result is worth it!
Anyway, kudos to Septone for awesome customer service.
Did I say no photos? Here's the polished boom, and all the other details waiting to go on…
< Message edited by surfdabbler -- 11/27/2009 10:17 AM >
Posts: 95
Score: 100 Joined: 6/4/2007 Last Login: 1/26/2011 From: newcastle, , AUSTRALIA Status: offline
Hey surfdabbler, Your boat is looking great, a real top job I hope to finish mine off over Xmas. Say would anyone have line planes for the new TP52 yachts ? If you do I would love to get hold of a set.
cheers
< Message edited by smoofty37 -- 11/27/2009 3:13 PM >
just wondering if it would be possible for someone to email me a copy of the plans please?Think I'm going to give this a shot over xmas and see how it works out!
Hi Kingplank Im also from Vancouver Canada and up until now ive been building 1 metters, and twin masted crusing boats but ive been wanting to buil one of these for a while at the moment im wanting to start on One of Neville Chrichton’s Alpha Romeo maxi racers. if you dont mind sending me the plans it would be greatlt appriciated Thanks My email is Sebatian_Fritz@yahoo.ca
Search This Thread
Printable Version
All Forums >> RC Boats >> RC Sailboats >> RE: Volvo 70 Ericsson Build Log 
RE: Volvo 70 Ericsson Build Log - 
Here's the polished boom, and all the other details waiting to go on…