thevirginian

While I was watching Harold build his beautiful Maxcat I started on mine. But this one is only 48" long. I did make some changes to Marcel's plans (Marcel, please forgive me) but I did it to accomodate my preferences. I also believe it might get a better top speed, since weight and friction plays a tremendous role. Here are the first pictures of the sceleton. After a coat of epoxy she'll be ready for her skin.

Paul M

Is this available as a kit or do you have to cut your own parts?


I think I could muster the patience to do one from a kit but don;t really want to have to cut everything out as well.

I have stick built a few planes. Is the construction similar to that?

JakeDW

Nice, tunnel stright or smaller at the back?

Jake

MaxCorvette

Hey virginian, almost missed the topic!
No worries about the changed drawings, love to see different versions.
very curiuous as to how this version will run.
You kept the very low tunnel? Still think it will be a flight risk
On the other hand you might need it with the pipe sticking out of the back.
Going to follow this project like I do Harold's, might give me some new ideas

Marcel

thevirginian

Hey, Marcel;
When I changed your overall dimensions I changed not everything proportional the same. For instance I didn't shrink the width at the same amount as the length (400mm vs. 413mm on yours). Plus I looked at my buddies cats and found the tunnel on theirs is not much higher, if any, than on mine. So I don't think this should be an issue. My intention is to build a cat that is as light as it can get for its size. I am still roughly 4" longer than my buddies cats. Those measure app. 43-44" and 15.5" in width.

thevirginian

Paul M. ;
No this is not a kit. Everything you see is hand cut. This kinda job is much more rewarding than putting together a jigsaw puzzle out of the box.

Paul M

Thanks, Virginian. Where do you get the plans? I don;t have the tools or the time to cut my own parts. I can probably get one of the (airplane) kit cutters to make me one up. As a matter of fact if I could buy a cowl from Harold, that would be on my short list too.

I really don't want to be rewarded as quite much as you guys do

thevirginian

I would suggest to wait with a build 'til I finished my cat and test ran it. Every newly designed boat is a challenge on its own until the first maiden voyage has been successfully completed. But there is a free plan on the other Maxcat thread you can down load. That's what I did.

KD0EM

Hello Virginian, I am happy to see you starting a new build of this cat, it is looking vary good, all the parts you hand cut look better then factory cut parts. I will be following this thread all the way to the finish.
Harold

thevirginian

Thanks for the kind encouragement, Harold. I hope I don't disappoint you with my build.

STEVE MARSHALL

Hey Alex, you beat me to it. my cousin is modding the plans to about that size and then going to cut them out on his CNC Router he made, the boat looks cool at that size. I will get the rescue boat cut out at the same time
Steve

thevirginian

Steve;
are you talking about the Maxcat 48, the retrieval boat, or both?

STEVE MARSHALL

The Maxcat 48, what I am doing is scale the plans down until the rail gaps in the frames are 9mm, (then i can use 3mm ply) and then widen it in the frames only by about 60mm or so. The boat will be about the same size as yours??.
Steve

thevirginian

Steve,
If you want me to I could e-mail you my modified plans of the 48" cat. I used 3/16" ply for the ribs and 1/8" for the stringers.

STEVE MARSHALL

Thanks for the e-mail, i forwarded them on to my wizz kid cousin to have a look and convert them to his comp program to cut them out with the CNC machine, I will let you know how he goes and even post a vid of it cutting.
Steve
Here is a link to the CNC router he made http://buildyourcnc.com/default.aspx

thevirginian

So I guess he can work with the ACAD file, correct?

Hootie81

Hey thevirginian

Im steves cousin. The plans in autocad format are perfect, steve forwarded them on to me. i had changed marcels original cat by reducing it 75% then splitting it down the middle and adding 50mm. but it didn't look any good so i just changed the cutout bits on yours. then it took me a few hours to convert them into g-code for my machine.. im still learning the bugs and work arounds for the stupid converter software.. the machine cut them out perfectly in just over 2 hours! sure beats doing them by hand. The only little thing i stuffed up was the gap in the ribs.. i thought 9.5mm would be fine for 3x3mm ply + 0.5 for the laminating glue and a bit of play.. but the stupid cheap ply is only about 2.75mm thick! so i have about a 1mm gap. oh well.

Ill try and post some photos of the machine cutting and the finished bits tomorrow.. when i find my cable for the camera


Chris

thevirginian

How do you like the proportions of the 48" Maxcat?

STEVE MARSHALL

Hey Alex, i will be at his place later today, i will tack it together and get some photos. the ply he is useing is cheap stringy stuff for testing only. When we get it to our liking i will buy a sheet of good stuff and cut the final product.
Steve

STEVE MARSHALL

Here are the two cats we cut today. I will stert another thread on the cutting.
Steve

thevirginian

Hey guys;
All I can say is WOW[X(]. Awesome work. I didn't realize how good she looks until I had the frames together. Now with yours cut out I can confirm she looks even better. Today I started to put the skin on her. !/16" ply to keep her light. Guys, don't use epoxy to glue her together. Use CA instead. Works much faster and is less weight in the long run. When you are done you have to water seal her with epoxy any way. Then you add the necessary strength you need.

STEVE MARSHALL

Thanks Alex. Chris had one just about cut by the time i got to his place and we had enough ply left, so we cut a second one. One question, with the transom on a angle, is it just a matter of making a wedge block to get the rudder and strut square or is there another trick i dint know about.
Steve

thevirginian

Regarding the hardware that goes on the transom, let me draw up the brackets for thr rudder and the strud and I will e-mail you the Acad drawing. It's fairly simple if you can work with aluminum. What you need is an alu-angle 1/8x1.5" or 2" and cut it in the same angle the transom is tilted, which happens to be 14°. Wait 'til I e-mail you guys the sketch.

Hootie81

Who's idea was it to use CA glue? i managed to get it everywhere! nearly glued my lips together and everything.

its looking so good tho. just a quick question tho.. that wood you have running down the sides is that ply or balsa? i tried a piece of ply and couldn't get it to bend the right ways.. i think the curve goes in and down?

thevirginian

First, the idea of using CA instead of epoxy is from a guy how builds the fastest gas hydros on the planet: the "Whiplash" by Brian Blazer. Second, the wood running down on both sides is basswood from my LHS. One is 1/4x1/4" the other is 3/16x1/4". You have to steam the ends where you want it to bend. That is at the bow and at the stern. After steaming it for 15 min. it'll bend easily. Leave it clamped to the ribs over night and cut it to the correct length before zapping it to the frames. BTW I e-mailed you guys my Acad drawing of the hardware. Any questions let me know.