Sailing 18ft Skiffs

Plans for getting the cherub back on the water have been delayed for a little while as I've picked up a ride on the "ILVE 18ft skiff team" for the 2016/17 season. 

Watch this space :)

Rudder Mould

Carving out new rudder moulds on my CNC router.  Section profile is NACA 64012, mould material is MDF, epoxy coated and re-machined.

Machining the foam core with western red cedar timber stringer.

Having a go at some female spreader arm moulds.

A spreader bracket mould.  This bracket will allow the spreader arms to be adjustable.

Putting the CNC Router to work.

Finally got a chance to put the CNC router to work.  The first image is a trial run of a goose-neck fitting mould to be made from MDF.

Below is the MDF mould after roughing out with a end mill.

After finishing passes with a 8mm ball mill.

Single coat of epoxy resin prior to sanding.  Note: A single heavy voat of resin was sufficient.  The surface sanding back to a very nice mould surface.  I was certainly impressed.

The component after vacuum bagging.

I used the router to cut a slot for a standard stainless steel Reilly fitting.  This was test fitting the depth of the slot.

Using a trace function to cut the profile of the part in the mould.  I used small spacers of 3mm Perspex to keep the tool away from the mould surface.

Trimmed component

Test fit on the mast :)

The cavity between the mast and fitting will be filled with Q-cells to improve the compressive strength (Vang loads).