Progress, however slow...

Well, I am working at this, but it is slow. Today and yesterday (nights), I have been working on the foils. Last night I planed all of the second rudder prior to glue up and got most of the keel planks planed before my planer started making some "odd noises". It was already past 9, so I went ahead and called it a night.

Today, I took the planer apart, looked at everything, put it back together and well, it seems to be working just fine now. What gives?! Anyway, I got everything planed for glue up, as well as, putting some old blades on the machine and running the first rudder (glued up already) through to clean it up. That came out real nice, but it puts a load on the planer (and the electrical system). I tripped the breaker twice before I turned the vacuum system off while I was running it. Made a mess, but it is done.

Tomorrow night I plan on gluing up the other rudder section and cutting some biscuit joints in the rudder to get it all to line up when I glue it on Saturday. I should have some pictures of that this weekend. Sorry I don't have any pics tonight, but to be honest, the only picture I had that was any different than the others, was the pile of shavings coming out of the planer.

OK, now I need to talk about something that I thought would be cool, yet turned out to be a pain in the ass. I bought the plans some time ago and on Tuesday night, I figured I would start the lofting process. To put it into a nutshell...LOFTING SUCKS! I will be purchasing the full size plans here shortly. I got through about 2 sections and decided I had enough of that. For a couple of hundred dollars, I think that might be some of the best money I will have ever spent...right up there with the lasik surgery I had 11 years ago!

One last thing. If there is anyone that actually reads this thing, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for where to get fiberglass materials other than West Marine and Jamestown? I have found a dealer called Progressive Epoxy Polymers (website: http://www.epoxyproducts.com/help.html) that seems to be pretty straight forward and a hell of a lot cheaper than just about everyone else. Also, does anyone care to share information regarding epoxy versus polyester (fiberglass) resin?

later,
m...