Twin Mini Cat, version 2

[peells]

so any up dates on the hardware? I know you have at least one!!

[ace028]

well the hardware is in the mail.

[Jeff Wohlt]

Yep...you should see the hardware in a day or two.

[ace028]

Thanks Jeff! I'll post pics as soon as I get it!

[ace028]

so any up dates on the hardware? I know you have at least one!!

OIC your talking about the switch from wire drive to flex, yes Jeff and I decided that a wire drive would not be ideal because of the shortness of the cables which will probably require more flex then a wire drive could do in the amount of available space. Jeff hooked me up and this is going to be one smooooooth cat!

[ace028]

Well today was like christmas for me, got my catamaran from the paint guy (dad) along with my custom stingers from Jeff, and I got my lazer cut cat kit.

Here are a few pictures of the hardware and some of my other boat, and then the stingers next to my strut setup on my other cat.

You can see that the stingers are just about the same length as the old setup, just slightly longer. I will have to make the mounting base smaller on the stingers though.


Hopefully I can start assembling the kit this weekend, I need to buy a building board, and maybe some tools and clamps.

The hardware is just mocked up, not secured yet.

[peells]

That was fast (2 days), nothing got damaged in shipping did it?

[wakeboardfusion]

Nice looking boat. Can't wait to get mine going

[ace028]

Thanks, well I got the building board and some glue and some speed clamps so hopefully the building will commence this weekend!

[ace028]

Ok, well this might be a boring update, but its important because its the base of the build.

Here are some tools that I will be using along with my building board.

I am gluing a peice of wood for the main stringers to set against and will be gluing blocks along the lines drawn for the stringers to be clamped to, its best to not really use too much glue because once you clamp the block to the board, most of the glue smooshes out, so use a little bit and you can squirt some CA glue on the seam, it will wick under the block if your glue didn't smoosh out. I use titebond because it seems to set pretty quick espicially once clamped, and its easy to workwith, but you can use epoxy if you want, or CA but remember if you use CA that it dries instantly. I usually use all 3 on my boat.

[peells]

Chip off the old block

[ace028]

I finished gluing my blocks to the board for the framework to be clamped to. I aligned it all up and started gluing the bulkheads, one bulk head was warped for some reason so I am laminating it with another peice of wood and sanding it to fit. I am going to open up 2 of the bulk heads a little, I will post pics when I get to it, been a little busy today so not much progress.

The pic looks like the whole framework is crooked, but I assure you its not!

[peells]

That's It??? Looks like you need one more clamp

[ace028]

Yeah I need another clamp, got to wait till payday though lol, I think I left all mine other clamps at your house.


Well, here is a pic of me laminating the warped bulkhead, it came out nice and flat. I have trimed it and glued it in, sorry not pic of that yet.



I have enlarged these two bulkheads to make room for whatever may end up in there.





Here you can see where I glued my bulkheads to the stringers, this is the method I prefer. You put a little titebond (or epoxy whichever you prefer) in the notches, then you use a scrap peice of wood or toothpick and you coat the seam with glue on all sides of the seam, this packs glue into the seam if you didn't get enough in there before setting the bulkhead in place, then you take your scrap wood peice and you wipe the excess glue off, which will make a nice seam of glue without any excess. Too much glue is not good because you will end up having to sand it off if it drips down too far, and you have to admit, my glued seam does look pretty nice.



Here is what it looks like after it dries, you can't hardly tell there is glue, but I assure you its there, and it ends up being very strong!

[ace028]

opps double post