Tweet
The "Wet Track Racing" boat works, has taken delivery of the new JetChopper30 hull. 
The build has commenced.
First impressions?
Light & strong, but for racing & rough water the hull could do with a bit of re-enforcing for the motor mounts. Glass, Rails, Rods, what ever you usually do.
The hull/deck join is solid, the finish is beautiful & the edges are sharp.
I love the shape of this thing.
Well the first thing I do with any new hull is bag it. I'm terrible for dripping Epoxy or resin all over everything. Worst of all I always get Epoxy fingerprints on everything. So a bit of plastic & tape solves that problem.
Next, where ever something is going to be glued or glassed into the hull, I sand with 240 paper & then wipe down with acetone to remove any wax or grease.
A 1/8" ply transom doubler always goes in my hulls & this one is no different. Once that was glued in, I drilled the holes for the stinger & temporarily mounted it. Then I set the motor & mount & battery & ESC, servo, shaft & prop in place to get positions at 30% COG for motor & battery. I made sure I could alter the COG down to about 28% & up to 34% plus just by moving the battery.
Now that the motor position was set, I could bend the stuffing tube & cut it to length. I get all the angles set on the mount & epoxy it in, with the stinger, shaft, stuffing tube, & collet all in place to keep everything lined up, In the same process the stuffing tube is epoxied into the transom. To support the front of the stuffing tube, I mold some epoxy putty around it & to the hull. Solid.
I decided to use 6mm carbon fibre rods to strengthen the hull, motor mounts, & battery tray for this one. So they were glued in with a liberal amount of epoxy.
At this stage the motor & mount were removed along with the shaft & the rods & side mounts were glassed in with a layer of cloth. A battery tray was cut from a piece of 1/8" ply & epoxied in along with 3 double sided velcro straps to hold the battery in.
The motor & mount were bolted back in & the hull has very little flex in it now.
The stinger I had was too long for this size hull so I lopped 12mm off it. I also drilled out the sloppy bushings & inserted a length of 1/4" brass tube and a speedmaster bushing. I've become a fan of these over a pair of lead teflon bushes. They seem to last longer.
That's it so far. I have to wait for the rudder & tabs to arrive before I can finish it off. All I can do while I'm waiting is make up the safety loop which is compulsory for racing here in Oz.
Here's a few pics of the story so far.
Cheers.
Paul.
The build has commenced.
First impressions?
Light & strong, but for racing & rough water the hull could do with a bit of re-enforcing for the motor mounts. Glass, Rails, Rods, what ever you usually do.
The hull/deck join is solid, the finish is beautiful & the edges are sharp.
I love the shape of this thing.
Well the first thing I do with any new hull is bag it. I'm terrible for dripping Epoxy or resin all over everything. Worst of all I always get Epoxy fingerprints on everything. So a bit of plastic & tape solves that problem.
Next, where ever something is going to be glued or glassed into the hull, I sand with 240 paper & then wipe down with acetone to remove any wax or grease.
A 1/8" ply transom doubler always goes in my hulls & this one is no different. Once that was glued in, I drilled the holes for the stinger & temporarily mounted it. Then I set the motor & mount & battery & ESC, servo, shaft & prop in place to get positions at 30% COG for motor & battery. I made sure I could alter the COG down to about 28% & up to 34% plus just by moving the battery.
Now that the motor position was set, I could bend the stuffing tube & cut it to length. I get all the angles set on the mount & epoxy it in, with the stinger, shaft, stuffing tube, & collet all in place to keep everything lined up, In the same process the stuffing tube is epoxied into the transom. To support the front of the stuffing tube, I mold some epoxy putty around it & to the hull. Solid.
I decided to use 6mm carbon fibre rods to strengthen the hull, motor mounts, & battery tray for this one. So they were glued in with a liberal amount of epoxy.
At this stage the motor & mount were removed along with the shaft & the rods & side mounts were glassed in with a layer of cloth. A battery tray was cut from a piece of 1/8" ply & epoxied in along with 3 double sided velcro straps to hold the battery in.
The motor & mount were bolted back in & the hull has very little flex in it now.
The stinger I had was too long for this size hull so I lopped 12mm off it. I also drilled out the sloppy bushings & inserted a length of 1/4" brass tube and a speedmaster bushing. I've become a fan of these over a pair of lead teflon bushes. They seem to last longer.
That's it so far. I have to wait for the rudder & tabs to arrive before I can finish it off. All I can do while I'm waiting is make up the safety loop which is compulsory for racing here in Oz.
Here's a few pics of the story so far.
Cheers.
Paul.
Comment