ML Boatworks RSX380 Outrigger! My first FE wood kit build...

[sammyha]

Another evening of building. Soldered up the second cable. Drilled the sponson tubes and aligned everything.

Bolted it all together, just a mock up since I've still got epoxy on the outside and painting to do yet.

Last picture shows a clean head on front view.

Using electrical tape for now instead of heat shrink tubing for test fitting...


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[sammyha]

If, I reassembled everything...

And, if I hooked up the radio...

And, if the reservoir wasn't frozen...

This would actually float and I could take it for a maiden test run.

The first coat of epoxy is on...

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[rol243]

Looks great. are you going to leave hull / sponsons natural or are they going to be painted ?

[sammyha]

Looks great. are you going to leave hull / sponsons natural or are they going to be painted ?

I'm going to try a combination of natural and painted scheme.

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[sammyha]

Laid down the first color. I'm using Klass Kote two part epoxy paint applied with a brush.

I prepped the first coat of epoxy on the sponsons with Klass Kote reducer(last picture) after sanding them. It's what they recommend, or a high-grade lacquer thinner. I didn't want to chance using denatured alcohol.

I used the reducer on a napkin, and wiped them down with quick strokes. I could feel it wanting to cut/etch the cured epoxy. So just a quick wipe and let them dry.

This paint flows nicely. Painting with a brush is just a matter of using enough paint on the brush to keep it flowing. It lays down nice and flat. I don't have any fish eyes...

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[sammyha]

I pulled the tape as soon as the paint was tacky. It's still soft and the tape cuts the paint easily.

Here you can see the how smooth the finish is. You can even see the acid brushes and freezer paper in the reflection...

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[sammyha]

Here's the epoxy paints I'm using. I have a link where to buy this on Ebay in post #209...

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[sammyha]

The color layout that I'm going with using white and orange and leaving part of the boat natural.

I love seeing the woodwork. I would go all natural except to me that's a little boring...

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[oldbikerarlo]

That is SWEET, love the contrast.

[sammyha]

That is SWEET, love the contrast.

Well, thank you very much... I try to take the time to make them pretty too!

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[sammyha]

I want to talk about an alignment problem I had with the sponson tubes and how I fixed them.

After I epoxied on the top sheeting, I assembled the boat for a once over. And I noticed a twist in the sponson rods. I could see it from the front, they were not parallel to each other.

The sponson tubes were not perfectly straight in the sponsons !

After I carefully built them flat and square.

This meant they would run at different angles!

Here's how I found out which sponson tubes were causing the twist...

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[sammyha]

Assemble the sponsons with only one boom at a time in place.

With only the front boom engaged, the sponsons are now free to sit at the angle of the sponson tubes. I checked both sponsons for squareness.

Then I put in the back boom only, and checked both sponsons for squareness.

The front right and back left sponson tubes were tilted down. So opposite corners tilted down, hence the twist.

This twists the booms and the angle of the sponsons to each other.

How do you move a sponson tube that is closed up inside a sponson and epoxied in place?

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[sammyha]

I cut a square in the sheeting around the tube I wanted to move.

Then I trimmed some off the top side of the square cutout in the sponson.

I'm only talking about moving it maybe 1/32", which is a lot when that translates across to the other sponson. It easily flexed that much with one side cut free.

This way I don't lose the integrity of the epoxy joints on the inside.

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[sammyha]

I trimmed an angle on the square opening to get more epoxy in the saw cut.

Then filed them flat and sanded them level...

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[sammyha]

Here's how they turned out. Almost perfectly parallel...

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