Was bored yesterday and modeled a mast ram for IOM's. That is all. Aloha!

I'm in the process of thinking, yes... just thinking, about making my own ballast for both the Sun Wind Hf and for the upcoming Wampum III, both Vintage Marblehead sailboats, but using two different styles of lead ballast. The Sun Wind HF takes a torpedo style bulb. I 3D modeled one in Sketchup Pro 2017, and from there exported an STL file that I used in one of our 3D printers at school (I'm a teacher and the CTE teacher actually printed it for me). Here is what we ended up with... two identical male molds: Here is what the bottom of one of them looks like: 3D prints are a bit rough, and if I used them straight they might stick to the cement too well. So I'm coating them with thickened epoxy and will then sand them down. I'll then wax them before using them. The idea is that I will sink these into a container of refractory cement and let it harden, will remove the molds, and then let it cure for a long time (weeks). The concrete will probably also take a t...

Tada! Here's how my 6 laminations of 1/32" plywood turned out today when I took the clamps off... Here's how it looks mounted to the servo and servo tray. Yes, I have some work to do on the tray, and especially on putting down some velcro for the battery and receiver. And I'll need to ziptie the wires too, but you get the idea! Peace!

OK, so this is a total experiment and if it doesn't work I'll just make one out of aluminum. I laser cut 6 layers of 1/32" plywood and have laminated them together to make a crazy weird servo arm. This is how it looked in SketchUp Pro with the plastic arm underneath that came with the Hitec HS-815BB Sail Servo... Here are the laminations after the laser cutter finished: And here they are being laminated between two scrap pieces of 3/4" MDF: We'll see how the finished product looks tomorrow when I open it up! Aloha

Today I cut my test hull off of its supports and did a lot of clean up on the sander. Sanded the transom flush, as well as the bow. Cleaned up the sheer a bit, and then finally added the rudder. It's done! I attempted to make a male mold for the lead bulb, but it cracked off the lathe before I could get it down to size. Oh well... it was a good attempt and I'll try it again shortly. Overall, I love it! Now onto the real thing... next up, it's time to make the entire hull and do some RC sailing! Aloha!

At this point, I feel that I have now pretty much finalized the new Sun Wind II RC Sailboat lines. And I like it! Today I finished the servo tray (see previous post) and cleaned up a number of extraneous lines and such. I think she's done. The original 1949 lines : Profile view of my updated Sun Wind II lines : Note that my transom appears to be flat, not rounded like the original. When built however, this boat will also have a nicely rounded transom when a wood finishing piece is added. Likewise, the bow will match the original bow lines when you add the shaped bow piece. These lines are for the purpose of making laser cut frames. Front view of my updated Sun Wind II : Aft view : Would love to hear what people think! Aloha!