gjdale

Looking great Mark. Best wishes to Janet for the upcoming surgery.

Very nicely done Jesse.

Fabulous work, as always, Glenn. Thanks for the weekend "fix"!

Just lovely Antony. Your work is immaculate.

Sorry to hear of your strained wrist Aydin - best wishes for a speedy recovery. I too have missed your updates.

I'm not normally a plastics kinda guy, but this looks like a really interesting build Greg so I think I'll pull up a chair and follow along too.

Ah, the offer of Sacher Torte and coffee! Okay, I'm in then! Looks like this will be an interesting build Gerhard, and the finished boat will be a real beauty. Your Admiral has good taste and I'm sure will be delighted to see you starting this.

Nice to see an update Mobbsie. She's looking might fine and the inclusion of some nicer timber really does show her off nicely. Looking forward to the next update.

"Outstanding" hardly seems to do justice to your work Nils. "Breath-taking" comes a little closer..... Just love the double laundry peg clamp - you may have just started a whole new cottage industry here!

Wonderful!

Great to hear of the success of the surgery Jerry. Good luck to the both of you with your next builds.

Hi Doc, Good to hear from you - your AVS is looking splendid! In answer to your question, my red heart went quite dark as soon as I applied WOP to it. I would say it is a deep reddish-brown. It still looks much the same as in the finishing photos posted here - I think that the colour in the photos is a pretty accurate representation (depending on your monitor, of course). When will you be starting your own BV Cross-Section?

Great progress Aydin.

Fabulous Danny, as always! Hopefully, Australia Post won't let us down and you'll have the extra rope in a couple of days.

Did someone say popcorn? I'm in. Where's Mark with the bar? Looking forward to following your next adventure Sjors.

Thanks guys, Mobbsie - I get what you're saying, but I don't think it will be possible without spoiling the overall appearance. I'll just have to drive carefully and avoid the shallows and snags (famous last words!) Gerard - overall length is 28 inches. Mark - yeah, crap happens, but at least the broken die was only a $20 piece of crap! The replacement in HSS cost me three times that. The upside is that my home-made die holder worked exactly as planned.

Thanks for the kind words Zoltan. If you PM me with your email address, I will send you a copy of the materials list spreadsheet. Might take a couple of days though as I'll be travelling at the beginning of the week.

Drive Train Progress continues, albeit very slowly! My new stainless steel drive shaft arrived and I was ready to cut the 5-40 thread with my brand new self-made die holder………or so I thought……. I was having trouble getting a thread started and being completely new at this, I decided to pop in and have a chat to my new best friends at the local machining supplies shop. Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious #347: using a carbon steel die to cut a thread on stainless steel is probably not the smartest move known to man…. Doh! However, it might work once or twice before the die destroyed itself, they told me. By the way, that’s a nice looking die holder you’ve made there, they said, but it’s missing something…….it needs another hole tapping to take a tapered grub screw to open the die up a bit. That way, you might stand a chance of getting your thread cut. Doh! Back home, tapped another hole, tapered a grub screw, forced open the die a little (actually as much as I could), and after some Herculean efforts managed to complete a test run on a piece of brass rod of the same diameter. It took two passes, but once the first one was done, the second went much more easily. Okay, so much for trials…onto the real McCoy now. Once again forced the die open as much as possible and with even greater effort managed to cut my thread, again using two passes. Tested with a standard nut and all was good. Feeling very pleased with myself, went to take the die out of the holder, and it came out in two pieces….. Needless to say, I am now the proud owner of a (very expensive) HSS 5-40 die. With that vital task completed, I was able to assemble the drive train. In this picture, you can see the drive shaft screwed into my after-market brass propeller and protruding through my new stuffing box with sintered bronze bearings. You can also see the brass strut that is silver-soldered to the stuffing tube. This replaces an ugly plastic skeg provided in the kit. The rudder is temporarily mounted to check for clearance between prop and rudder. At the other end, the motor has been temporarily mounted and a dummy dog-bone has been used to create a rigid assembly. After this picture was taken, I subsequently decided to shorten the stuffing tube by about 5 mm in order to bring the motor further aft in its mounting, to provide additional clearance in front of it. At this point the stuffing tube was tack glued in place with epoxy and once set, the running gear removed and the stuffing tube permanently set in place by filling the slot around it with a mixture of epoxy and micro-balloons (a polyester filling compound). Electronics Housing Then it was time to make up some shelves and racks to hold the various electronic components. Space is very limited and with the extras that I am adding to this model, the positioning of the equipment needs to be carefully thought through. Fortunately, someone else has been there before me and I have basically followed his placement. In the next picture, you can see the two side-racks that will be inserted and glued in place shortly. Inside the engine compartment, you can see the Battery shelf at the aft end, a mounting to take the fuse holder on the port side, and the tray for the Electronic Speed Control (ESC) in the forward cockpit compartment (it will be under the front seat). And finally, here are a couple of shots with the side racks dry-fitted in place. It’s now time to fit the underplanking on the sides of the hull and start closing this baby up!

That's great news Jim. At least now Donna want need to put you on half-pay to cover the costs!

Mike, It might be a good solution if budget is your driving concern. However, don't overlook the (in)convenience factor. Mr Murphy stipulates that when you want to use the Mill, it will be configured for lathe work, and when you want to use the lathe it will be configured for mill work. And then there are those occasions when you will want to go straight from lathe to mill. If you can live with this, then go for it. Otherwise, splash the extra cash and buy the separate mill. I have both and don't regret a cent spent on either. Go on, you know you want to.........

Congratulations Dan, and thoroughly well deserved too!

That is really beautiful work Antony - well done!

Nicely done Mike.

Well done on the repairs John. I think the cat may have been suggesting a need for a re-do..............? Whatever the cause, the latest work looks great. So, I guess the cat is down to eight lives?

Nice job on the seat coverings Aydin - it's looking great. I absolutely agree with you about propellers. I got a nice brass one from Dumas as an after-market addition. I know that MACK products also offer a range of nice brass props. I think that the ones offered by Dumas are actually made by Raboesch.