Paper Jet 14

Paper Jet 14
Hull#001 Built by Dudley Dix

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Top Mast Sheave Slot

Today I worked on the sheave slot for the top mast.

It was pretty straight forward although I must admit the instructions really do not address how to locate the optimum fore/aft location for the sheave.

I off-centered the axle location so that the sheave would be slightly forward in the slot to provide a good alignment with the sail track location. I did notice that I have the sheave slightly higher than what the instruction show, but I don't think it's a huge deal since the aluminum strap will keep the halyard in place.



Next step will be to the mast sleeve.

Progress is going to be non existent over the next few weekends due to booked up weekends :(

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Sail Track Part II

Finished up the sail track this weekend!

First step was to epoxy the halves, that I had previously built, together. Prior to doing that I cut two lengths of string for each hole so that I could run through a swab with acetone on it once the halves were clamped together. This was to clean up any excess epoxy that would squeeze out inside the sail track area. The reason for two strings is so that as I pulled one through it would automatically pull another string in so that I could swab it at least a couple of times (I ended up doing it 3 times!).

All Clamps On-board! Notice the strings hanging out of the ends


Once it set up I un-clampled it and ripped the sail track blanks to size and ran it through the table saw in order to add the 3 mm sail track.



I finished up with tilting the saw blade 33 degrees and running the blanks through it to get to the final shape.

Tilting the saw blade tends to leave saw / burn marks on the wood when you pause during the feeding process so I went ahead and sanded the now complete sail tracks with 80, 100 and 220 grit sand paper. I figured it would be a lot easier to do it now versus waiting until I epoxied them onto the mast.

Voila! Sail Tracks!


Next step will most likely be the mast sleeve.

Also - a non related issue. I had previously reported that I had ordered a nickel sheave to replace the sheave that had been discontinued for the top mast. Well guess what - the nickel one I ordered has also been discontinued! Looks like Ronstan did some house cleaning! Turns out I was in San Diego last weekend and visited the Shelter Island West Marine (Huge store!). As luck would have it they had a sheave made by Schaefer that might just work! (part# 62-018, 51mm dia., max rope dia. 1/2") I also was able to buy it in person without spending the same for the shipping as the sheave itself!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Thumbcleats / Sail Track Part I

I have a few loose ends that I need to take care of prior to finishing the spars: Cut out the thumbcleats and build a sail track. Both of these need to be installed on their respective spars prior to applying the epoxy and varnish.

I am also waiting on the sheave for my top mast which I ordered a couple of weeks ago. Interesting to note the sheave specified on the plans has been discontinued! The closest sheave that I was able to find that came close to matching the dimensions is the Ronstan RF580 which is made out of nickel.

As stated in an earlier post I am using plans provided to me by François Marti (http://www.pidgikit.fr). He used a 8 mm dia. router bit for his sail track which I was unable to source here in Arizona. The closest I could come to it was 3/8" (9.5mm) therefore, I modified his width dimensions  by a couple of mm to maintain the same wall thickness.

As with most of these projects the first step was to go to Home Depot and get an 8' long piece of 3/4" Poplar that was 5.5" wide. I ran it through the thickness planer to get it down to 14 mm per the sketch of the sail track. I then proceeded to rip three 36 mm pieces and had just enough left over to rip a 10mm wide piece for the thumbcleats.

First order of business was to get the thumbcleats out of the way. This I accomplished using my sled that I had built to do the scarf joints on the mast.



I ended up making an extra set just in case I mess something up!



Next step was to get the router table set up and to run the three boards through it. On one of the boards I cut a small section off it so that I could use it as a test piece for the router.



Can you say trim moulding anyone?



After I ran it through the router I followed up with a coat of epoxy.



What you cant see in the picture is the smoke coming out of my epoxy cup. As warm as things are right now I have about 5 or 6 minutes before the whole batch goes south!

My goal is to apply 2 more coats of epoxy with a light sanding between each coat. Once I am done with that I will rip the short piece in half so that I can epoxy it together, and I will epoxy the two long pieces together!