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!
No comments:
Post a Comment