Flatback Fireboat Rebuild

[CLM65]

Ouch!

[seabob4]

All in fun Craig, all in fun...

Scotty will tell me, if I keep practicing, someday I might be able to rig a boat!!!  But I'm still up on him in the football pool...

Going down to Ruskin Monday morn to pick up this little girl, all new electronics, see what I can do...http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Y2414RZXvA

[CLM65]

That is one beautiful boat!

[gran398]

Ouch!

Lew and I had fun with this vid 13 months back. He was the director/cameraman, I was the barker What you see is the only take.

That boat of yours is a honey. Yep it was a bit of a haul....but her history/provenance remains....and to me is pretty darn special.

Looking forward to the next set of pics

[CLM65]

Since this seems to be the season for making molds, I decided to try it myself.  My project is a bit simpler than the ones Koz and Carl are doing, but it is my first real attempt at making a mold for something that will be exposed.  Baby steps, right?  Besides, I will soon be making a mold for my transom cap, and I need to know how thick my transom enclosure doors are going to be so that I can make the proper depth recess.  So without further adieu, here is how I am making my transom enclosure doors...

The doors are approximately 12" x 20", and the top of the doors will follow the curvature of the transom cap.  It is not much of a curve - the center of the cap is about 1" higher than the sides.  Therefore it is hard to notice the curve in the following pictures.  Since the doors will be mirror images of each other, I figured the best way to make them symmetric would to make one mold for both sides.  I did this by cutting a dado down the center of some melamine and mounting the larger melamine panel right in the center.

[CLM65]

I want the corners of the doors to have a nice radius, so I clamped a 1-1/2" PVC coupling in the corners and packed them with bondo (I left a small gap at the bottom so I could tell when the void was full).

[CLM65]

I put several coats of wax on the surfaces and then spread clay around the seams.  I figure a 1/8" radius should be about right for the edges of the finished door, so I made a little tool to give me a consistent profile.  It is a 1/4" tapped brass ball mounted on a 6-32 cap screw.  I also have them in 3/8" brass, 1/2" aluminum, and 3/4" nylon for other size radii (some shown here).  Lastly I glued a piece of formica to make a recess for the piano hinge.







I still need to add the clay and formica to the other half of the mold and then PVA, gelcoat, etc.  I will be using 1/2" nidacore as the core for the doors.  Hopefully I'll be able to make a product by the end of this weekend.  If anyone sees anything I'm doing wrong, please speak up before I go too far.  I'm using the last of my 1/2" nidacore on this project, and I really don't want to buy an entire sheet just to re-do these doors if I screw up!

[wingtime]

Very impressive and simple approach to building the molds!

[RickK]

Looks like it should work nicely Craig  

[Callyb]

Since this seems to be the season for making molds,

It's like the flu going around! I really like your solution for the corners, very simple and clean. Please make sure you take lots of pictures, and document it well too. I think we are all on the learning curve with this particular subject.

As a side note, how do you like that Sawstop? My wife has tried to talk me into one, especially after I cut my leg with the chainsaw.

Keep up the good work!

[CLM65]

Thanks guys, I'm trying to do better with pictures, so hopefully I'll be able to provide good documentation.

Carl - as far as the Sawstop saw, my only regret is that I didn't get it sooner.  It really is a high quality saw, but the best part is the safety feature.  Unfortunately it took cutting off part of my thumb to get me to buy it.  IMO, if your wife is trying to convince you to buy one, then the hard part is done and you should be all over that!  Heck, it would make a great Christmas gift!

[slvrlng]

The only thing I would suggest is a hole right in the middle of the door so you can blow air in and help pop it out.

[CLM65]

That is a good idea Lewis.  Only problem is that I am planning on making both doors at essentially the same time.  I was planning on just taking the mold apart, as I don't think I will have a need to make more doors of this size.  I suppose I could try drilling a hole through the door, and then try drilling a hole from the side (and hope my aim is good), and then try popping them out simultaneously.  Worst case is I will need to fall back to plan A.  Thanks, for the tip!  I'll give it a go!

[fishinonthebrain]

I like the idea of the bondo in the corners so you wouldn't need to sand much at all. The hole in the center would help getting it out of the mold but since you will have to take the sides off the mold it should come out easily. I wish the HD had the melamine around here.

From what I see you should have really nice doors with little cleanup.  

[Capt Matt]

You just going with 2 large doors in the cabinet not 3?
Capt Matt