TMS-20 update more fairing

Awesome. Thanks again for the update. Say, don't the Florida bugs drive you CRAZY in that open man-shed?

Rum. Bugs hate it.

Jake,

Not bad just yet the weather has been a bit cool by FL standards and dry. Once the rain starts the flying vampires get bad. If you go back one page it shows my bug zapper. I use bug spray and keep a good sized floor fan focused on me to blow the little bastards away. As I relax and sit in the chair, drink a beer, and smoke a cigar I get a can of carb spray. As they crawl closer I melt them with a blast of cleaner.

My shop cat keeps the June bugs and moths at bay as they dive lower. He jumps up and snatches them out of the air then eats them. So with the cat, zapper, fan, and carb spray I manage.

Pete never tried Rum on the bugs 🙂

I think Pete intends for you to consume enough that it oozes from your pores. Trying to spray bugs with it would be poor form.

ROFL

I just went through your gallery,

building Man shed

, and noticed you saved the best for last! <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

Pete,

He is good ole boy. Good guard dog.

I've been out of town working on a project from hell, US Government, and I'm dogged out. Worked hard and saw cold weather and snow burrr... I did not get much done last week. I cut some of the foam into strips. The router bit came in so I'll route the cove and bead into some strips and see how that works. I need to pick up a skinny saw blade. I lost 2.25 inches of foam to dust ripping 1-inch strips out of 2 feet of foam.

I applied epoxy to the face side of the stations and the edges to make them waterproof. I have the other face side to do, and then recoat them. That way I do not have to worry about them getting wet or humidity puffing the fiberboard. Kurt Hughes the NA get back from Asia in two weeks and he will provide a lay-up schedule I hope to be ready for glass by then.

My plan for this weekend is to finish the epoxy work sealing the stations, set the stations level, and screw the stations to the strong back. Bond the strip fairing strips end to end to go from 8-foot strips to 20 footers. Start the overall fairing for the final shape of the hull. If I get that far I’ll be happy. Then I’ll start laying the strips in the hull so I will be ready for the lay-up.

I need to start shopping for a Bagging pump. Is anybody an expert in vacuum bagging? Advice would be appreciated.

Later,

Mike

Jake Kohl has some experience with that. You might want to contact him. He's always around here somewhere!

As best I remember, a shop vac reversed doesn't pull enough pressure. I think he said he uses an old refrigerator compressor.

I've been through all sorts of methods of vacuum bagging but I now have a vacuum pump (8 or 9 cfm 2 stage) that I bought off EBAY for about $250. I've done the venturi route and while it is capable of achieving a reasonable amount of vacuum, it is very energy inefficient and your compressor will be working pretty hard. I've got a 7.5hp 80 gallon 175psi compressor that would have to cycle once every 8 minutes to keep my one venturi powered up.

I didn't find these until after I bought the vane pump I have now - but Harbor Freight has a several of REALLY inexpensive vane style vacuum pumps from $50 to $100. These look very similar to the one I bought for $250 and are probably made by the same Chinese company (or whatever). I've done a lot with my pump from layups to evacuating air conditioning systems and am quite happy with the quality and performance of it.

For the size of what you're getting ready to get into, you probably need to consider a two stage pump so it will draw down fast under little load - the single stage pumps might take forever to evacuate half of a 20' hull to start pulling any substantial vacuum. The other thing to consider too is leaks - a higher CFM will overcome small leaks much better.

If you're interested, I've also been through all sorts of trials and tribulations with vacuum bags, breather, bleeder, and sealant tape.

Get a good 2 stage pump, buy real bagging film, dont try and use some other type of plastic. Get a tube big enough to go around the whole hull if you can, then you just have to seal the ends. Sand all the sharp points on the mold so they wont leak, and then check for leaks using one of those amplified things.

If you're looking to cut thin foam strips, then get a hotwire cutter instead of using a saw. You'll save yourself tons of pain and agony.

not if you're trying to get a cove and bead so the foam strips will effectively hinge on each other as they stack inside each other. With the cove and bead, you have very little (if anything) seam to fill. Hard to pull that off with a hot wire.

Bill makes a good point too - the 'proper' materials may look expensive at first but they're really not when you consider the hull you ruined. <img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />

I've been wondering if/how you were going to vacuum bag. I'm curious about how you seal the bag over a strip built form on shadow stations...how do you do that and get a seal?

Hey Mike,

You need to save some time for sailing too. I just bought a new solar charger and winch in the beach box. The new winch pulls at 20 ft/min compared to 6 ft/min and has a wireless remote. The solar charger has no glass so hopefully it will last. It is installed but I have to do a few things to the winch before I install it.

You can have the old winch if you want to try to build those power cat trax you have been talking about. (Opps sorry, that would be an additional project)

Maybe Easter weekend we can do some sailing. I am going to sail down to Miami that next week for the MKL.

I am mostly over my flu but I have to go to a wedding in Charlotte in a few hours.

Hey Jake I'll take you up on the offer. I sent an Email to you. From what I've read from my NA they say once the strips edges are glued on the cove and bead they can be lifted slightly from the stations to slide the plastic bagging under.

I've been looking at commercial pumps designed for vacuum bagging. I spoke to a dealer about the venturi system and he did not suggest that system due to the amount of energy used by my compressor and it did not pull a good enough vac for the size of the job.

I have a local shop that sells vacuum bagging materials basically a $7 a yard for double sheet bagging plastic, $7 a yard for breather batting, and $7 a yard for peel ply.

Craig yep we need to get out. To much work makes Jack a dull boy. Usually I take some time off to go to the Keys and play with the spring breakers around easter.

My shoulder is not in too good of shape, I may need to get juiced or cut. If I get cut I should be back by June I may try to get juiced first.