Monday, February 21, 2011

Bow pole

After about four months of recovering from a broken foot I was able to get some work done on the boat this weekend.

Making the bow pole was the next on the list. Finding something suitible for a mold tube has been hard. The finished pole needs to be about 4.1875 inches in diameter with a wall thickness of about .1875 so the mold tube needs to be about 3.875.
I can't find a suitable tube so I have to make one. I've decided to use a 4 inch exhaust tube with a wall thickness that makes the inside diameter of the tube just under 3.875. close enough !

Laminating on the inside of the tube is not easy. The first thing I have to do is make tube of plastic film for vacuum bagging. Then rap the tube with breather material then perf. sheet then with wetted out uni fiberglass. That is then rapped with a plastic sheet so that it does not stick to the inside of the exhaust tube. It is all pulled through the exhaust tube then ends are sealed on the outer side of the exhaust tube and vacuum is applied to suck it to the inside of the exhaust tube and left to cure. The fiberglass tube is then pulled out from the exhaust tube.

The mold is now made ! It now has to be covered with packing tape and waxed. It now can be rapped with the carbon fiber to make the finished pole. I'm using A layer of 12oz carbon sock material with three layers 18oz uni carbon fiber with another layer of the 12oz sock. All hand laid and not vacuumed bagged.

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