Another update after a short and unfortunately relatively boatbuilding-free summer.
We were at the workshop yesterday and started working on the doublers again. Three of them are now dry-fitted and they stand very nicely on their own, you can even lie down on the floor of the boat between the bulkheads and get a feel of what it’d be like on an extended trip on the sea. We also tried out the welding apparatus that Uku built, for me it was my first welding job ever. Feeling the current go through something you hold in your hand and looking at the electric arc was exhilarating, but it seems that one needs to be really skilled for this to work, so practice, practice. The electrode really wanted to get stuck on the material, shorting out the apparatus. In the end we got a lot of smoke out of the secondary transformer after it overheated so now Uku will probably have a look at the core and perhaps rewind it if it’s shorted out, but I’d say once we become more skilled it could be a viable way of welding some of the metal parts we’re going to need later.
Now I’ve got to run to classes, but I plan to glue the doubler to B#1 today, some pictures will follow.
- Drawing out the doubler for the B#1 bulkhead on 9mm plywood
- Uku welding two very important pieces of iron together to an even more important piece.
Also, here is one of the reasons I was unable to build the boat during summer:
- This one was used for superconducting magnets in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider until it burned out due to a manufacturing fault, causing a lengthy stop in operation. Perhaps we could use something like that as welding cable?
