Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Next challenge: Joining.

I demoulded another perfect piece of composite mast today.  The challenge now is joining the two pieces, getting the pre bend right, and in tight quarters as the workshop was built for a 7m boat, not a 10,7m mast.

As seen the mast just fits the diagonal of the workshop, with the central pillar making the access a bit challenging. 



Aligning with a line, trying to match the pre bend with my calculations based on measures from the mould.  It's difficult to see the difference to the curve when changing the pre bend by a cm.  If anyone have a good idea on how to do this I will be happy to hear from you.

2 comments:

nico peursum said...

With a laser level? You can measure the curvature at different positions along the mast and compare those with the calculated bend

Tor Rabe said...

Nico!

Thank you for your thoughts. A laser pointer would probably make it more precise, but my laser is self levelling and I would have to get the ends levelled, which seemed so difficult I just used a line in stead. I also used an aluminium bar at several positions, controlling the central gap from the track. It ended up quite consistent with the pre calculated bend.