It has been some time since I’ve posted anything on the TMS-20 and The Man Shed so I’d thought I’d post an update.

Shoulder Repair
I’m back at it but a bit slower pace since my surgery. I’m off pain pills so the shoulder is sore but the Doc gave the go ahead to start lifting and work it out. How better to work out the kinks then to long board. Hold on moon doggie not the long 60’s surfboard type; I can’t even sail yet - but a thin piece of wood with sand paper glued to it. A boat builder’s friend for a fare curve from a noble plan as Jimmy Buffett says. Still going to PT I swear they would be Nazis at a different time in history, but it helps so in PT pain is good.

A-Cat Mast Repair
A-Cat mast came out good. I ended up not vacuum bagging the mast. The vacuum bag had a tendency to wrinkle the cloth on the tight curve. So I did a hand lay-up using peel ply. When sanding out the first break getting ready for lay-up we found a second crack and a little sanding on it put the mast in two sections again. Not the plan but better in the shop. Again right where the inside of the mast stepped down from 5mm to 2.5mm with a hard step. I had to make a double sleeve again. I changed my design some and it was a bit easier. I also picked up a $30 in line laser level from home depot and spotted, at dusk, down the sail slot all the way down the mast when I glued the sleeves together to make sure the tip was straight - that worked really slick. The batteries in the camera were dead so I never got a final picture. My final words – Make sure you paint the mast this time!

TMS-20
I did some pricing to see if I could get the molds for the AMA’s cut on a CNC machine from wood or foam. This is big bucks! I found one local shop that would do it but charge me $3,500 per hull half. We dickered around some and he said he would do both for $3,800 but still seems like too much for a prototype boat. That kind of blows my budget but it is a really cool idea. At work we do small parts but nothing very large. If anybody has any connections in the CNC world let me know. I have not ruled it out but I’d like to half that cost or less. If I was going into production and making molds with a decent budget it is surely the way to go. Sanding even with air sucks.

I’ve been faring out the starboard main hull half and it is starting to take shape. The flair in the hull has been a lot of work but it is finally starting to shape up and fare out. I ended up wrapping sandpaper around a can West Systems powder and it gave me the radius I needed. Some may question why I’m faring out the foam before I glass. It is easier to sand epoxy with powder (bog) then glass and no itchy nights from the bog. Plus the Carbon skins are just 2 layers of 200gram carbon cloth not much to sand there. The bog for you West fans is epoxy with 407 powder. The 407 bog is a little hard to sand but it is slightly structural and has excellent bonding strength.

I’ve also reset the strong back re-leveled it and I’m flipping the stations for the port side. Kurt Hughes has a good trick for this. Do every other one this way you do not have to re-square all the stations as this method keeps the spacing. You just have to check that every thing is level side to side and fore to aft. I have half of the station flipped and perhaps by the end of next weekend I have the other half flipped. Then I’ll be ready to start cutting foam and do this bloody thing all over again.

Later- The Man Shed

A few pics for those interested I'll be updating the website.