Here a little update on my progress. After some search work, I finally found a front wheel (aluminium, 20", the tire is 2" wide) and a damper.
For my first rear wheel, I followed the procedure as Paul does. I cut the rim in 2 halfs and added them again with aluminium spacer strips in between. Added some plastic material as spacer and then glassed it (16 oz, chopped) on the inside and on the outside. I made material for 6 spokes (2 times chopped, 16 oz) and made 2 side plates (2 times chopped, 16 oz with woven (unknown weight) inbetween). It can be seen on the following images.
The hub still has to be made in a lathe, but I already ordered 2 stainless steel 6004 RS bearings.
I will make a copy of the disc truing machine Vic made (as I mentioned before, www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Land-Yacht-Sailing/Construction/I-will-NOT-build-another-landyachtI-will-not/?page=3) to form the side discs.
Now I will need to build a support for the rim and the hub to hold everything square when I am glassing the discs and spokes onto the rim and hub. How did you build such a support that is exactly square and how can I do it best?
Then the mast, I think I'm gonna build it like Paul suggests at the end of this topic: www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Land-Yacht-Sailing/Construction/3-piece-mast-as-proven-by-Bill-Finch/, from aluminium tubes. I will use 3 tubes 50 x 2, 45x2 and 40x1,5. Where the tubes are brought into each other, there is some space left (0,5 mm inbetween the two tubes). How did you add them together and what did you use to to fill up the space?
0.5mm isnt much ,you could pack it out with tape or even a wrap of glass and epoxy.
I like your cutting pattern on the rims
It's not either of those knots. A Figure 8 is usually used to terminate the end of a rope so it can't run away through a pulley block or such. It doesn't tighten enough to jam and so can be easily undone. A Clove Hitch is used to attach a rope to a bar or similar. Similar to two half hitches. John Wayne used them to tie his horse up to the outside rail outside the saloon when he needed to blast a baddie into oblivion!!
now ya got me tieing knots, think about a clove hitch slip knot, they work great.
Bonjour,
We made this model in January 2011.
This design was second in 2010 world championship in Belgium.
thanks frogy. this kind of makes sense as i havent seen any yachts of this style for a few years. does this mean that after argentina the yachts changed then changed back again. ?
A little update: I finished my first wheel yesterday. Made the following hub:
After which I made a hole approximately in the center of the side plates and put the hub through it. Build my copy of Vics disc truing machine and made the side plates at exact the right size.
By clamping everything tightly between 3 pieces of metal (as can be seen on the first picture of my previous process-post), everything is guaranteed to be on the right place. First gluing the first side disc onto the rim, then the hub (that was already wrapped in some fiberglass), spokes and finally the second side plate. When the hub and the spokes where glued, I also added the second side disc on top of the wheel, to make sure the hub came exactly in the center of the wheel.
When everything was finished, I spinned the wheel and am quite happy with the result. I will be definitely making a second one and will go on with this land yacht design.
Great job. The airtracks are my favorite yachts, Those protruding axles look a bit dangerous in collisions. I would have to cut them back to the head of the nut.
the pic of the airtrack that you commented on is Frank Marsh's boat, yes I know him, Great Guy../Burt
Using a flange of some kind sounds to me as a very good idea. Since I already glued the second disc onto my first wheel it won't help there anymore, but I will probably include it in the build of my second wheel.
Thanks for the tip.
Just a few tips on fibreglassing as related to me by a materials supplier.
1. When using Polyester resins it is ok to join Poly to Poly if the first Poly resin is still very green and not set hard (cured).
2. If first Poly has gone off and is hard, then surface must be thoroughly sanded rough or the next Poly resin will not adhere. (my failures back that)
3. Poly resin placed on cured Epoxy resin will not adhere well.
4. Epoxy resin placed on cured Poly is quite happy but suggest sanding the surface anyway.
5. Epoxy on Epoxy is quite ok even if the first Epoxy has cured.
6. Poly is cheaper than Epoxy but more brittle and not able to withstand impacts as well.
7. Poly resin contains a solvent which can dissolve a binder added to chopped strand fibre mat, that allows the mat to take on any shape.
8. Epoxy doesn't have such a solvent but can be used with chopped strand mat if you give it time to soften the binder.
9. Woven mat glass doesn't have the binder so can be used with Poly or Epoxy resin but is not as flexible to follow multi curved shapes.
10. If in doubt about suitability, then use Epoxy resins.
All of the above is great info, I have now used both products and and on occasion used epoxy to bind polyester together in building my wheels. The result has been the same with both produce's, I have had no failures with either. Poly in a lot cheaper than epoxy and will probably use it in future. To show how much punishment these fiberglass wheels can take the pic below is of a wheel that I ran without a tire for over 3k to finish a race. (polyester wheel)
Hi Vic, fair enough, I did see your wheel not so long ago, who needs those expensive black doughnut things anyway.
I had built several boat rudders and a swing keel for a cat out of Polyester and under load one of the rudders failed when the two halves separated. I couldn't believe my eyes when one side of a rudder rose up vertical. Enquired from the supplier and found out the problem was not scouring the surfaces before bonding the half shells. Later the keel started to split when I hit something, so had to work on it too. Another problem with Poly that I forgot to mention...it has a relatively short shelf life compared to Epoxy so watch that one.
