We've been making good progress the past month (at least by our standard). Nothing too new or groundbreaking, just more of the same you have already seen with the past two beam interiors. Here is a photo of beam #2 with the gussets at the inner end (bottom of photo) heavily glassed to strengthen this high stress area. I haven't made any additional progress on the bulkheads in this beam because I am focusing on getting beam #3 assembled and out of the mold by the end of the month. Then I hope to have beam #4 assembled in January, and the work with the mold complete. This is in anticipation of a possible move back home next summer, which I would prefer to do minus the heavy wood forms. I actually never thought it would take so much time to build these beams. They just have lots of details and they have to be done correctly.
So here is beam #3 in the mold with the initial carbon fiber lamination. In the background you can see the corner fillets ready to go. This is the first aft beam, which requires a little less reinforcement than the forward beams.
And now beam #3 has the fillets installed and has been fully laminated with glass. All that is left to do in the mold is to add the reinforcing laminations, including some carbon fiber and more glass. Should be done tomorrow then ready to pop out of the mold. I will also fit the bulkhead foam core before removing from the mold, but that is a pretty quick job.
Here is a close up view of the interior of the recess where the upper linkage with the main hull will be pinned. This recess will be subjected to lots of stress, especially around the pin, so there are solid GRP plates on either side, which were fabricated a couple years ago when I built the central mounting modules. There will also be several layers of reinforcing glass to distribute the load to the rest of the beam structure. The peel-ply keeps everything neatly laminated and is better than sanding, no matter how complex the form.
Here you can see the three beams in various stages. Beams #1 and #2 are stacked to the left, while #3 is in the mold. Note the exterior view of the recess in the bottom (upside down view) of beam #2. You might also notice the heater working away to the right of the photo. Temps have dropped, snow has fallen, so now I am trying to maintain progress by keeping temps in the garage warm enough to cure the epoxy in a day or two. At least I don't have to worry about the epoxy kicking too fast.
To ensure the epoxy is usable, I am keeping it inside in the laundry room closet. This way it is warm enough to flow and wet out the fabrics. It does get chilled pretty quickly once it is applied to the cold assembly in the garage, but it seems to be working. Should get me through the cold winter with fewer excuses for not making progress.
