Now that we are getting the float hulls joined up and focussing on details, we needed to start thinking about the chainplates. I decided to go with the carbon fiber chainplates. These require a custom thimble to wrap the carbon fiber over and a custom clevis to hold the turnbuckles. So I drew up some drawings based on the details provided in the plans and went to Hand Precision Machining. Robert Hand did a great job of machining these parts from 316 stainless. For reference, the thimble is 2.75 inches long, so not too big. Of course machinists are not cheap, but Robert always seems to give a good break on pricing for personal jobs, so we were able to feed Catherine another day. I know this is a chemical imbalance somewhat unique to engineering types like myself, but I really love the look and feel of nicely machined parts. Hopefully Dawna won't mind if I put these pieces under my pillow tonight! I'll post more updates when we start assembling the chainplates.
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