Beam pads

 As promised, here are a couple photos from today's woodworking adventure milling the pads that will eventually support the beams.  These pads will be subjected to large compressive forces, so a high density hardwood is a must.  This is lovely white oak, used for centuries to build ships thanks to its natural rot resistance and strength.  So my F-82R will have a direct link to all of the great ocean explorers of past ages (okay, not exactly a direct link, but close enough!)  These are the blanks after being milled to thickness.  Each blank is about 3-feet long and will produce four pads.  The burn marks are due to a combination of dulling cutters and tough wood.

Five hours later (said with a french accent, a' la Sponge Bob!):
The eight milled pads awaiting glass laminate and installation on the central mounting modules.  It is amazing how seemingly simple jobs like cutting blocks of wood into these parts can take so long.  But I prefer to take my time and double check my measurements so I only screw up a quarter of the cuts!  Actually this all went pretty well.  I know it is hard to gauge the scale of these blocks, but the caliper to the left is about 9-inches long.  The blocks in the foreground are about 6"x7" and the blocks in the back are 10"x6".  So these are not too small, and there are few right angles.  The crazy bevels made each cut a challenge in set up.  Just a couple more small tasks (drill a few holes, laminate pads) and we are off to assembly of the central mounting modules (patented by Ian Farrier).

Oh yeah, and I also made a little more progress on the ports in the port float.  The weather was kinda damp and cool (a rarity in this part of the world), so not the best epoxy weather.  We should be able to glass the ports next weekend and be done with the port float for a while.