longboarding plug

Herman : We have got a 'pro' on the job. But you get 'pros' and 'pros' . Unfortunately im not able to supervise them all the time. I have found though there are few people in the industry that can do big projects like this with ease. Alot of people will certainly take our money though !

GG : Our designer told us how long it would take , and I know appreciate thats why we were quoted over 150k $ for a contractor to make the plug for us.

I am quite happy for the production to take a little longer now as we have so much at stake.

Sam : My neurological damage is extensive. If I were normal I wouldnt be in this game spunking my money away!

 

I tried to figure out what a "Plug" is by reading the posts.

I give up. What's a "Plug"? What's it used for? What's it look like? Any photo's or drawing's at all?

 

Thudpucker, its just a term used for the shape created to mold a mold from, it could be a boat shape built just for that purpose & disposed of or the first boat or prototype of a series, the nicer the plug- the nicer the mold = the nicer boat although it dont need to be a boat, it could be a sink or bath & that would be more confusing! or any object able to be molded.

 

OK, he's making a Male shape, to spray F/Glass onto, which will become a Female Mold to make a boat hull.

He must be going to make a lot of Boat Hulls to sell.

 

thudpucker...you nailed it, one would assume that to go to all this expense, yes he is going into production building.

 

Thudpucker : Here are some photos, before the surfacing started. Somewhere on our website there should be a drawing aswell. Ill try and get some more photos tomorrow. Im looking forward to seeing it myself as I havent been in for a few weeks! http://www.workboats.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8&Itemid=9

 

One little trick not mentioned yet, get a 4 ft. aluminum "yardstick" and hold it on edge against the area to be faired. Move it up and down diagonally and it will leave a grey mark on every subtle high spot.

 

thanks for the tip ! will have one tomorrow

Neville

 

"its just a term used for the shape created to mold a mold from, it could be a boat shape built just for that purpose & disposed of or the first boat or prototype of a series, the nicer the plug- the nicer the mold = the nicer boat"

After the thought of building and fairing a nice wood boat , just to throw away , the Frans Mass folks decided to build their plugs in AIREX foam core , finish the boat and race it.

They did great till the customers with heavier and weaker solid glass boats caught on and demanded Airex boats too.

WE use the paper from the floor sanding folks , silicon carbide , rather than the aluminum oxide .

Lasts about 10 times longer and in the rougher grades does not collect debris

FF

 

Hey guy its all good and i apologize . Landubber i am also off to take my little red pills and wash them down with a very dry Manhatten .

 

Standfast is bankrupt now (already 2 years ago). No new boats anymore. I do not feel they will start up production of new boats this or next decade. Their last project was just crazy. (25ft boats, complete composite part, painted, hardware not included but fitted, carbon keel and rudder, and some fancy carbon stuff, for 11000 euro? No way. What were they thinking???)

As for the expert. Not a real expert, it seems... I see more and more companies either outsourcing their plug and mould building, or creating a department where some more than average skilled workers produce moulds.

About plug building in foam:

For boats, this is done many times. A "sailing plug" can be a great experimental or demo vessel, and at least the materials for the plug are being used, not scrapped. Also, for some or even more projects, I recommend this, as it sometimes is not certain at time of start of the project how many boats will be built. Up to the actual laminating of the mould one can decide not to make a mould at all. In the past many project leaders were thinking that their boat was the best, and they would sell hundreds. Moulds were made, and these produced sometimes 1 or 2 boats, sometimes no boat at all... I still know some of those projects lying around. Including 60 ft boats...

 

...cheers GG.....Rum and Cke for me mate, but i do like Gin.......Ta, John

 

I went to Neville's work site.
I just realized how deadly a small error can be when your making an "inner" mold for the outside of the Hull, and an "Outer" mold for the inside of the Hull.

Planning to Foam or Core the inside, in between the two castings is for the Bold indeed!
The tiniest error, not discovered until too late would put a lot of work out into the trash.
That's probably where those Foreign Languages were conceived!

 

"Planning to Foam or Core the inside, in between the two castings is for the Bold indeed!
The tiniest error, not discovered until too late would put a lot of work out into the trash.
That's probably where those Foreign Languages were conceived!"

True , but for a quick build making a basket plug and using AIREX , all hand laid up is fast , cheap, insulated , quiet and EASILY REPAIRABLE.

For non compound curves the Kelsall method is quick and infusion smells better , has almost no surface finishing , and is lighter for the same strength. NO idea about field repairs.

www.multihull-maven.com/Designers/Kelsall_Catamarans

FF

 

Tooling is a large part of our business ,We use custom made metal tools for sanding,This is duratec and not done but getting there.