Before I painted myself into a corner
I knocked up a bed frame. I used 9mm ply which in retrospcet,
I would have used polycore. Much stiffer still pretty cheap.
I had a lot of screwing around to do to brace the ply up. Great
for verticle but shithouse for horizontal applications... when
will I learn!
The bulkhead is made up from 4 sheets
of 15mm, 80 KG foam. I joined some but left the split in the
middle. This was purposeful. I wanted a strong beam there and
when joined with 750 tri ax tape I will have that!! Where the
windows are cut leaves the pillars between them where the glass
roll will overlap so that pillar will be a strong point. I engineered
this to be stronger than normal. This will leave the option open
for mounting main sheets and other high stress gear on the cabin
top if desired. I also made the bulkhead taller as I had a plan
in my head to modify the whole cabin shape and design.
I didn't bother putting resin in the
areas that were to be cut out but on this big door, wish I had.
The scrap would have been useful.
The stiffening supports under the deck
were poor in design and execution. But sense then I had learned
how to properly work unidirectional glass. So, to stiffwn the
deck further AND to provide a ridiculously firm foundation for
the bulkhead that, as I mentioned, may have load bearing duties,
I laid about 12 layers of 850 gram by 150mm wide tape.
With the halfs taped together I sawed
out the window and door aperatures.
I am using a diamond saw blade you can
get at any hardware store menat for cutting tiles for the straight
lines.
Then for the curves I use a jig saw
blade with carbide embedded in it, no teeth. Works perfect.
easy...
done.. I really really like foam!
Like a glove...
Jigged up to check fit to deck panels..
little touch here and there.
And a timber straight edge before taping
in...
There we go. and the stiffening was
as good or better than I hoped. Did wonders for the deck.
The corner is a peice of salvaged PVC
pipe from my mate Bill in Boonooroo who is the collecter of such
things in town and has been a big help. This is the time to use
those damn scraps that have been in the way all this time as
below...
I fasten on the outside usually, then
tape on the inside. You have to sand the PVC to make sure it
will stick OK.
Pretty sexy looking hey!
Tape is organised for a taping job inside.
That has to be done in the evening...
bloody duflex .....
And just to make sure it's tough enough...
I inlaid a rolled up tape of 850 grm uni all around the door
and put peel ply on the straight sections. Talk about stiff!!!
Anywa.. you do these bunch of complicated
little jobs as they fit in to bigger things and eventually it
gets there. this is quite a bit later and the deck has been shaped
and ready for the last tapes when conditions allow.
