201 hours to date.
July 12 6 hour: Move forward topsides to assembly area and cut bridge gusset from 2 of them. Pulled 2 more 24' plates and start cutout of outer aft topsides.
July 13 5 hour: Cut out outer topsides aft and part of mainbeam frameing. Work on methods for bending 3/8" x2 1/2" 6061T6 flat bar.
July 14 2.5 hour: Build press for forming flatbar. Six ton jack in press made from scraps, works nice.
July 15 3 hour: Finish cutout of main beam frame pieces. Do test butt welds on 1/8" plate. .030 20v 9 feed front pass .030 18/6 back pass not bad.
July 16 2 hour: Test butt joints in 1/8" plate. Try a bunch using welded in aluminium back bar with 1/8" gap then grinding off backup. Setting .030 24v 10 feed pretty good but still some fusion problems with backup.
July 18 11 hour: Try some 1/8" al backup with .045 wire. Better fusion but still not perfect. Will use .030 and chip back technique. Weld up port side frame to main beam. Bend up 3/8" flatbar ( 8 bends 6" radius ) Test butt welds in 3/8" flatbar. Use 60 degree bevel with 1/8" shoulder at root. Top pass .045 24v 5.5 feed, back chip 1/8" then .045 24v 5.5 feed. Looks perfect and passes a beating to 90 degree bend.
July 19 10 hour: Join stb bits to mainbeam and start forming 3/8" bar for it.
July 20 7 hour: Finish assembly of mainbeam and put temporary stiffner tbar across top of mainbeam. Move mainbeam onto top of hulls and start fab of 2 bottom stringers.
July 21 2.5 hour: Butt weld bottom stringers and place in hulls. Move mainbeam into vertical position in hulls.
July 24 2 hour: Tack in mainbeam. Prep `1 side of knuckle pieces.
July 26 10 hour: Weldout bow bottom to lowers in forepeak. Put tack on port hull knuckle. Move port hull port topside to assembly area. Test butt of 2x2" square tube. 1" long backup tube inside. .030 20v 8.0 feed leave bar in.
July 27 11 hour: Butt weld port hull port topside inside pass. Make up toerail from 2"x2" tube, cut full length 5/32 groove in toerail and slid topside into it then tacked to inside at shear (12" tack spacing ).
July 28 1 hour: Setup gantry off of mainbeam to turn topside panel over..
July 20 1 hour: Turn over panel.
August 2 11 hour: Backweld port hull por ttopside. Flip it over. Weld up both bows more fully to stem. Start tack up of knuckles on stb hull.
August 3 8 hour: Finish chine knuckle tack up on stb hull. Start stringer cutout and tbar weld up sequence.
August 4 10 hour: Figure out weld schedule for tbar ( 2"x2"x3/16"). What works is to bevel all edges and space at 1/16" gap then .035 22v 6.5 feed. Do side and edge in 1 go by tilting work while welding. Started tacking down stringers.
Copyright © 1997 Tony Bigras.