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-   -   Start to Finish: Building Our 50' Skater (https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/general-boating-discussion/335303-start-finish-building-our-50-skater.html)

NASCAT 04-01-2016 10:12 AM


Originally Posted by getreal (Post 4423448)
How long have you known Gene? My first Haas machine was serial # 63. LOL

Since about 2001-2002 when he entered the sport w/ driver Jack Sprague.

BigSilverCat 04-01-2016 10:21 AM


Originally Posted by NASCAT (Post 4423350)
Very impressive engineering & machine work.
Is this something you've designed yourself or are you manufacturing the parts you had someone else engineer to your specs & draw??

I was wanting a transmission that would be able to run full time and full power with the output spinning clockwise or full time/full power with the output spinning counter clockwise with the same input direction. There are company's that make a transmission that will do that but no one makes one that can handle the power I will have and spin at the rpm that we will be at. If there was one it would weigh 5k pounds and be bigger then the engine. So I spent many nights trying to figure out how to design a transmission that would be small and light but do what I need and handle the power. I came up with a design that with all the research I have done it has never been done before. The question is, has it been done and did not work, or has no one ever thought of how I'm going to do it? It's defiantly a risk designing something from scratch and hope it works, but I'm pretty confident that its going to. I have designed and built a two speed marine transmission that we have in the Freedom skater and 11 other boats including turbines. So I have a little bit of background in transmission design.

So to answer the question, I designed it from scratch not based on anything else made, we modeled it in solid works and then we have machined every piece of it. The only thing we did not do was cut the teeth in the gears. I did not have the machine to do that at the time and the place that did it screwed up a couple so now we have the ability to do the teeth also so we are remaking them in house.


Originally Posted by NASCAT (Post 4423350)
As you know we have a very strong partnership w/ Gene Haas & Haas Automation. Just out of curiosity what equipment do you have in your shop?

I had a Partnership with Haas, If you consider them buying my website a partnership. Long story, but I bought a new machine, the deal went bad before it even showed up and then it was a lemon. I had to start a website to get them to take care of it. We replaced it with a Makino. There is no comparison in quality or in Haas defense, Price.

BigSilverCat 04-01-2016 10:27 AM


Originally Posted by jvcobra (Post 4423392)
Nice work! Are you worried these will make a lot of noise being straight cut?

They will make more noise but I did not want to spend the money to have them cut into a double spiral for a prototype. If they work we will make a new set.

BigSilverCat 04-01-2016 11:03 AM


Originally Posted by AZMIDLYF (Post 4423446)
Think this is his set up: http://www.apex-mfg.com/p/contact.html

I guess I need to update our website. We had to take everything off of it because every time we would put something on it our insurance company would say there going to drop us if we build this or that's. But now we have a new insurance company and it covers anything we do. I'm going to try to update it next week.

NASCAT 04-01-2016 11:06 AM


Originally Posted by BigSilverCat (Post 4423482)
I guess I need to update our website. We had to take everything off of it because every time we would put something on it our insurance company would say there going to drop us if we build this or that's. But now we have a new insurance company and it covers anything we do. I'm going to try to update it next week.

Sounds like something a Good Marketing Firm could assist you with. :party-smiley-004:
No worries I haven't forgotten you but it's gonna cost you a bag of Monica's cookies for sure!

Cash Bar 04-01-2016 11:52 AM


Originally Posted by NASCAT (Post 4423485)
Sounds like something a Good Marketing Firm could assist you with. :party-smiley-004:
No worries I haven't forgotten you but it's gonna cost you a bag of Monica's cookies for sure!

Why are you dissing Tyson? Get on the stuff man !

What else could you possibly be doing with your day? :lolhit:

BigSilverCat 04-01-2016 12:21 PM

1 Attachment(s)
I bought a couple fan loaded pelter junctions to try to make the seats air-conditioned. A pelter junction is a device that when electricity is applied it gets hot on one side and cold on the other. I will have them mounted to the seat with a duct into the seat back and bottom. I should be able to heat or cool the seats like they do in the new GMC's, and Cadillac's. Once we get the boat done I will let you know how they work and if they have enough btu to make a difference.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]553341[/ATTACH]

Wally 04-01-2016 12:35 PM

Mad respect for the thought process that goes into this build!!! :cool:
Being and engineer I am always amazed at how machines are put together.....We had an old Fuji lathe break down in the shop and i popped open the side door where the hydraulics were housed....you have to know the sequence of installation just to get at one hard line....do it any other way and you will be taking lines on/off for days!!!
Heated/cooled seats!!!....that's one thing i probably wouldn't have thought of until i was out there either freezing or sweating my butt off during the run and complaining the whole ride! :D ;)

1 MAIDEN AMERICA 04-01-2016 01:14 PM

Derail-What ever happened to the rotary engine?

Baldie 04-01-2016 01:42 PM


Originally Posted by BigSilverCat (Post 4423530)
I bought a couple fan loaded pelter junctions to try to make the seats air-conditioned. A pelter junction is a device that when electricity is applied it gets hot on one side and cold on the other. I will have them mounted to the seat with a duct into the seat back and bottom. I should be able to heat or cool the seats like they do in the new GMC's, and Cadillac's. Once we get the boat done I will let you know how they work and if they have enough btu to make a difference.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]553341[/ATTACH]

I happen to work at Ford in Research and Development in seats. If that is the actual size of the unit, it was extremely big and will cool quite big. We don't run anything that big, and the most current we draw is about 8 amps on start up...

I would run something a little smaller, and have a PWM controller for a low and high so you don't freeze your buns off, on high cool it is going to be too much. Also, be sure to have big enough holes in your seats with channels for the air to get through the foam. This is normally done with a bubble wrap style cusion to distribute the air correctly.


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