kidturbo

Wrapped up the diamond plate bending today. Off to powdercoat.

Should make that center stringer a bit more comfortable to walk on.

kidturbo

Wrapping 1/4" alum plate takes a bit of trial and error.

The Big metal brake angle looked good on cardboard, but proved to heavy on the actual geometry skills. Plus it left creases on the outside at every bend line. Being I've never seen creases in any other stand off boxes, knew we were using the wrong tool. So we switched to the Big smoke wrench [my original plan] and some C-clamps, that stuff rolled right around the end plates pretty darn quick.

Hit all the big runs with a wire gun. Tomorrow will switch back to tig setup to get those edges the gun wouldn't reach. But at least they are wrapped. And yes I remembered to include a drain plug hole..

kidturbo

Getting closer. Just need to cut the top holes out and weld the bottom plates on. Then I'll mock one up with a transom assembly and see how well my math was..

Am really happy with way the wrap and welding turned out.

Rookie

iTrader: (4)

Happy Anniversary!!
And thank you for this thread!
A lot of cool s#it and information in this thread.

rak rua

Yep, it’s been an epic story, much of it beyond me but interesting all the way.
Thanks KT for posting and Aussie Dave for his support on the whole project.

RR

2187

Aussie Dave has always had his long lost brother Kidturbo doing the best!

it will be one epic beast when she is all done….thank you to everyone’s interest along the long journey.

It is most appreciated!

Love, Aussie Dave!

kidturbo

Dang it Dave, seems I missed our anniversary...
Sure glad you took it better than my wife did last time..

kidturbo

Had to run up north for a few days and fulfill some electronics orders to customers. Things down south are still moving along. Jeff got the vent tubes installed on the #6's last week. Last piece is to cut the prop side tubes to length. Once I get back next week we'll mount up a couple sets of 18deg rake 4 & 5 blades to gauge the clearance. Then we gotta mount up some new style side zincs on these cav plates, cause I'm done fighting electrolysis without them..




Also got the 3/8" top plates jetted for the extension boxes. Hopefully those are cut, tapped, and powdercoat finished by time I get back. Ask my welder to add a boss on the bottom plate for a drain plug. And that he did.. Next week I'll be demonstrating how you install a Round plug into a Square hole.

kidturbo

Few updates from the past month. The extension box construction phase is finished.. Both mounting faces were trued up to remove any warpage from welding. We also milled the faces at exactly 5deg opposite each other. So everything is nice and square now. Then they stood em upright, trued the top plate area, and cut out the inspection hole. Which could have been made a bit larger, but the milling machine tool didn't like chewing thought the welds. I can still reach to the bottom, so all well. Something to think about on the next set.



I did end up helicoiling all of the 5/8-11 transom side bolt holes, so as to reuse the inside transom plates and mounting hardware we had. I kinda screwed up on the transom plate drawings sent over to waterjet. And they then cut the holes to tap size for 5/8-18 SAE [Fine Thread] bolts. Which after searching for new 316 Stainless 4-1/2" fine thread bolts a few day, weighing the thread cross section differences, decided the best option was to just helicoil all of them back to 5/8-11 course thread and put a little anti-seize on bolts. Our existing stainless socket head bolts are all ready drilled for safety wire anyways. And I feel much better not having fine threads attaching anything aluminum hardware that could see 3000lbft of torque twisting on them with a couple feet of extra leverage..






Do believe the transom assembly edges lined up pretty well in the end. Will see the final results after I get them back from powdercoating. So far to build these boxes has required not only my engineering skills and effort, but also a local water jet shop, two separate welding shops, one tig one mig, a HAAS CNC, an old Bridgeport, and several machinists. By time powdercoat work is done, at least10 different people will have worked on these two boxes...

kidturbo

Also got the diamond plate pieces for the engine compartment floor back from powdercoat. Went with a pretty basic gun metal grey color so as to protect the alum from oxidization, but not so dark as to melt your shoes when standing on it one sunny day.

For the two small replacement floor hatches, goal was make them as unseen as possible. So decided to try a matching hydro dip pattern. Pretty happy with results.