Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash: March 2009

Faithful readers of the CMSS blog,
While the blog has remained quiet for some time (apologies for this), I ensure you that there has been a fervent undercurrent of activity. Last night we conducted the fiberglass layup of our new boat, which has yet to be named. Before we post on the hull layup itself (complete with a time-lapse video), I'm going to show you how we got to where we are today.

1/17/2009

The hull group begins construction of the 20' long table that will hold the new boat core during construction

This table is being sealed in order to improve the vacuum we can achieve when we do the final fiberglass layup. Freshmen Dinesh Ayyappan (left) and Robbie Wedler (right) are hard at work making sure no spot goes untouched.

2/20/2009
Now that the table is built, the next step is to create the foam cross sections that will form the mold of the hull. The cross sections were printed in 1:1 scale on a plotter, and then cut out to be used as templates on the foam. Andrew Moore, Paul Kimball, Jon Boerner, and Roy Zhang help lay out the cross sections onto the foam.

Below, Andrew Moore, Alex Arteaga, and Robbie Wedler are cutting out rough sections of the foam which contain the cross sections of the boat.

Once the foam has been cut to rough dimensions, we used a "foam cutter" to cut the correct profile of the foam. In this case the foam cutter is a piece of nickel chromium wire that heats up when attached to a car battery, allowing you to cut through soft items such as foam.

Paul Kimball uses the foam cutter to cut the profile of one of the hull pieces.

Finished pieces were then drilled to create a small hole so that a PVC tube could be used to correctly align the pieces

The pieces were then arranged in size order so that they could be easily glued together at a later time.

After a night of work, the pieces are cut and arranged, and what remains of the crew goes home satisfied. Pictured, from left to right, are Riddhi Roy, Ibuki Kamei, Jon Boerner, Andrew Moore, Mike Barako, Paul Kimball, Roy Zhang, and Robbie Wedler.

2/28/2009
After the foam cross sections were cut, it was time to stick them together to create the hull mold. To do this, each cross section was arranged on a long PVC pipe to ensure alignment and glued together to create the final shape. CMSS Vice President Andrew Moore (right) helps Paul Kimball (left) assemble the front of the boat.

Meanwhile, the completed part of the boat is being sanded in preparation for applying the joint compound. Here we see Ibuki Kamei, Alex Arteaga, Joseph Meyer, and Jennfier Tang making the boat as smooth as silk.

After sanding, joint compound was applied to the surface. The joint compound replaced the Bondo we used in previous years, and was a substantial improvement in both workability and safety. The joint compound allows us to sand the boat down to an even smoother surface finish before we lay up the fiberglass.