14 Apr 08

I did a big clean up this morning, as the shop, especially the lofting table, was getting a little out of hand. We had a visit from Russell and John of Alcan, our tessellated balsa sponsors, this morning. It was good to meet them in person. After they left, I started on the next mold. I cut a bunch of pieces of MDF about 1/4" bigger than I needed, and drilled a bunch of holes in them so that I could run bolts through to act as clamps. Aaron came out and helped me spread glue and bolt everything up right before lunch. Ben worked on his steel trusses all morning, and Zac made a dump run and a Home Depot run and started digging holes and setting posts for a new lean-to on the front of the new building. After lunch, I test mounted the truss. I had to drill holes in the new cross-section piece that correspond to the holes in the base of the truss, and everything lined up well. The glue was now dry on the MDF block, so I removed the bolts and ran it through the tablesaw to dimension the width and chopped the length in the radial arm saw. I used a 1" radius roundover bit in the big router and ran it all the way around the top of the block. I filled in the drilled holes with body filler and sanded everything smooth to finish it off. Zac finished setting his poles and cut some veneer for the mold. I got the bag ready, and Zac and I spread glue and got the part in the mold while Hunt and Rick Fuller hung out and kept us entertained. We think the part will be good, but we aren't totally sure. Zac and Aaron headed out, while Ben continued on the steel truss, and I worked on the position of the rear hat section. Ben finally left at about 7:30pm, and I went in to eat. After dinner, I went back out to fit the engine bay covers, and Caroline came out to help. Hunt came up and helped for a few, and Caroline and I called it a night when we finished at about 10:00pm.