I recently did some rail bands using the masking tape and hot wire method. I found it to be pretty easy as long as the tape was layed down at the proper contour. What is that line along the stringer? Is that drawn on the blank or is it some kind of new partial length stringer?
Jrmdds, that black line is just a pen mark. Center line index. This board is going to be a 4 fin, if it were a thruster, I think the short tail stringer would be a good idea. You’re right about the rail bands and tape. It was an easy operation. I think I used really cheap (thin) 1" masking tape. That pic is double tape. So far, I have been real happy with the pace and lack of foam snow. How is the EPS/compsand coming along for you? Can you post a pic? I would hate to say that would be like pulling teeth. Boo.
WM
I’m just hand laminating fiberglass to 2lb. EPS foam. I haven’t quite committed to the compsand thing yet, mainly due to financial start-up costs involving the vacuum pump and bagging supplies. It was hard enough just getting set up for the standard shaping and laminating. I’m glad you posted the rail band/masking tape photo. I didn’t take any pics when I did mine and I was trying to explain it to a friend, so I’ll just direct him to this thread. Here’s a shot of my handheld bow for rail bands.
Also check out these two threads:
Sweet. You got a good working setup.
How big was your blank and how long did it take to cut with the new setup?
Dougirwin13, I guess your asking about mine.? It’s going to be a 6-4 fish. Took way too long to cut the profiles, upwards of 10 min. each side. I had the thickest fishing leader I could find. The outline was quite a bit quicker, at a couple min. each side. Seems the wire lost a lot of heat while in direct contact with the foam. If I used a “sawing” motion, I could tell the cutting was much, much faster. Just getting the foam to fresh wire made a big difference. The thing is, a sawing motion is not the best way to get square cuts so I avoided that for the most part. I was also surprised on the amount of drag the wire had during the cut. Seemed about as taunt as I would dare, but dragging it through the profile cuts, both ends were ahead of the middle. Had kind of a “u” shape through out the cutting process. Not much, but it was noticeable. My EPS block is 24" wide and the wire deflected around 1/4". The rail band cuts were way better. Just less foam in contact with the hot wire I’m guessing. Plus, I used the thinnest fishing leader I could find. All of the rail band cuts took about 30 sec. (or less) each. I still have the guitar string. Not sure if that would make for faster cuts? Any ideas?
WM
i did a few tests on wire today
the melting temp on nichrome is very high
up in the thousands degree c
also the amazing thing about nichrome wire is that it retains it tensile strength
at high temperatures
steel of course become elastic and looses its tensile strength at higher temps
if you use nichrome you can crank some amps so its cutting really smooth
and you dont have to worry if the wire gets a bit too hot
i wont likely break unless your really hot and pushing hard
i pulled a redhot .7mm wire with pliers and its very difficult to break
gets some nichrome