XI

[mikesx]

Just finished my FVXI build. I picked these pieces up from Tony 2/8/20, so it's a better late than never build. I'm not a paint or stickers kind of guy, this layup is the closest I'll get to a "custom" finish. I don't compete , if I did, I wouldn't have built this boat the way I did. A lot of this build was about making this hull long term livable. I'm a bit of a weight weenie, I took lot's of weight pics, so here goes.

 

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Here's the weights:

 

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One thing I didn't want was any aluminum lines bonded into the carbon. Carbon + Aluminum = Corrosion. So I swapped them for Titanium. Had to grind these out.

 

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Any aluminum that had to stay I planned on fully encapsulating. The drive shaft tube is stainless, but the mid bearing mount and scoop grate insert were aluminum so I encapsulated it all.

 

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I also beefed up the bulkhead

 

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The weight at this point

 

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Next was filling and bonding in the motor mounts

 

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Made sure the mounts were square and true. This was done a bunch of times, lost count.

 

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I used a couple different grades of titanium in this build , for lines I used grade 9. Think flexible. .032 2.5" was used for the exhaust, calcd out to 18 grams per inch, the aluminum tube I removed was 22.4 grams per inch. With the 1945 PSI burst pressure I don't think I'll have any problems.

 

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And of course I had to polish the titanium, even though only the ends would be seen, it was good practice. I made mandrels, used a pipe threading drive and a hand held belt sander, stepping thru all the grits.

 

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Bonding in the exhaust tube. I fully faired it so ALL the water would go out the pump box scupper. While I was at it I also did the other scupper. I didn't want any dead areas for sediment build up.

 

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Next was how to mount stuff. Batt tray.

 

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With the batt tray figured I could then put in the cooling lines. I used 1/2" titanium.

 

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I used Roto Locs for inserts. M10's that you can bush down to M6. This is how I mounted them. I first made carbon covers.

 

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Then I made studs, silicone greased them, loaded the covers up with epoxy and pressed in placed.

 

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This was done a bunch of times.

 

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Everything was laid out around 62T with PFP.

 

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H2O tank mount.

 

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Some finish shots of tank and batt mounts.