Update on our high school airboat project

[CWAIS]

I got a call Jake Tupper, from Gale Marine up here in Galesville, Wisconsin. I had told him earlier that I didn't think that our hull was going to work out and he told me that I could come up on a weekend and we could build an aluminium hull. Well this was the weekend, we started saturday morning at 9:00am stopped at 9:00pm, back at it at 8:00am and the boat was finished by 3:00 pm. Jake even let me do some welding. I'm going to try to load a slide show so here it goes. Oh I'm the guy in the yellow shirt. Kind of felt sorry for Jake on sunday, my hearing aides were not working and I had a lot of trouble reading his lips but he put up with me.
http://s91.photobucket.com/user/CWAIS/s ... AT%20BUILD

[DDSBC]

It might just be me but I trie to view it on both my phone and laptop and it wouldn't work.

[Afflicted]

Worked for me on iPhone. Good job

[CWAIS]

Sorry, I will have to try again tomorrow. It will work for me so I must have done something wrong.

[DDSBC]

It must have been me cause I tried it again and it worked. Pretty cool to have built it yourselves. Looks good. Got any of the specs on it?

[CWAIS]

12' X 7' it has 24" sides. The low spot on the transom is 20", bottom is 3/16" and sides are 1/8".

[pierson skunkape]

Wow.... an airboat project build by students... in that part of the country.... my hats off to the build crew. looks like a fine slider to me..my first airboat was a home job and in no way looked like that... GREAT JOB, keep up the photos and your progress... my family run muffler shop in Daytona Bch.. would love to send you some stainless steel mufflers for that build........Round, Oval, 3" center/centers, just tell me the body length, offsets on the inlets and outlets and what size (inside diameter of the exhaust pipe) inlet and outlet necks... and ill get em' too ya..... you're embarking on an invaluable learning experience, nice to see that, not everything can be learned on a u-tube video.. my two cents...... dont get aggrivated,discouraged when thing dont go right.. take the day off or walk away for a while, a clear head always works betta.......take lottsa pictures and enjoy the build....!!!!

[Dirtman]

This thread is going to be a great one to follow if it keeps going in this direction. Great to see a project like this being done with young students. Keep the photos coming, looks great so far

[swampfox]

KICKASS

[pierson skunkape]

Chuck, if there is anything I can do to assist you or your team.... dont hesitate to ask... mostly exhaust related is my specialty though... was wondering what powerplant and setup are you planning....keep this thread updated with photos and news, i for one am very interested in your progress as well as a few other airboat junkies on here i see.... shop class with a airboat build project......PRICELESS..!!! Chuck call me if i can help..386.255.4821 travis

[CWAIS]

The engine is a wide deck 0-320 160 HP lycoming. The engine was built, painted, test run and donated to our project from JT540. Justin did an awesome job. We are waiting for a few parts and then we will start our engine stand. A couple of kids came in tonight and welded up the base frame for the engine and seat ( it actually fit the first time through ) YAAAAAY !!!
This spring I ordered a warp drive Prop ( craigslist) it had a 6 blade hub and 5 blades. We thought that we would use it as a 3 blade or a 4 blade bow-tie. It was suppose to be a 68" prop. When it came it was only 64"s, so I called warp drive and talked to Daryl. He was great he said if we could make it a 5 blade it should work good. He donated a clamp and bolts for the 5th blade. Then one of my students designed a hub using the 6 blade hub as a template for dia. for hole arrangements. One student welded up a rack to balance the prop and another student turned a giant bushing with a 5/8" hole in the middle to fit on to a 5/8" shaft. The shaft would go thru the hub and then we slid a bearing on each end and then placed on the rack ( it worked great ). Then we took the bearings off the shaft and put the shaft into a pipe vice. The hub was made plum with a digital level and checked each time we turned from blade to blade as we set the pitch. Students have made a billet gas pedal and a platform for a seat. This is where we are at at this point. We are going to use a carter fuel pump and a hayden oil cooler.
Thanks for checking in
Chuck

[Gary S]

Sounds like they have a great teacher. Not many kids today that can use their hands and their heads. Glad they have a teacher to help them get excited about something.
What are you going to do with it when it's done?

[CWAIS]

Drive it !!!!!!

[CWAIS]

Well a couple questions
# 1 We ordered poly from Nikki up here in Wisconsin from Horne Plastics, a piece for the bottom and two pieces for the sides, she gave us a really good deal. Our plan is to drill and tap each hole, add locktite and drive stainless flathead screws. We are going to stagger bolts every 6" on both side of the T Bar center line. working our way out to the edges. On the edges we are going to stagger ever 2".
The question is how far in from the outside edge should we come?

# 2 We are going to paint the inside of the alum. hull. We don't want to sand blast if we don't have to ( cheapest price in the area is 200.00 to sand blast just the inside), can we just sand the inside of the hull with sand paper, prime and paint or is there a better way? Maybe a special paint?
We will take any help we can get!!
We do have about 2000 or is it 10,000 questions for everyone but we will start with these.
Thanks Chuck

[One Eyed Gator]

I use counter sunk 1/4-20 ss screws. start in the center and work in an arrowhead pattern if that makes any sense. Used a 1/16 smaller bit to drill the hole. It self tapped the alum and ploy was pulled tight to the hull.

I am sure there are a few different ways, but this has work for me.

A note if I had access to the correct tools to buck rivet and the real Key I knew how to buck rivet, I would rivet my next poly.

[skinnypockets]

Well a couple questions
# 1 We ordered poly from Nikki up here in Wisconsin from Horne Plastics, a piece for the bottom and two pieces for the sides, she gave us a really good deal. Our plan is to drill and tap each hole, add locktite and drive stainless flathead screws. We are going to stagger bolts every 6" on both side of the T Bar center line. working our way out to the edges. On the edges we are going to stagger ever 2".
The question is how far in from the outside edge should we come?

# 2 We are going to paint the inside of the alum. hull. We don't want to sand blast if we don't have to ( cheapest price in the area is 200.00 to sand blast just the inside), can we just sand the inside of the hull with sand paper, prime and paint or is there a better way? Maybe a special paint?
We will take any help we can get!!
We do have about 2000 or is it 10,000 questions for everyone but we will start with these.
Thanks Chuck

VERY IMPORTANT: I did not see this mentioned anywhere. Poly needs to be hot when bolted on! Best done in direct sun. It will expand when hot so if you put it on in the sun it will be a nice tight fit when it cools down. If you put it on cold it will buckle when you ride and give you a very poor performance.

You should be able to do a search on here, (S A), and get plenty of good advice. Learn all you can about poly on airboats before you attempt to install it, it will be time well spent.

Keep up the good work and give us some more pictures as the boat progresses.

[Birddog247]

You can install poly indoors if whether does not cooperate. A lot of the big name manufactures install poly indoors with the use of propane heaters underneath the boat. I feel bad for whoever is working underneath that day.

[CWAIS]

Well we have been waiting for some 90+ degree days up here in wisconsin and last sunday was the day it was going to happen. It was time to put on poly !!!! No kids from school could help, not even my own son could help he was working all day. So I called John Hagen the Airboat Guru up here in Wisconsin, he said that he would see if his grandson Joey could help. I got a call back and it was a go. Here are some pictures. Joey is in the yellow shirt, John Hagen is in the green shirt, Michael Moeller who just walked in the door and helped all afternoon and myself totally wet from head to toe. These guys were great and what a learning experience. Hope you enjoy the pictures, oh my brother-in-law Mark and his son Jessie helped in the morning. All screws were drilled thru the T-bars then tapped and lock tight on the screws. The edges were the only screws not in the T-Bars. IT LOOKS AWESOME !!!!!!!!
Thanks guys
Chuck

http://s91.photobucket.com/user/CWAIS/s ... OAT%20POLY

[CWAIS]

Just wanted to post up a picture of my Advanced Materials and Processing Class. They have a lot of their own work that they have to do for class but they make up the crew of students that will be building the rest of this airboat.

[AirRanger]

All screws were drilled thru the T-bars then tapped and lock tight on the screws. The edges were the only screws not in the T-Bars.

I can't see why that would not work, but typically drilling the T-bars is intentionally avoided. Common screw pattern is 4x4 or 5x5 and 2 inches around the edges. Whats done is done, no going back now.

[CWAIS]

AirRanger
Could you tell me why the T-bars are avoided ?
Is it just easier to use bolts and locking nuts ?
Just want to use the information as a teaching tool to justify our rights and wrongs.
Thanks Chuck

[painterchic]

VERY COOL!!!! Just getting to see this thread and I think this is a GREAT project for students to help with! Students will be more interested in a project if they know there is an end result that's tangible and not just an exercise on something that is just one piece to a bigger puzzle that they might not get to see the whole picture of...

Keep up the great work!

Tonia

[CWAIS]

Couple of pictures of our latest problem and how we are fixing it. When we were starting to put on the engine mounts we noticed that the intake tubes were in our way, so this is what we did.

We first bored out some scheduled pipe to just fit over the mounts. Then we drilled some holes for some extra welding surfaces.

They were welded and mounted for fit.


We think we are finally ready to start this engine stand. I can not name students so this student
is starting to bend up the first cross member between the engine mounts, with a little geometry lesson and a perfect fit.

We will be slow moving on this project with only 1hour and 15min. a day but we will get there.
Chuck

[JT540]

that's fine what you did there just make sure to weld the face where the two slip together I cant see it from the pictures but im sure you did. im sorry I didn't catch that when I sent the parts or I would have sent longer bottom mounts!

[CWAIS]

Justin
They welded all the way around the front edge. I will try to give you a call one of these nights if it doesn't get too late.
Thanks Chuck