Steve 1
Contributor
Pat Thank You.
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Thad Allen's Apache + The Birth of the Cheetah Cat
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Pat Thank You.
Steve 1
Contributor
Put the Chick in the back.
Offshore Ginger
New member
:iagree::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Jesse James
New member
Thanks for the sketch..... about 20 feet and set up for drag racing....!!!!!!! single outboard 110 plus????
Jesse James
New member
I currently have this wild hair to go over 100 in a single outboard v-bottom like a allison or something... but they are building a new water drag strip near my home and something fun to go do some bracket or heads up would be fun.....
Steve2
Contributor
No problem, so when do you need it and what colors?:cheers2:
Steve 1
Contributor
The Bow we are doing some Hotcoat workup, I use a green tint in all my Resins for a number of reasons, the first any missed air stands out and can be easily seen, My hotcoat mix is not something one would find in the book.
I take my base resin in this case it was a Dow 470-36 and double promote it, in other words it has twice the Cobalt (harmless unless stored with MEKP) which gives some of our resin's the purple blueish haze and DMA (Nasty Stuff there) then 3% by weight my personal MEKP with extra hydrogen and one more secret ingredient, the Idea here is to drive the resin into a quick complete cure, problem being it is just a few thousandths thick.
Now looking at the foam we have cells that have been cut during its manufacture and by myself during fabrication and fitting to the Boat now that said, The Idea here is to coat the cells internally with resin but NOT to fill them during the hotcoat operation ,With Airex Omit this step or shortcut it and you will have problems. Do a proper job here then one can start lamination.
I take my base resin in this case it was a Dow 470-36 and double promote it, in other words it has twice the Cobalt (harmless unless stored with MEKP) which gives some of our resin's the purple blueish haze and DMA (Nasty Stuff there) then 3% by weight my personal MEKP with extra hydrogen and one more secret ingredient, the Idea here is to drive the resin into a quick complete cure, problem being it is just a few thousandths thick.
Now looking at the foam we have cells that have been cut during its manufacture and by myself during fabrication and fitting to the Boat now that said, The Idea here is to coat the cells internally with resin but NOT to fill them during the hotcoat operation ,With Airex Omit this step or shortcut it and you will have problems. Do a proper job here then one can start lamination.
Offshore Ginger
New member
Steve , is the secret indgredient the material used in the rubber manfacturing industry........ that is used as an acceleator but works as a retarder in are business or is it TBC or Benzohydroguinone ?
Steve 1
Contributor
No it is something different.
I remember when I worked At Trick Paint and Steve1 was building Cats (Jags I Think) In our shop, One night I stayed after to help Him and Don (Rossi) Lay up one side of the Mold, I had never seen so many layers done at one time, then I learned he had some sort of special blend with a retarder in it. Where I came from (Cougar) Everything was done one layer at a time, usually hand grinder/sanded in between. seeing how Steve1 infused all these layers and core then bagged it and it didn't kick before we where done amazed me. when the hull was done 5 or 6 of us picked it up out of the mold and set it on the ground. it was Stiff and Light. Very cool stuff. and he's just getting better 
Steve 1
Contributor
I remember when I worked At Trick Paint and Steve1 was building Cats (Jags I Think) In our shop, One night I stayed after to help Him and Don (Rossi) Lay up one side of the Mold, I had never seen so many layers done at one time, then I learned he had some sort of special blend with a retarder in it. Where I came from (Cougar) Everything was done one layer at a time, usually hand grinder/sanded in between. seeing how Steve1 infused all these layers and core then bagged it and it didn't kick before we where done amazed me. when the hull was done 5 or 6 of us picked it up out of the mold and set it on the ground. it was Stiff and Light. Very cool stuff. and he's just getting better
Thank You very much for the Kind comments.
Offshore Ginger
New member
you ain't seen nothin' yet!
ok #2
Steve 1
Contributor
Rear shot More Hotcoat (sealing). Here is the thing as resins cure (Ester) some of the styrene is given off as vapor and this has BAD BAD effect on some foams aside from inhibiting the cure on our interface here between the actual lamination and the Airex it softens the Base Material ,Wet Bagging helps in this regard as well.
Offshore Ginger
New member
Steve , were all Cheetah cats built using Ester and if so why not Epoxy . I have to say that i have not used any Ester product's for over 25 years and just by chance a few weeks ago i walked into a shop that uses Vinyl and it sure helped me remember why i hate using Ester products just because of the stank and the effect it has on some materials like you posted in your last post .
Steve 1
Contributor
In those days everything I did and Jaguar as well was Vinylester, a number reasons; first I was able to get the working time and second in those days the room temperature cure epoxy was not what we have now and I was using a VERY light shop made fairing compound there was not much space in the weight budget for anything different.
With some Plastic cores they have "friendly Molecules" so a Chemical interaction takes place well as the mechanical Lock Now the Airex I was going for the ultimate Peel strength. with epoxy we have only the mechanical bond.
That Dow resin I was using is a Very tough dude, it's Viscosity around 200-250 Centipoise 600-800+ = normal resin With Water around .9 Cp and the epoxy like honey 2000Cp.
Which meant it wetout just looking at it. Plus 470 weighed 450# a Drum and was only 30% Styrene even in those days with a 290 F+ HDT it gave 40++ Barcol , @ 5% elongation and Dow had the hottest sales lady on the planet.
Ratickle
Founding Member / Super Moderator
Ahhhhh, the rest of the story.......:sifone::sifone:
Jesse James
New member
i just read all pages on here and s&f thanks for taking the time and sharing...... if i understand correctly the cats were made just the opposite of conventional boat layup??? meaning the gel goes on last instead of being shot into a mold first?
Steve 1
Contributor
Linear Awlgrip,But we can do gelcoat if a customer wants.
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