I have decided that the rear upper deck and the rear aft cockpit will be a one
piece
unit. After see another boat with a similar set but not both decks were joined. This means that the upper deck and lower deck and the sides of the cockpit will all be joined forming a box. This has a number of benefits these are:-
1. It makes a water tight compartment which can be emptied if required. (except for the removable hatch I did in the initial build, this will have to have an โoโ ring type seal)
2. It makes it easier to get to the servo area without taking all the smaller parts out e.g. foam tanks ladders etc.
3. Fitting the ladders made easier with a single 10 BA bolt
Disadvantages
A lot more work!.
Because the individual parts are already made and in some cases painted I need to make sure that all surfaces that will require gluing are suitably abraded before applying any type adhesive. Additional work will be required around the top edge of the cockpit to give a lip to stop any water from entering the servo area. I decide this would look nice in mahogany to match the floor edging, along with some corner
piece
s in polished brass this edging will also add substantial rigidity to the whole structure.
The mahogany was cut from a spare
piece
of old table top to 9mm by 6mm and then a 1.5 mm x 2mm deep groove was cut along the length to slot onto the top of the box section. The corner brass
piece
s were fabricated from 0.5 mm brass sheet and the joints soft soldered with a strengthening
piece
underneath.
The box section sides were already made and painted so had to have their edges prepared for gluing by removing a 2mm wide strip along each edge. The area where the box fits had to be prepared with spacers of 0.6 mm card and strips of baking sheet to stop the glue sticking to the sides of the boat. This method ensures that the box fits exactly in its hole.
After epoxying the box section to consolidate the Rear upper deck & Aft cockpit deck I could then glue the mahogany rail to the top along with the brass corners this was left to set overnight. The top rail was then radiused to finish it off and a first coat of varnish applied
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