Re: Morbic 12

Posted by Port-Na-Storm on
URL: http://uk-hbbr-forum.61.s1.nabble.com/Morbic-12-tp4030796p4031258.html

I can report that after a night snuggled up in the airing cupboard my epoxy is now running freer than The Silvery Tay in spate. I now have a special place for it beside the radiator under my desk.

I feel your pain Timmo, both of my previous masts were made from Douglas Fir and I had similar problems with the grain breaking out in local areas where it gets a bit wavy.
After roughing out the octagon with the electric planer then taking it down to sixteen sides by hand, I used my low angle block plane, changing direction where necessary, always working towards the breakout, finishing off with the sander.
My finger can detect lumps and bumps far better than my eyes these days so I finish off with a long sanding block and some P120.

Have you kept the mast to the design dimensions or have you made it oversized? I'm not sure what the procedure is when you use the birds-mouth technique. I imagine the mast on the Ilur is fairly substantial.

I would have considered going the same route but I don't have the tooling, although I have wondered whether it would be worth routing out a hollow channel before gluing the two halves together to save weight.
Alternatively I might get a quote for Sitka Spruce but I don't know if I'm brave enough.

G.