Those are square pieces of 75 mm sided, 6 mm thick aluminum, whose task is that of spreading the load of the bolts connecting the various beams of the akas to the hulls. 4 of the crush plates are on the outboard side of the swing arms to support the amas and are for 12 mm bolts; the remaining 12 are for 10 mm bolts. Each crush plate is attached to the beams using two 5 mm SS self tapping screws on a diagonal of the square.
We pre-bored for all self-tapping screws using a 2.5 mm bit and we filled each hole with clear epoxy. Then we cleaned the bottom of each crush plate with alcohol, and spread a thin layer of sealant on each. Finally, putting the right bolts trough the holes in the beams and the crush plate to maintain alignment, we fastened each self tapping screw and cleaned everything.
In this picture the whole aka system is shown.The two heavy beams at the far right will be installed permanently of the main hull (vaka); the four swing arms will pivot on the ouboard bolts of these central beams. The total weight of the assembly is very significant (we estimated about 80 kg in total), with the advantage of a very simple construction.
Total work time to date: 708 hours
Bravo Pippo! Tra un nuova lente e due pieghe con la moto รจ ancora forte il richiamo del mare! E ora cosa manca ancora a Geodetica? Next steps?
ReplyDeleteCiao Enrico! Dobbiamo verniciare tutto il vaka (lo scafo principale) e i ponti dei due ama (gli scafetti); montare i vari sportelli e ferramenta, e infine armare...
ReplyDeleteOops! I see now the weight. Is it 80 kg for each beam assembly? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteWe estimated the TOTAL weight of the amas (front and back) to be roughly 80 kg, including the swing arms. Anyway, we will measure it in a few days!
DeleteWe measured the total weight to be 67 kg!
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