Chapter 14 - Step 2

This step involves cutting and assembling foam for 3 sides and the ends of the spar.

Matching the seam April 21, 2002. When cutting the foam for CS2 and CS3, I used a simple trick to make sure the seams matched up. I simply set the two pieces of foam in the jig with a small overlap. I then took a pen and traced a line on the back piece of foam using the front piece as a guide. I then cut on the line and I had a nice matching seam. One this was cut I put the foam back in the jig and used the end of the jig to cut it to length - keeping in mind it needed to be 1/4" shorter for CS5/8.

Foam in the jig April 21, 2002. Here is all the CS1, CS2, and CS3 foam cut, shaped, and in place in the jig. Nothing is glued yet but you can see the supports on the front of the jig to keep CS3 at a right angle.

Spar Foam Assembled April 25, 2002. Gluing all the spar foam (three sides anyway) together was fairly simple. Some micro smeared on all the mating edges did the trick. I first put box sealing tape where all the joints would be so nothing would stick. After getting all three sides in place I added a bunch of nails in the foam and put some duct tape in place to hold all the foam in place. Lastly I put the CS4 foam in place and weighed it down to ensure all the CS2 and CS3 foam was properly against the CS1 foam.

Microed Spar Foam April 25, 2002. Here is a closer view of part of the spar after gluing and weighting it down. Using the CS4 foam with some nails actually negated the need for the supports added to the front of the jig to keep the CS3 foam perpendicular.

Assembled Foam April 29, 2002. Here is the spar after gluing all the foam (three sides) together. Notice the tape on the ends of CS2 and CS3 in the foreground.