Liz Clark of the CAL 40 "Swell" is a little under the weather (can you spell c-i-g-u-a-t-e-r-a?), are you eating sawdust as part of your meals, and some interesting space technology from NASA that may be of future interest for folks with composting heads...
A couple of readers have written to point out that my use of carbon fiber for various projects flies in the face of doing stuff on the cheap and is something of a contradiction to my simplicity mantra...
Sadly, carbon (and its kissing cousin Kevlar) get something of a bad rap in terms of expense for a variety of reasons which I could go into detail on but you'd find that boring (I know I do) so let's just say, used with a modicum of cunning, carbon and Kevlar can be cheaper than various all-glass laminates...
The thing that makes this possible with carbon, Kevlar and other hybrids is that since they have engineering properties that allow you to use less product to reach a desired strength level, stiffness, or other desired traits, hey presto you save money.
Not rocket science at all...
For instance, the design for the new self-steering gear (BUFORD) I have been working on uses both carbon and Kevlar to allow me to be able to (hopefully the jury's still out) reach the target budget of less than $350 total materials and outside labor cost. If I were not using some carbon/Kevlar, I'd have to resort to some welding (expensive outside labor) and pricey off-the-shelf components. Plus, the added bonus is a little carbon and Kevlar added to the mix makes it easier for a home builder to build it and saves a big chunk of weight, which is no bad thing when you are bolting something to your transom...
Listening to John Stewart
So it goes...
Plans Change, Martinique version
1 week ago
