Wait.
My brother came down from Canada and I travelled back to the Armadillo Works to see him and the family for the fourth. So I lost two days. But then, I got back to work. I spent a night working over the drawings of the gear box after a few hours on the phone with an angel. And while that may not seem important or productive, I will say this: everyone needs a muse. And it is always important to clarify what you are going to make before you pick up your tools.
I got some more assistance from Ryan Slebos. That is invaluable. He was able to listen to my ideas and evaluate what I would need to get it done.
Not to go too far into design philosophy, but when we build, we are asking materials to do something. Sometimes it wants to. Sometimes, it won't cooperate. The thing you really need is an understanding of the material so you can understand what it wants to do. A brick, for example, will not cantilever. It wants to arch, but it's not going to cantilever. In this case, I am asking foam and carbon to be a boat, and while I know they will, I needed to understand how much I would need and what I would be facing. Ryan was the guy to ask. In addition, he was able to get me a better supplier and that will save me some money.
I think I owe him a beer... after the race of course.
Today, I laid out the gear box and got to check all of my parts. The cool thing about that: they worked.
On the right, you can see the output. The top gear is driven by the flywheel and drops to the final drive shaft. With a few small alterations, all of the parts will line up and I anticipate being able to post a video of it all working tomorrow. The flywheel is not done, but it doesn't require alignment and I can work without it.
If this all wraps up as expected, the hull construction will begin next week.
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