Thursday, April 30, 2009

Long day, Much accomplished.

I might have mentioned this earlier, if not then oh well, but I'm not planning on having a regular meeting time for my team and I to work on various aspects of our project. Every Tuesday and Thursday.
Lately I've been feeling a bit of the pressure, a lot of things going on for me right now, but most importantly I have to get a new frame turned out so that the rest of the skins can be made. I want to make sure that the one I have for this frame, for whatever reason befits human error, fits on a new frame before giving the green light to make more. So because of this I spent after school today cutting two full sets of aluminum pieces out for frames and getting each of the pieces to the point where each only need to be drilled and countersunk. When all of this is ready by tomorrow evening I'll be able to do the drilling over the weekend and, hopefully, have two frames ready to assemble. (Hopefully because thats hedging the possibility that I'll make a stupid mistake, hence two sets of pieces)
I also cut templates out of card stock today so that I can use a metal punch to quickly mark where each hole is to be drilled.
All and all I feel as if I've accomplished much and that getting two frames ready to assemble by monday evening is now a much more doable goal. (Wasn't so sure about it this morning.)
Sorry, I don't have any more pictures for you yet, though I'll be sure to get some for the next post. Promis

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Catch Up

Okay, alot has happened since we last met. First off our SkillsUSA team competed in the Indiana state competition and took first place! We're going on the nationals in Kansas city now. W00t!
Also to be said, a week or two ago we worked a little on the wooden parts again, rounding corners and finishing up drilling the necessary holes. Nothign real exciting, but I posted a few pictures of us doing that, in the gallery, regardless.
Both the foam and the aluminum has arrived now, a while ago actually, and the newest skin has been put through a pool test. The gunwhales still need to be attached to the skin, but the difference is still night and day between the new skin and the old one. I'll have a short video of the new skin in action up in the gallery as well.
Some of our goals for the immediate future include: mount the gunwhales, seal the wood, countersink-sand-seal the new wooden pieces, start and finish the metal pieces for the new frames, and turn out at least one new frame. (Hopefully within the fortnight.)

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Quick Update

Sorry, I don't have any new pictures for you, we're getting ready for our competition on the 17th and 18th of April. Last week we were able to finish drilling the rest of the wooden pieces and round off all the necessary corners. Really all thats left to do with the wooden pieces now is to countersink, finish sand, and treat them. Also late last week I ordered the foam and aluminum stock necessary, both of which should be arriving early next week some time.
Its spring break for me and my team right now so we're hoping to get a bunch done on the presentation side of things. Some of those things include creating a new poster board for the State level competition and deciding on what we want to bring to present, aside from the PakYak itself. Thats it for now.