A New "How It's Made"

The most recent edition of "How It's Made" shows two stories of interest to woodworkers: The first shows how they laminate and finish wheels for expensive boats. A lot of scarf joints, router work, glueing, clamping and a weather resistant spray finish. The second shows the forging of chisels starting from high carbon steel rod stock. Process shows hardening, tempering, grinding and sharpening. They hollow grind and put on a micro bevel. Not a bad investment of half an hour. Anyone else see it? Joe G

GROVER wrote: > The most recent edition of "How It's Made" shows two stories of > interest to woodworkers: The first shows how they laminate and finish > wheels for expensive boats. A lot of scarf joints, router work, > glueing, clamping and a weather resistant spray finish.

The latest and greatest for yacht wheels these days is carbon fiber laminate.

You don't want to here the price.

As far as a wooden wheel is concerned, can be a fun project, like most other boat projects, just time consuming.

Lew

What brand?

The laminating in the show was laminating different layers of wood along with layers of carbon fiber. something like a total (IIRC) of seven layers,

Very interesting show, half an hour long and they normally show two episodes back to back.

Knowing what I know about aircraft and ultra-high-end bicycle parts, I have to ask... How much?

At the bike shop, we sold a $17,000 bicycle this year.

Like they say about Hinkleys, if you have to ask, you can't afford.

Lew

But I really want to know!

Maybe we're not charging enough for carbon wheels.

Carbon fiber has been and still is on allocation, thus if you can get some, price in effect at time of shipment applies.

Thus it is impossible to quote a price.

Lew

How about one that was recently sold? I don't want to buy one, I'm just being nosy.

A set of these guys will set you back ~$3900 (tires NOT included ): The surfaces are actually dimpled like a golf ball to smooth air flow over them!

What kind of carbon are they using for yacht wheels and why? To lower rotating mass & inertia? I'm not at all familiar with yachts, but this is an interesting subject.

Lots of the bicycle and airplane carbon is not all that hard to get in reasonable amounts. I know some local parts builders who haven't complained. On the other hand. one of the bicycle manufacturers, Giant, actually owns it's own carbon fiber factory!

One of the interesting things I recently learned about carbon fiber was that certain versions of it HAVE to be made into a finished product here in the states, as the raw material is illegal to export for defense reasons. Trek calls the stuff "55 carbon" and it's apparently the lightest and stiffest grade, with some weird, secret asymmetrical fiber shape to hold less excess resin.

So, you don't know either.

They didn't feature the brand, but the chisels had the look of the Stanley brand with thier amber plastic handles and a metal protective disc on the top of the handle for striking. The show is produced in Canada so maybe its a brand only distributed there. Joe G

Probably Stanleys. Marples uses the same process, with additional finish.

I'll have to ask my epoxy supplier.

My info comes from them.

His biggest "carbon" customer makes hockey sticks with it. Evidently has quite a backlog. Go figure.

My applications are basic knitted glass and epoxy.

I don't have a clue. Guy down in Georgia is building a boat and laid up a carbon fiber wheel just for funzies.

Most yacht wheels are S/S these days which is just fine except in cold weather or if you are an Americas Cup racer.

A/C racers are totally anal about weight and money is no object.

If an A/C boat is still afloat 10 ft past the finish line, it is over designed.

After a race, those boats are basically useless for anything else.

Interesting.

There are places for other applications for carbon fiber on a sailboat that would have a better market than a wheel, but like everything else on a boat, the volume is low and there is a development cost involved.

Lew

Of all the shows I've seen myself, almost none of the products they show being made are well-known brand names in the USA.

Nevertheless, it's >> >>

Greenlee used to make a nice copy of Marples Bluechips, green handles instead of blue.

That would make sense. When I was still actively playing in 2000, carbon shafts were already very popular. Carbon easily allows so much control over the overall stiffness and direction of allowed flex, while still remaining very light.

Over the last few years, I notice more and more blades separating from the shaft during my local AHL games, so I don't think anybody uses wood shafts anymore. I'm not a good enough player for a $250 shaft to matter.

That's because it is a Canadian program.

Presumably the production process is similar to how the equivalent items used to be produced in the US back when the US actually produced stuff. Presumably the production process is similar in China, minus the quality control, equipment maintenance and worker safety.

Pete C.