No building this week – new product sample arrives

Between an out of town wedding this weekend (and one next weekend as well), and the INSANE change of weather, there will be no work done on the boat this weekend. I am instead relaxing indoors where it’s warm. Central Texas is known for strange weather patters, but snowing in April is not usually one of them!

Felicia from Utility Composites called me last week to ask how the Raptor staples I purchased from them have been working out for me and to let me know about a new product I might be interested in. She described what it was and then sent me some samples that arrived a few days ago. I am very intrigued about this product to say the very least. One of the things I haven’t been too fond of is edge-joining foam together to create large panels – mostly because I have to make sure there’s enough bog higher than the level of the foam that can be sanded to match the foam and not leave any voids. Their new product, called Copula, is meant to edge-join foam and balsa cores together for laminating. I tried to take a picture of them just to show what they are, but haven’t had a chance to actually test them yet. Am also going to shoot an email to Ian and ask his opinion on them for use on the F-22. Would be cool if these are OK, as we have a ton of large panels to infuse for thet main hull soon, and not having to glue/sand the joins will cut a significant amount of time out of the process.

The two on the left measure 1″ long and are meant for high density cores.  The two on the right are 1.20″ long and meant for regular (low) density cores.

Note — I don’t have any affiliation with this company other than I really like the Raptor Nails I purchased from them.