America's Cup Hull Construction
- Thread starter Rick D
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Well, it seems to me that they only did that because its easier than just putting big chunks of epoxy putty into the CNC machine. To talk about lofting when the final hull shape is fully machined from is a huge stretch of the meaning of the word.
Kind of like saying that modern cars are just like the model T because they are both built on an assembly line.
Kind of like saying that modern cars are just like the model T because they are both built on an assembly line.
Could also be water jet --- much faster than CNC. But once you get the CADCAM up and running it doesnt really matter which ... as long as the 'handwork' is at a minimum.
They have been cutting with high pressure water for more than half a century but I have never seen it. Laser cutting and mechanical cutting of many materials and flame cutting of steeli have seen. I should think that high pressure water cutting would be very messy for the clean up.
Seems like they could go direct to the milling machine and just hog out the female mold and eliminate all this male plug work. I've seen wing spars for airplanes hogged out of solid aluminum slabs over 40 feet long on three spindle mills. The chips come off the high speed spindles so fast guys with snow shovels are needed to shovel the chips off the machine. That'll be one big autoclave for curing the hulls. I know Hall Spars in Rhode Island put in a really long one for doing masts well over a hundred feet long.
I guess when you have a hundred million dollar budget for an AC campaign a million dollar milling machine isn't that big an investment :>)
I guess when you have a hundred million dollar budget for an AC campaign a million dollar milling machine isn't that big an investment :>)
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