NW 42: Progress Report

Port side hull mold after foaming

Aligning the CMS 5 axis milling machine to the part before cutting.








Part must be precision aligned to insure accuracy of the cut.









Dial indicator aligns part with milling machine within .001”

Beginning of the cutting process on part of the pilothouse mold.

Click on the picture to get an idea of the size of the Poseidon 5 Axis Milling Machine.

More How.......

Just a word on how we decided to proceed with building the molds. There are 2 types of molds that can be built. There is "soft" tooling and there is "hard" tooling. Soft tooling is when you build a female mold. This is usually done when you are making a custom boat or a production boat where you might make some changes to the design after you have built a few. Hard tooling is a permanent mold that you make from the very beginning. We elected to make soft tooling which allow for changes if necessary before proceeding with hard tooling.

The soft tooling is made by building a steel frame that has wooden ribs cut that shape the part that you wish to make a mold for. After the frames are attached to the steel frame, lathe or slats of wood are attached to the framing. To the left you can see the starboard side of the hull mold after the slats have been attached. The next step is to foam the part with a spray foam not unlike the expansion foam you can buy at a hardware store for insulating. This comes in 55 gallon drums and is applied using a special application spray gun. After the foam hardens, the foam is ready to be rough cut to the shape of the hull. This is done with our 5 Axis Milling machine. The milling machine is over 85 feet long and capable of making molds for much larger boats that this one. After the rough cut, a putty that hardens is sprayed on and then the milling machine completes a fine cut that is the exact shape of the part that will come out of the mold.

More still to come............