aluminum honeycomb info

[vislaguy]

I found a smoking deal on some 4x8 sheets of aircraft type honeycomb for cockpit sides .does anyone have any info on working with this stuff ( laminating and such). thanks mike

[Dave Bennett]

honey comb

I can probably give you some imput
Give me a call 904 471 6046 Dave

[David_L6]

If you need some more info after you talk to Dave see if one of the left coast guys knows who built the boat that Rusty Rae had (20 years ago?! - dang has it been that long?). Yes, it was an outboard hydro.....

[f8andbethere]

aluminum honeycomb

Just a short note;
We built the boat -- it had a 62 inch afterplane -- and it was for the old 25SS motor; It turned out to be a good A/J boat as well.

This was half inch honey comb and we used it for the bottom and the comings if I recall correctly. I had the opportunity to get information from the unlimited teams who were using it at the time for their bottoms;

This had the affect of making the bottom very right, very flat, and very light. We used Furnal Flyer Plans (thanks again Leigh).

If you have more questions give me a shout.

pax,
-rr

[Al Peffley]

Some Info from "Left" Coast

I had Jon Steen in Seattle, WA build my CSH/OSY hydro's aft bottom area with some E-glass covered aluminum honeycomb sandwich material that I bought from Boeing Surplus. It bonds fine with a plywood-sheeting bow bottom panel, as long as you use a good epoxy like West Systems and appropriate structural frame pieces below the dash panel next to the front plywood/sandwich panel joint. Ask Jon how to prep the panel joint; I forget the details of how we did it, but I remember filling up the voinds in the front with a West Systems filler mix (I think it was the white silica powder additive, but I'm not sure...) I think 6-mil Okume will work fine for the front bottom panel; 3-mil is too thin.

I have tripled the thickness of my 3-mil plywood bottom section in front of the aft honeycomb panel with two small, 6-mil top-plate Okume pieces and added a layer of GrEp cloth because the honeycomb panel does not flex like the plywood when the bottom in the tunnel takes a hard pounding or FOD hit in rough water. My plywood bottom section did not split at the joint, but it did split about 3 inches in front of the joint when I hit a floating tin can in the back stretch at DePue while testing before the Nationals one year (bummer.)

The aluminum alloy core will never warp or fray/unravel like Nomex or other arimid fiber honeycomb cores when penetrated; and the E-glass cover will not conduct electricity, swell up, or become permanently damaged like GrEp when it is exposed to water (if the outer layer epoxy coating is compromised.) You still should coat the inner and outer E-glass/Al sandwich surfaces with thinned-down epoxy (using acetone to thin it) in order to protect the outer layer of the E-glass panels from FOD ballistic hits or trailer scrapes. The Yacht Industry uses a lot of E-glass aluminum honeycomb material for its superior hull strength in high sea states and its corrosion resistance to salt water. I hope this bit of info helps you in your future boat-building projects. One of Jon's plans and/or kits should work great with your sandwich materials find!

Al Peffley
15-R/R-25