The weight is now down to 2.48kg, so a loss of 130g so far. A decent start, not quite what I had hoped for but pretty good. One more to do, then maybe enlarge them a bit to lose some more!
Wednesday 29 February 2012
Dig Your Own Hole(s) (part 2)
Finished off the second cavity on Monday evening:
The weight is now down to 2.48kg, so a loss of 130g so far. A decent start, not quite what I had hoped for but pretty good. One more to do, then maybe enlarge them a bit to lose some more!
The weight is now down to 2.48kg, so a loss of 130g so far. A decent start, not quite what I had hoped for but pretty good. One more to do, then maybe enlarge them a bit to lose some more!
Saturday 25 February 2012
Dig Your Own Hole(s)
Another instance of me having time to work on the Marlin but then no time to blog about it!
I spent some time last weekend starting on the cavities and actually made quite a bit of progress. The first task with each one was to use the hand drill to remove what I could - quite time-consuming since the drill only takes up to a 6mm bit, but it's the best way to start things off. A piece of masking tape around the bit at a depth of just over 3cm served as an indication of reaching the correct depth, and I made as many holes as I could, a few mm apart, almost up to the planned edges of the cavities. It ended up looking a little like swiss cheese - or perhaps like it'd been attacked by a freakishly-large woodworm!
Then I removed the rest of the wood from the planned cavity using a chisel, which was made much easier with all the holes I'd already made with the drill. The layers of the plywood also helped with making this fairly easy. I managed to just about finish the first cavity, and get about half-way down the larger one before I ran out of time:
Hopefully I'll have some time tomorrow to finish off the second cavity and possibly make a start on the third one too. Weight loss so far is OK - I weighed the body after finishing the first cavity and before starting the drilling on the second one, and I'd removed ~50g. Doesn't sound like a lot but it's the smaller of the two so far, and it's almost (if not quite) what I had calculated I would lose from that one. We'll see what it's like once I'm done with the big one!
I spent some time last weekend starting on the cavities and actually made quite a bit of progress. The first task with each one was to use the hand drill to remove what I could - quite time-consuming since the drill only takes up to a 6mm bit, but it's the best way to start things off. A piece of masking tape around the bit at a depth of just over 3cm served as an indication of reaching the correct depth, and I made as many holes as I could, a few mm apart, almost up to the planned edges of the cavities. It ended up looking a little like swiss cheese - or perhaps like it'd been attacked by a freakishly-large woodworm!
Then I removed the rest of the wood from the planned cavity using a chisel, which was made much easier with all the holes I'd already made with the drill. The layers of the plywood also helped with making this fairly easy. I managed to just about finish the first cavity, and get about half-way down the larger one before I ran out of time:
Hopefully I'll have some time tomorrow to finish off the second cavity and possibly make a start on the third one too. Weight loss so far is OK - I weighed the body after finishing the first cavity and before starting the drilling on the second one, and I'd removed ~50g. Doesn't sound like a lot but it's the smaller of the two so far, and it's almost (if not quite) what I had calculated I would lose from that one. We'll see what it's like once I'm done with the big one!
Saturday 11 February 2012
To Cavity Or Not To Cavity...
I've been considering my plans for making cavities in the body of the Marlin, and done some (fairly approximate) calculations to try to figure out how much weight I can remove that way. I also bought a set of luggage scales in order to finally get an accurate reading on the current weight of the body since the bathroom scales really don't do the job! The result - it weighs 2.66kg.
I then used one of the chunks I sawed off from the body to try to calculate the approximate density of the wood. It weighs approximately 35g, and having immersed it in a jug of water, it's approximately 70cc - so the wood is about 0.5g/cc.
I'd like to remove about 300g, so that's 600cc - but having marked out some possible cavity locations (see pics below), and assuming I go to a depth of 3cm then they'll remove about 460cc, therefore about 230g. Not ideal, and obviously I'll then re-add a little of that weight when I cover the cavities with some thin pieces of wood.
So the question is, is it really worth the hassle for what probably won't be a huge weight gain? It's going to be a pain to do, and it'll certainly be a pain to do well - not just creating the cavities but adding recesses around the edges, cutting and gluing the covers over the recesses.
Well, I've decided it is worth the hassle. It's still pretty heavy so anything I can gain will make a difference, and frankly this project is about the experience as much as anything else, so why not do it now when it doesn't really matter if I mess it up? Nothing ventured nothing gained and all that! I'll do one cavity first and see how close my calculations were, and then I'll have a better idea of what the end result will be - and whether I can do a little less or a little more to achieve what I want.
More on this soon!
I then used one of the chunks I sawed off from the body to try to calculate the approximate density of the wood. It weighs approximately 35g, and having immersed it in a jug of water, it's approximately 70cc - so the wood is about 0.5g/cc.
I'd like to remove about 300g, so that's 600cc - but having marked out some possible cavity locations (see pics below), and assuming I go to a depth of 3cm then they'll remove about 460cc, therefore about 230g. Not ideal, and obviously I'll then re-add a little of that weight when I cover the cavities with some thin pieces of wood.
So the question is, is it really worth the hassle for what probably won't be a huge weight gain? It's going to be a pain to do, and it'll certainly be a pain to do well - not just creating the cavities but adding recesses around the edges, cutting and gluing the covers over the recesses.
Well, I've decided it is worth the hassle. It's still pretty heavy so anything I can gain will make a difference, and frankly this project is about the experience as much as anything else, so why not do it now when it doesn't really matter if I mess it up? Nothing ventured nothing gained and all that! I'll do one cavity first and see how close my calculations were, and then I'll have a better idea of what the end result will be - and whether I can do a little less or a little more to achieve what I want.
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