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Wedge help


jastahler

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I really want to build a wedge for my 93' Euro F3 Sunsetter. I have looked at several forums on here and spoke with Rugger and Martinarcher about theirs. I was wondering if anyone else has built one for their boat? and If so, any suggestions or tips would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

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I am getting ready to build a floating wedge for my SSLxi. At present I have drawn the foil and bracket in cad. For simplicity I am having the foil laser cut with the cutouts for arms to make it easy to tig in the arms from both sides. The beveled portion on the trailing edge of the foil will be milled with a facing tool. To keep warping to a minimum make sure you have a nice thick lump of alloy or copper as a heat sink on the foil. Stainless loves to pull and warp.

The bracket is going to be one piece and will also be laser cut and folded. This way I only need to Tig the top joins which will cut down warping. The hardest and most time consuming part will be beveling the edges of the arms so they cut through the water nicely. Stainless work hardens when being machined so is hard on tools but by climb milling extends the tool life but you need to sure that you have as little backlash in your mill as possible. The other way is to use a grinder.

Oh yeah, polishing is also time consuming but my stainless supplier can put a mirror finish on for me saving a lot of time.

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You all know you can just buy this stuff, right?

I get that you will save some money building it yourself, but my guess is the amount of time spent into the project will negate any savings. JMO.

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They don't make a wedge for my boat.... the exhaust ports are narrower than most newer boats. I also have be beef up the transom since my boat was not designed for one.

Thanks for the tips!

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You all know you can just buy this stuff, right?

I get that you will save some money building it yourself, but my guess is the amount of time spent into the project will negate any savings. JMO.

Not for the Euro f3 (exhaust gets in the way)...

This is the only other homemade one I can think of right now, good luck.

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/39514-88-booty-rebuild-lots-of-pics/?p=547969

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You all know you can just buy this stuff, right?

I get that you will save some money building it yourself, but my guess is the amount of time spent into the project will negate any savings. JMO.

I certainly appreciate where you are coming from but given the cost of freight to ship one from the states of the huge markup buying one in Australia I can make one far cheaper. Stainless is about $150 of the cost with a small amount of labour. We do lots of stainless fabrication so not a big deal and really is a pretty easy job.

I think it will take nearly as long to get my locker floor out :)

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Thanks for all the help. My only concern is beefing up the transom. I'm not sure if I can just use a large steel bracket bolted to the stringers and the transom. Or if I need to thicken the transom with additional fiberglass. I know I do NOT have a wooden transom or stringers.

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I would contact malibu directly before attempting this project.... The the support arms and bracket mounted to the transome will need to be just as beefy as the foil and arms. The transome on your boats may not have been designed to handle a loads like that... I hear the wedge can add between 500 to 1300 lbs of force. I would worry about stress cracks...

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  • 1 year later...

I must be computer stupid cause I cannot upload a photo... I have photobook, but still can't get it to work...

What I did for the transom: first I "smoothed" the inside of the transom by simply removing the high spots in the fiberglass. Then I used a piece of 3/4" plywood cut to match the transom and around the exhaust humps. Next I sealed the wood using an epoxy resin. I then used a piece if 1/2 steel approximately 4' wide and 18" tall (also cut to match the transom and plywood). Welded horizontally to that plate is another piece of 1/4" steel approximately 20" long and the same width of the stringers. Ones it was all welded, ground smooth, drilled and properly fit I painted it with a high quality automotive paint. (The wood and steel fit are cut to fit to the floor of the boat between the exhaust). The wedge itself is nearly identical to the one on Martinarchers boat. It was a fairly simply project with very good results. I have also built a "ghetto gate" that allows me to surf with the wedge down, 400 lbs behind the engine and 400 lbs in the front. Nothing conspired to the new boats, but I'm very happy with it for a 21 year old boat.

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