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DIY Floating Wedge


brad72

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Thanks gentlemen. Andrew, thanks again for the expert dimensioning even if we did need to work on the imperial system :biggrin: . Need to send you a carton or a bottle of scotch.

Will get some more 3M abbrasives tomorrow and another sisal mop and cuting compound to ease the pain. The wedge foil is 8mm plate so needs a lot of work because of small pits from the manufacturing process. The Bracket however is a 2B finish to start with so it's going to be relatively easy.

Edited by brad72
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Thanks gentlemen. Andrew, thanks again for the expert dimensioning even if we did need to work on the imperial system :biggrin: . Need to send you a carton or a bottle of scotch.

Will get some more 3M abbrasives tomorrow and another sisal mop and cuting compound to ease the pain. The wedge foil is 8mm plate so needs a lot of work because of small pits from the manufacturing process. The Bracket however is a 2B finish to start with so it's going to be relatively easy.

Looks awesome Brad, cant wait to see the finished product. I'm very keen on following this thread as I have a 2006 Vride without wedge & bracket & have thought about having my own built, but didn't know how to go about it & where to get measurements/drawings from. Any info & drawings you'd be willing to share would be greatly appreciated.

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Looks awesome Brad, cant wait to see the finished product. I'm very keen on following this thread as I have a 2006 Vride without wedge & bracket & have thought about having my own built, but didn't know how to go about it & where to get measurements/drawings from. Any info & drawings you'd be willing to share would be greatly appreciated.

Ditto!

I would like to convert the fixed wedge on my LSV to a floating wedge, and put a wedge on my SSLXI

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Same, I'd like to convert from manual to floating. Would love to get my hands on those inventor files!

If it was laser cut, how did you handle the front end taper - angle and such?

Edited by Trumpetrhapsody
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Looks awesome Brad, cant wait to see the finished product. I'm very keen on following this thread as I have a 2006 Vride without wedge & bracket & have thought about having my own built, but didn't know how to go about it & where to get measurements/drawings from. Any info & drawings you'd be willing to share would be greatly appreciated.

Yep, no problems with sharing the drawings and Cad files. The only thing you need to decide is whether the you have the slots cut in the foil for the arms to be welded both sides or just weld from the top with no slots. Alternatively you could add 3 screws like the early floating wedges and have no welding. The files can be changed no problem at all. PM me your email address and I can send the files through

Ditto!

I would like to convert the fixed wedge on my LSV to a floating wedge, and put a wedge on my SSLXI

I can send through the drawings and Cad files.The only thing you need to decide is whether the you have the slots cut in the foil for the arms to be welded both sides or have no slots and just weld from the top. Alternatively you could add 3 screws like the early floating wedges and have no welding. PM me your email address and I can send the files through.

Same, I'd like to convert from manual to floating. Would love to get my hands on those inventor files!

If it was laser cut, how did you handle the front end taper - angle and such?

No problem sharing the drawings and Cad files. The taper on the underside trailing edge will be cut on my mill using a facing cutting head. The other radiused edges will be rounded with flap disks then polished with scotchbrite type abrassives. PM me your email address and I can send the files through. The only thing you need to decide is whether the you have the slots cut in the foil for the arms to be welded both sides or just weld from the top and have no slots. Alternatively you could add 3 screws like the early floating wedges and have no welding.

Awesome! Is it really cost effective to DIY? If so, I'll have to add it to my list

Diy in this case is very cheap and a necessity since Malibu Australia will not sell me parts for my boat since it is a US import. Also for a $350 spend plus my labor is probably less than a 1/6 of buying one new. I guess though it depends on your skills and access to tools and motivation. If you have the gear and nohow, why not use it to your advantage.

Edited by brad72
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Nice work, Brad.

Consider putting a chamfer on the edges with your mill before you use the flapper wheel. You can remove material a lot faster with a cutter.

Of course, a 1/4 round cutter is best, but expensive.

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Nice work, Brad.

Consider putting a chamfer on the edges with your mill before you use the flapper wheel. You can remove material a lot faster with a cutter.

Of course, a 1/4 round cutter is best, but expensive.

As long as I climb mill the tool should last pretty well. I have an M5 radius tool that would be perfect for the leading edge of the foil. My facing tool is a 63mm diameter with 6 inserts and cuts like butter. Just need to do some chores around the house first to keep swmbo happy, or just say I am doing jobs and sneak out to the shed.

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Got my polishing stuff this morning. Trying 3M's Cubitron abrasives for something different. Fast cutting with minimal heat transfer, then follow up with scotbrite pads and sisal mop.

photo_zpsf86de888.jpg

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Shiny. PIA though getting scratches out when they folded it though. Must of got dragged across a bench or something

photo_zps5b76edfa.jpg

Edited by brad72
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Got my polishing stuff this morning. Trying 3M's Cubitron abrasives for something different. Fast cutting with minimal heat transfer, then follow up with scotbrite pads and sisal mop.

photo_zpsf86de888.jpg

That's quite an arsenal for polishing. It's a lot of work, but you got it under control pretty quickly, it seems.

I have chosen to not afford a 6 or 8 cutter face mill, but I know what they can do. When I face something, it's with a cheap fly cutter. It gives a good finish, but the tupa-tupa-tupa at about 30 mm per minute is painfully slow. One day I'll pony up and buy a real face mill.

I also generally don't like to mill stainless because of the potential for work hardening. Like you said, climb mill and keep the feed rate up.

Lots of scratching near the bends means they probably don't bother to clean anything before they put it in the brake. If you told them you intended to have a bright finish, they should have attempted to remove grit from the jaws and material before braking. Removing a lot of material to get rid of one scratch is a pain. A lot of shops don't polish, but just send stuff out to a polisher. If they tried it themselves, they would be more aware of scratches....

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Great job, I'm all about DIY anyhow, it may not always be cost effective but the feeling of accomplishment is priceless! One of the things I always forget to include in building cost is the cleaning/polishing stuff, there's gota be atleast $100 just in that one pic!!

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Great job, I'm all about DIY anyhow, it may not always be cost effective but the feeling of accomplishment is priceless! One of the things I always forget to include in building cost is the cleaning/polishing stuff, there's gota be atleast $100 just in that one pic!!

$300 actually. Ouch but Australia is expensive. The back up disks and the sisal mop add some cost mind you, as do the cubitron abbrasive wheels and the rapid cut unitised wheels but they last forever. The stuff in the picture would make probably 10 wedges. I have to agree with your diy comment. Nothing more satisfying that when a plan comes together.

Edited by brad72
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I have chosen to not afford a 6 or 8 cutter face mill, but I know what they can do. When I face something, it's with a cheap fly cutter. It gives a good finish, but the tupa-tupa-tupa at about 30 mm per minute is painfully slow. One day I'll pony up and buy a real face mill.

I also generally don't like to mill stainless because of the potential for work hardening. Like you said, climb mill and keep the feed rate up.

Mate thats the one problem of having a lathe and mill. The tooling cost can sometime be more that the machine itself. Once you add a good vice, rotary table, parallel set, boring head, face mill plus all the other cutters you might as well sell one of the children to fund it. Even the 63mm facing tool cost around $550, although it does work great, my mill only cost $750 plus a 12 hour round tip to pick it up.

All that being said you can never have enough toys in the shed and I think I am doing pretty well so far. Lathe, mill, heat treat oven, 2x72 linisher, bench grinder, 3d printer and tig plus all the bits to go with them.

Need to diy to justify to the CFO that all these toys are needed, and not sold to buy handbags and shoes :rofl:

Edited by brad72
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After deciding to have another foil made without the holes to make it easier for welding and finishing I have discovered that the foil dimensions were wrong for the position of the arms and the angle of the leading edge. I have now changed these and are getting confirmation from Andrew63 the alterations are right then I will get another foil cut, and send out new files to those I have sent them to already.

Sorry for any inconvenience, although I am pretty sure no one would have been organised enough to start making a wedge yet.

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Hey, can I get a copy of those cad files please? I want to get a wedge on my 89 sunseter

No problem supplying the files but I would check with Martinarcher as to whether this wedge will fit the older hull style and whether additional transom reinforcement is required. Martinarcher made a floating wedge for his older Sunsetter that fit the narrower exhaust but he also had a longer reinforcing plate that bolted to the stringers etc

see this thread for the build http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26752-homemade-floating-wedge-for-much-older-malibu-87-sunsetter/

Edited by brad72
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Since I changed the foil dimensions I also changed the width of the bracket to reflect these changes. This means disregard the files I sent out on the weekend and I will send out a new file set in a couple of days to those who have already been supplied drawings. Again sorry for any inconvenience. These things happen from time to time when making something new.

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can i please get the cad files for that as well, thinking about doing this similar to what martinarcher did

I don't have the files that Martinarcher used. Might be best to PM him and see what he has on file. If you need my files PM me with your email and I can send them out.

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