Monday, January 24, 2011

Cuttings and Curvature

Have made even more swimming improvements with the monofin.  No video this time though.  Mostly an update on construction.

I spent a decent amount of time today working on the tail.  My front and back pieces are cut out from the ankle up!

back piece
front piece
I'm majorly curvy it would seem, also they look uneven due to patchiness.  You may be wondering, depending if you care or not, how I plan on attaching the two pieces together.  It's not a flat seam with curves that fit together perfectly.  I did some curvature tests, to ensure it would work well.






The curvature tests all came out splendidly.  So, I cannot put the pieces together until I have the entire thing, including the fluke, ready to go together.  Therefore I needs must work on the fluke.  My main issue with my fluke is the plastic tubing I will use for the general shape of the fluke below the monofin.  My friend and I used an old hair drier to take the heavy curve out of the tubing.  We did this in a very ghetto fashion.



Now that those two pieces are shaped better I have to attach them to the monofin.  There will then be a swim test with the tubing glued to the monofin.  Earlier I had decided to try and make the monofin removable from the tail but I'm just saying, screw it.  Also a buoyancy swim test must be conducted.  That will probably consist of me strapping everything to the monofin and trying to swim.  It will be highly amusing.  Inside the tubing I should be able to close off the ends and fill it with lead shot.  This should give me three to four pounds which would help immensely.  Not just the neoprene is positively buoyant, the monofin is as well.  After all of that I can then draft a pattern for the fluke, cement the pieces together, and cut it out.  Then after all of that construction is done I can begin to paint.





Other photos and updates coming soon, such as the medieval faire from this past weekend.
<3 a very tired scrumpy/jill

Monday, January 10, 2011

Poison & Improvement

My grandparents like to watch FOX, I can feel poison dripping into my ears some days, like just now.  Anyhow, I'm too lazy to post anything more right now.  I just wanted to share my newest monofin practise video.  Made lots of small but significant improvements.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Five Hours of Fumes

So, I made lots of progress recently on my tail!  More on that in a second.  First, a general update on life.

My job at Target is over next Thursday, thankfully!  It earned me a goodly sum of money, which was nice, but I was miserable for a while there.  Next weekend I attend Kangeiko with USA Martials Arts Florida, an amazing dojo and a group of people I consider my 'dojo family'.  I'm thrilled to be attending as it has always overlapped the Riverdale Kiwanis Medieval Faire and I missed it last year.  Well this year I skip the first weekend and advertise for The Pirate Ship Pieces of Eight on the second weekend.  I'm a bit saddened that Traveler's Hold will not be working at the Faire this year.  Then I have one more weekend in Fort Myers to celebrate a certain sailor's birthday.  She and her crewmate are working on the schooner Appledore V until about April.  If you're in the area you should charter them, it's a grand time and very historic!  Then I'm off to St. Petersburg and Tampa for about two and a half months!

Alright, back to my tail...and fumes.  I finally gained access to a heated pool, after a tad of drama.  It's a Jr. Olympic sized pool so you can imagine it's rather large and spacious.  For some of the time I had to avoid the lane swimmers and children but a couple hours later it was practically empty.  I tested out my monofin in a much nicer environment without buoyancy issues, and I was able to test out my gloves for the first time!  Both worked wonderfully and I was delighted to naturally take to the full body undulation needed to swim successfully in a monofin.  Since hardly anyone ever reads these I feel no need to stop babbling on extensively.  My friend took video with my new Android X [which I love].  I edited the clips and pieced them together to upload to youtube.  [Also, those socks work very nicely and help with the crappy straps and any possible chafing.]

 

That was on Tuesday the 4th of January 2011 [Happy New Year].  Yesterday on Thursday the 6th I spent about six hours working on tail construction.  I finished the top half of my pattern and I began cementing scraps of neoprene together, thus the fumes.  Sadly there was no high Scrumpy, only a mild headache for a bit, as the breeze outside was not constant.  I got large pieces done.  My only concern just now is having enough neoprene to finish construction.  I have enough if you count the 2mm I have but I can't but 2mm to 3mm and I don't want different thicknesses.  I may have to thrift store bounce to find some more 3mm.  Anyhow, I just need to do some more construction and acquire more neoprene.  It's just a matter of time now that I have everything.

Finishing the pattern
about to finish that seam up top, front side of tail
very obviously the back piece
Keep an eye out for more updates!  <3