Finally at the end of small projects

Alright so i am procrastinating leading into a test on Friday which will be closely followed by packing for Japan which i will be leaving for in the early hours of Saturday morning.

I figured i have been crazy busy with a variety of jobs that i should probably do a quick update before i head off to Japan. We have finally finished all the tank covers including Katie's balloon which got some love while it was at my place for a couple days along with the truck which had its brake system replaced. We are 100% ready for ballooning season and ready to clock up some hours to participate in Balloons Over Waikato in March.

So while Strata was at my place we managed to fit and finish all the tank covers. Along with varnishing the floor, installed the wrapped instrument panel, repainting the firefly symbol, installing a new floor mat and several other fixes while it was pull apart. It was a really productive weekend and maintenance weekends on your kit are really beneficial to keeping everything up to par.

With all that kind of stuff out of the way it puts me in a hard spot to put off progress on the balloon. So i am guessing once i get back from Japan i will be pushing to progress with the last little section of cutting and the sewing side of it all. A couple weeks ago me and Neil managed to cut 20 panels and make a pattern which is a poor effort but considering we only planned on completing a pattern it was a productive day none the less.

So at this point we have panels A,B,F and O (Nomex) to cut then cutting will be done and i can organize it all and start sewing the gores. I will get there eventually and BOW 2015 won't be the debt of Poison Ivy but it might see a test inflation if i really get my shit together which is a tall ask.

Back pedaling with balloon progress

Since my last post we screwed up the template we were doing which was annoying but it has to be perfect. We now have some more suitable tools like a long length of box section which will help covering those distances of panel F which is one of the biggest panels.

So we haven't attempted to cut out a new template so we are not progressing at all on that front. With an assignment and test coming up i will be focusing on class work with planning for Japan on the side which i leave for on the 25th which is the day after i have my final test of my degree (hopefully).

Alright that is enough negative, lets talk about what i have managed to achieve in the last month or so since my last post. Alright so i haven't managed to get a single inquiry for tank straps but i couldn't care less. Rebecca has been over and working on the tank covers. At this point she has finished the two Kav 55l Tanks and now working on the Worthingtons of Katie's. At this point we have sewn together one electric blanket and still have to remove and sew the other two once we are ready to sort out the positions of plug holes and where the pockets will sit.

The tank covers are only one part of sorting out Katie bottom end. The images below are of the new shortened tie-off i have sewn up for those occasions that a shortened tie-off might be more suitable i.e. windy inflations. Also having a spare might come in handy.

Next item on the cards was wrapping Strata's instrument panel with some carbon fibre wrap to pretty it up a little bit.

It hasn't made its way back into the balloon yet but that will probably happen once we get ready to fly again or pull it apart to sort the pockets on the new tank covers however with Japan only 4 weeks away it may have to wait.

One of the little projects i did one night while Rebecca was working on the tank covers a took a leaf out of my friend Mitch's book and made a pocket to throw commonly used tools to keep them out of the way but not out of reach. What can also be seen it the very new looking switch which i got with the brushless motor i got this week. I decided to swap over from a clutch motor because the clutch motor runs continuously and when you push the pedal it contacts the full throttle motor Because of this it makes the clutch motor a little bit 1950's. With the new motor the machine is a lot easier to control, quieter and more energy efficient. Bonus marks for my light plugging straight into the switch box. Hopefully spending the money on a new motor will save me some time with unpicking.

Its looking like once i am back from Japan i will be busy with the general Christmas rush and clocking up hours so i can fly in Balloons over Waikato. I will hopefully find some time to sew finish off cutting and start sewing. Once i get the sewing down i will hopefully knock out a large amount of the balloon but then again we will see because it seems like every post covers the same wrap up.

Balloon Progress is getting closer!

Well as you might of figured out by now i have been undertaking a lot of balloon projects. Sadly most of these are not really to do with my building my balloon. I finished up making 20 tank straps at the start of the week that i am attempting to sell to members of the kiwi community however i haven't had any bites yet which doesn't phase me. Tank straps are one of the few ballooning items that take up very little space but come in handy from time to time.

One of the other benefits of sewing up these tank straps is to test my machine and kind of iron out all the kinks prior to sewing the balloon. The exercise of sewing has taught me a lot of things about the machine and i have learnt to sew a little better.

The major issue surrounding the sewing machine is the clutch motor. They are horrible motors for control and its pretty much all or nothing when it comes to sewing. I have sorted out minor control however riding that line between slower than hand cranking and full speed is not easy, because of this i bit the bullet and purchased a servo motor which has a led control which modulates the top speed of the motor. Once again spending more money on sewing machines however i have saved money else where so i am happy to spend it on something that will improve the overall quality and potentially save me time unpicking.

As can be seen in the image below we have finally finished making a banner from an old skirt. which was hastily made this week so i am truly embarrassed by my sewing skills. We pulled it off a dead balloon last year which showed a lot of signs of history so we thought it was worth saving.

What can also be seen is the beginnings of a panel template. This is for panel F which turned out was measured wrong and it wasn't noticed until we went to cut the panel. So this is the first step back into the world of balloon building. Once this is cut ill have to set aside time to finish cutting the remaining panels which should only take a couple days. After all panels are cut we will have to mark all the panels to ensure they are sewn on the right side as it seems one side might have more coating on it.

Finally i have a friend of mine making a new cover for the tank i purchased back in March. Hopefully both covers will be completed this week and then she can start work on Katie's tanks. I purchased the fabric for the tank covers from Hamilton canvas. It cost me about $12.90/m and it only takes about 800mm wide of fabric to make a tank cover and pocket. The fabric i got is a oxford nylon with PVC backing with a velcro strap on the back of the tank to make it easier to remove around inspection time.

See what i mean a lot of projects just not many to do directly with the building of the balloon. It seems that every project i am doing away from the actual building of the balloon has an degree of benefit towards the overall project.

Table + Survey Progress

After building the table we discovered we were slightly short which created a problem for the panel that i incorrectly cut. Panel F is sadly one of the biggest panels and we came up only 100mm short which was frustrating. Because of this we extended the table by 300mm so now everything is sorted. Along with this change dad attached a roller at the end which will make it a lot easier to cut lengths. Sadly we are so close to finishing cutting the table wont get a full work out.

Survey: The survey wrapped up about a month ago and making up all the graphs has taken me a while however tonight i finally finished up and posted it on my website which is kind of unofficially launched with a few gaps in the website. Hopefully launching the half finished website will push me to put some more time into it. Overall with Angus going to Europe i will find a lot more time at nights to tick away with projects. It's nice to play games all night however not productive towards the list of goals i have.

Hopefully the survey will give at least one person the kick they needed to get out there and make a meet happen or a progress with plans they have made. I know some of the answers will be very beneficial moving forward for me however we will see if it will make a difference.

With the survey pretty much wrapped up its onto the next set of projects. I couple of weeks ago i booked in for Saga, Japan so i am saving my coins until then. Along with this a friend of mine purchase a stack of stickers from China for cheap so i am in the middle of inquiring about getting some BAANZ die cut stickers for cars/trailers which i would like to sell onto members however i am still to run is past the committee or get an EOI from people. Time will tell but realistically i should finish the projects at hand rather than picking up new ones!

Sewing Machine Progress

Well it seems i'm actually getting various little projects done. Haven't worked on the balloon yet however small steps are being made towards actually cutting some more fabric then finally progressing onto sewing. I thought id try a different style of breaking down whats going on.

Sewing Machine: My Thread order arrived which is awesome and i finally don't have any excuses to not sit down at the machine. The 1152 is finally finished and has already been put into action which ill cover a little later. The table tops of each machine have been swapped over. So i basically the 1152 was the easy one to finish. Seeing as the frame that came with the 1152 was sad in places it meant i had to full strip the frame and repaint it.

The now 515 unit is not 100%. The sewing machine is not right and hopefully with pre-wound bobbins it will improve the performance of the machine and eliminate another potential problem. Along with machine head issues i still have to attach the frame to the tabletop which wont be a problem once i find the time to do it.

Tank straps: I finally got off the start mark on one of my other projects. I have made the prototype tank strap which i am fairly happy with considering its my first time at the Juki-1152. I have had a few issues with the thickness of the tape however after a few shots some of the issues have been ironed out. The plan for these straps is to make 20 of them and sell them to various people. If i manage to sell all of them i will make some more however i don't sell any i wont be to phased.

The Hindsight of building a balloon

The last post was getting long and boring so i split it in half.

I had a call from a friend the other day. We talked about how my build was going, It really got me thinking about the process of building your own balloon. Initially you need a fair bit of gear if you don't have a support network such as Australia, for example 4 balloons have been cut in Barbs shed in Leeton and Mitch's spend a week there ticking along with his.

Getting your hands on equipment such as tables, sewing machines, materials for the balloon is a very lengthy and testing time for a first time builder that is geographically isolated. I can only now really grasp why homebuilt balloons take so long to be finished. Its all the little things and setbacks that dishearten or tie you up for months on end. I got asked recently when it will be finished. Sadly i give up on putting down dates because its a painfully slow process and overall i have learnt a lot.

Now i have a machine that seems to be running right i have a few little projects to get done like sewing up tank straps and possibly building some tank covers (when the thread arrives). I figured it would be a great time to get to know the machine and get myself up to speed before jumping into sewing.... When i get to that part because at this point i still have to fix one of the panel templates, cut a load of remaining panels, label and sort all the panels.

Besides the balloon i have a survey that recently finished up that i am slowly crawling through the results and graphing everything for the BallooningNZ website that has yet to be finished. It seems a lot of little projects are progressing however larger projects such as the balloon are being thrown to the sideline.

Further progress with everything else

Alright so the machine that i mentioned in my last post fell through which was annoying however i ended up purchasing that machine and i am currently in the process of fixing up the frame. I purchase this new machine which happens to be the twin of my current machine. It takes the same bobbin, belt, needles etc so i got lucky and placed my order for thread a few days ago. If you have gone through and looked at all my posts you might be wondering why i am buying more thread. Well basically i have nylon thread which is fine however tensioning and winding bobbins isn't really ideal. It just seems simpler to eliminate as many possible issues as possible so i decided to purchase new thread spools and pre-wound bobbins which will eliminate time at the machine and hopefully make the sewing process a bit smoother.

I really need to do more blog posts because i have about a dozen more items to cover but don't want to write a bloody novel! I guess ill just type till i get bored. So now i have two machines i done some swapping around. I found the oil tray was different depths for the 1152 and the 515. So i have had to swap over the table tops including bits like the spool tree, winder etc. The reason for this was myself and my dad worked together on the 515 frame. So basically the 1152 top sits on the 515 frame with all the new bits i purchased.

In regards to the original 1152 frame that is sitting in pieces and partially stripped. Once i have finished stripping the paint it will be repainted and everything but the machine head will go into storage to save space in the garage.

As mentioned in my last post i was kind of lost for a place to cut the remaining panels. I still haven't got my A into G in regards to cutting but i have solved where i am going to cut the last panels, at home! So basically we picked up a whole load of free science tables from my old high school where my mum works now. We threw away the tops and cleaned them up (strip and paint). Now they are joined together in my garage forming a cutting table that is 1650mm wide by 2400mm long with a spare table for an extension sitting out back. So once i stop using the table to layout all my various projects and extras i will finish cutting the balloon. Its actually turned out really awesome. I have stacks of space which makes it easy to lay everything out rather than just piling it up. My panels and various other bits are neatly stacked along with the fabric which lives on a shelf underneath.

Back into it!

Alright! It has been a long time since my last post. I even had to look at the last post to see where i was at prior to grinding through a massive paper at Wintec. That is now over so i have been getting back on my feet which oddly started with cleaning my room! Seems very odd however all i have had time for is the project and work so to do something for myself was nice.

Anywho onto the balloon. Still having issues with my machine and the machine i was going to borrow fell through so in the next week or so i might have some new ballooning gear such as a new machine. Hopefully i can get a head that fits my table. Hopefully after that happens i will be able to start practicing.

As mentioned in my last post i purchased a tank which is really dirty so this weekend i am going to polish it up and make it look a little nicer. I also received my buckles and tape so once i have a machine that runs right i will start sewing some tank straps.

In other news i might be in the hunt for a new cutting table to finish off the last panels. Hopefully this wont be the case as i only have about two days of cutting left until the next phase. Lastly i have a purchased a hot knife to cut tape and rope. It seals the ends and stops fraying. I have decided to save money by borrowing a folder and swapped from nylon to polyester thread (with pre-wound bobbins). Once i am at a machine that works i will be away laughing until the first mechanical or mental dysfunction.

Post BOW summary

Well Balloons Over Waikato turned out to be a very flyable event which is bad news for cutting however a home-built required some patching which worked out to my advantage. My sewing machine which hasn't worked since i got it serviced is now back in working condition. I have learnt a lot and found some gaps in my equipment which sucks but having the time to think about everything helps.

We managed to get the fan finished on Monday which was great however we discovered the prop wasn't balanced and the motor was having some trouble. Later in the week the prop hit the cage much to our surprise and took a chip out of the prop. Its a really upsetting event however it happening now allows me to sit on the disaster and work through it slowly. Not a good day for the bank account but at least there isn't a fire under me pushing to get something complete now.

The outlook for the fan is wait to hear back on the installation of wingtips then travel down repair path with or without wingtips. I want to modify the cage and put on a flat back to cut down the size of the cage along with giving it more space in the back as this is where the cage and prop made contact.

As for the balloon front i purchased a 2008 Kav 55l tank which was originally going to be two however that did not work out. The folder i have does not meet the grade so i will be going down the path of getting one custom built and not modified like the one i have. Also going down the route of polyester thread with pre-wound bobbins. I have been put onto a great company which offers an array of different colour polyester in both spools and pre-wound bobbins which the home-builders swear by. I also have purchased a brighter bulb for my sewing light which will make things easier.

I have a new project ready for when i finish up with Wintec. I tracked down Kavanagh style tank strap buckles and got a friend to buy me some black webbing. I am planning on sewing up 20 tank straps which hopefully i can on sell to balloonists however if i cant sell any i wont be fussed.

BOW 2014 + Projects on the side

Well its been an eventful month. Work have decided to train me up as a Duty manager which means another new challenge. Along with this i have started my project at Child Matters which is a child protection education provider which do great work for New Zealand. It seems odd territory for an IT geek but i am currently building them an Intranet which will hopefully benefit and progress the great work the team do.

On the Ballooning front the balloon itself has not progressed at all. I have received my load tape and Nomex which gives me a path to finish all of the sewing before i have to go buy more supplies. I am hoping to tackle some of the balloon cutting during Balloons Over Waikato as some of the experienced homebuilders will be over. If that doesn't happen i would like to at least get a deeper understanding of my Juki LH-515 and test the french seam folder i purchased in 2013.

With BOW looming i have been pushing to get my fan completed which is currently being held up by they key way that i am hoping will be cleared by Friday (Very close to BOW). Once the key way is cut i will be able to attach the blade/hub to the motor and proceed with balance testing. Hopefully all goes well as i have loaned the fan to Mark Mitchell.

Besides that it is shaping up to be a very busy week leading into BOW with a liquor license course prior to master briefing, updating the ozi map, catching up with friends and preparing for the Wednesday morning.

Cutting Day 4 + Bad news

Day four did not end up being a very productive day. We managed to cut 40 panels when we realistically should of cut 60 however we hit a few road blocks and made some mistakes which were fixable but did put a negative vibe on the day.

So the day started with me loading up the car and forgetting the patterns which ended up being a 30 minute drive there and back to pick them up. Followed by not having a partner until about 1pm which meant once i had laid out the first cut i didn't have much else to do. I could of laid out the other 10 layers for that panel however i made the mistake of prepping to cut way before it ended up happening.

While i was waiting i did a few jobs such as measuring the next panel template to ensure it was right. Good thing i did this because i was a fair way off and the panel template will have to be re-cut. I also managed to sort out some of the off cut panels into panels A and B which will bring the total fabric wastage down. When we started cutting we managed to cut panel G, skipped panel F (Template was wrong) and proceeded onto panel E. We managed to cut the first lot of panel E (10/20) and on the second lot it went to shit essentially....
One of the layers underneath was not lined up and the panel went over the end of two panels. Because of this we swapped out for panel D. The tally for the day ended up being Panel G (20/20), Panel E (10/10) Panel D (10/10).

That brings us to today, as of last week i started back at Wintec with a new set of papers. One of the two papers i have is Project which is equivalent of 450 hours. This work load along with more time at countdown has led me to put the balloon on hold. I am hoping that during Balloons Over Waikato we will have a few rainy days to complete the cutting stage. Once this is complete the balloon wont be touched until the semesters end which will also be winter.

Cutting day 3

Well its been a massive day but it is not over for me. I am rushing to post the progress from day 2 and writing out todays progress before work in 25 minutes so it might be best to save this as a draft.

Right, progress as normal for cutting out the balloon. We managed to cut 60 panels again which means we are sitting at the 160/300 mark which is officially over half way! Because of time constraints we are not really getting as far i would of hoped. Due to my cutting location being open from 8am-5pm only on week days it means we are only really fitting 6 or 7 hour days in which  is my fault for not squezing more out of the day.

Initally i went in with the goal to knock this out in two days which is realistic for some however having 20 gores is a lot of fabric to cut cleanly/accurately in one swipe. If you look at it in that respect you can gauge why i havent met my pre cutting prediction of 2 days.

That wraps up this weeks cutting session. I am planning on cutting next week. Hopefully i will be able to knock out the last panels in a lengthy day. Sadly returning to the smaller panels at the top of the balloon this time wont speed up progress as i will be searching through my off-cut bag which i will hopefully reduce the amount of wastage.

On a side note i talked to a friend of mine which i have mentioned the fabric to in a pervious discussion and he is very interested. He works at a balloon manufacturer and would like to do a variety of tests (pull strength, tear test, porosity and water test) on each type of fabric i have. Hopefully the tests will give an insight into the make up of the fabric and give us an idea of its expected life.

Cutting Day 2

Day 2 of cutting turned out to be a productive day with 60 panels being cut which takes the total tally to 100/300. My assistant for the day was busy and didn't get in until 12 which meant I had 3 hours to myself. In this time I managed to cut the remaining lengths for panels J K along with all the lengths for J. 

The panels are getting larger now so progress will slow down slightly and once we get towards the top I will being raising the off cuts to see if I can salvage any fabric. 

So at the completion of day 2 I have panels J, K, L, M and N cut. 20 lengths of panel I prepared for layering/ cutting. With day 3 bringing in Katie to help I hope we can push through panels G, H and I which will put me past the half way mark of cutting. 

Cutting Day 1

So after taking a week to contemplate cutting i finally decided to start cutting this week. Day one saw a lot less progress than i initially thought we would of made however towards the end of the day we were rocketing along. Which was cut short by my awesome assistant Tim having to head to work.

We managed to cut out panels M and N which totals 40 panels. Tim and I laid the fabric to the length of the two panels and cut the sheet to length. This was repeated 5 times per colour to create 20 sheets which we then cut the M and N panels in sets of 10 layers.
We also managed to cut out 17/20 lengths for panels L and K which will be the last double panel length until we get into the smaller C,B,A panels which i plan on using the lengths which had defects that would of either visually affected it or structurally towards the end of its life.  Hopefully the smaller panels will fit around the variety of defects i found which was mostly on the black.

Sadly i didn't measure the length of fabric which has been benched for now but it was about 8 meters however majority of this is still salvageable.

The team over in Australia are pushing through sewing up Barbs 60k at the moment which is pushing me to make my own progress. Its busy times at the moment for XLTA Australia with one balloon at the final stages, another having trouble with Gores but has a weekend planned to push some progress and a couple back either in the planning/cutting stages.

Tomorrow for me however brings Neil in to hopefully help me for another 5 or 6 hours which will no doubt help see some more garbage bags filled with fully cut panels and my cutting checklist slightly more fulfilled.

Patterns done!

During my days off last week i completed my patterns which ended up taking two days because i mostly drew them up solo and called Katie over to help rule lines which in theory wasn't very efficient as i could of just cut the line straight away but a few times i discovered some short falls and wrongly ruled lines.

As i mentioned before the program i have used for this design spits out all the measurements required for each panel and gives me all kinds of numbers such as material requirements and pricing etc.

One of the discoveries i found in the research and development stage of the project is the program i am using spits out DXF files which is a autoCAD format. It displays a 2d drawing to scale of each panel therefore i converted the DXF to PDF which gave me a printable version. This gave me a idea of the shape, measurements and make up of each panel which in turn made it a hell of a lot easier.

So with the panels all cut on the second day which surprising took longer than i had thought i am now ready to cut fabric. A very daunting and scary prospect i must say. Its a hard feeling to describe you are cutting into something that you know has required X work and Y money but you need to cut in order to achieve the goal. Once i start cutting the first cut of panels i will be fine however screw ups are inevitable and no doubt ill learn a few things a long the way.

On a final note you are all probably wondering where the hell i am cutting. I talked about building my own cutting table which Katie said screw that Torpedo7 has tables used for packing. Just come and use one of those. So only on week days and the days i have spare i go to Collins road to make some progress. Hopefully i wont be there much longer but someone said to me on the phone last night, "Plan on it taking 2 days a week for a month. You may think it will be a 2 day job but let the days and hours happen".

Fabric Day!

Well i have been very busy over the weekend with a variety of things including flying, a party, working, the fan and not to mention the fabric finally arriving! I finally have found a moment to write about the last few days.

While i was at work on Friday four bundles arrived which had about 860m of fabric. This was made up of 3 different kinds (1.3/1.9 double sided silicone coated and 1.9 double sided polyurethane coated) The 1.3 and 1.9 silicone were really test lengths that i ordered to test the integrity. Hopefully i will use the fabric for a model or something useful.

Anyway back to the main fabric which i am very pleased with. Obviously for me to have no concerns or niggles would be very odd however the list is very short.

1. The colours are dead on however in certain lights the gap between the mid and bright green could of larger
2. When the fabric is crumpled in the hand it displays more visual creases unlike the silicone coated fabric or the single side coated variant of mine however this will become better over time.
3. The fabrics rigidness is concerning but the same solution is applicable.

 Other than those small things i am very happy. Obviously i knew about the weight of the double sided coating however the weight of the fabric wont unmanageable for me however for others that are slightly smaller they might have issues on solo flights.
due to the 20 gores i plan to cut down weight when it comes to not having hyper-last in the top along with lighter load tapes. As there is 20 tapes i can lower the strength of each tape even though the strength of the tape i am planning to buy is strong enough to hold the entire vertical  load on just two tapes.

Lastly i leave you with a selfie of a very happy girl! If Katie was this happy you couldn't imagine how stoked i was once i saw that the amount of money i had spent was at least on the right track. Once the panels are cut out and coating/ fabric defects are rules out i will be a very happy man. 

Hopefully the next update i give you all will be on the completion of the fan which is currently waiting on the fan hub, paint and a balance check prior to starting it up. 

Lesson learnt!

Well my fabric got into port on the 28th of December 2013 and today (15th Jan) i paid the invoice to release the goods to me! if your thinking 18 days to get my goods from Auckland to my doorstep is a very lengthy layover you would be correct.

After spending a day on the phone and emailing my shipping agent, they finally found the goods and the next phase began which on my end consisted of emailing back within the hour or waiting on a reply. After filling out importer papers i  left the ball in the court of my shipping agent which had various questions which took several days to cause any progression. After about 14 days in i got involved in the process and bought customs into the fiasco which seemed to solve the issue within a day.

This leads to today which saw my bank account shrink by $945NZD and the goods about to finish there journey (i hope). The big lesson i learnt from this is if you are going to import anything you have to inquire as soon as the goods leave the port and get the paper trail out of the way prior to arrival.

It has been a few rough weeks sorting through the countless bumps in the road however hopefully i will have my fabric by the end of the week and that will drive me to progress with planning/cutting my panel templates.