LASER CUTTING DUMAS CIRCUS CIRCUS PARTS

[Mike Luszcz]

I am looking to see if anyone here does laser cutting, and if they have done the Dumas Circus Circus. I just got one, and I plan to get all the pieces draw up on CADD soon so that either the full kit can be reproduced, or just the Luan parts in my kit replaced with good ply. Does anyone here have any interest. If you do, would I need to supply all the wood, and would AUTOCAD 2009 format be acceptable. I will be doing all the CADD, so you can talk directly to me about the stuff needed to make it happen! Thanks, Mike

 

[glenng]

I am looking to see if anyone here does laser cutting, and if they have done the Dumas Circus Circus. I just got one, and I plan to get all the pieces draw up on CADD soon so that either the full kit can be reproduced, or just the Luan parts in my kit replaced with good ply. Does anyone here have any interest. If you do, would I need to supply all the wood, and would AUTOCAD 2009 format be acceptable. I will be doing all the CADD, so you can talk directly to me about the stuff needed to make it happen! Thanks, Mike

Hi Mike, Don't think you need to go the CAD/lazer cutting route-hi tec yes but necessary no. The kits have the frames slightly oversize and contours must be sanded with a block or board sander to get the skins to fit properly(match the contours of the deck). Sponson design on the kits i've built left something to be desired also. Never done a Circus kit but the Atlas and Pak needed sponson modifications. Replacing the Luan with birch is a good idea.

Good Luck,

Glenn

 

[Mike Luszcz]

Dang, How do I even know how much has to be sanded off? lol! Yes, I want all that Luan GONE. That stuff is bad news and weights a ton. I want to build this as Electric, so all the extra weight has to be removed. I figured the lazer part would at least knock a lot of time off from hand cutting all the many pieces that the kit includes..and its a ton. What sponson mods did you make to the Atlas? Any help in that regard would be awesome! Thanks, Mike

 

[kcvnd]

I am looking to see if anyone here does laser cutting, and if they have done the Dumas Circus Circus. I just got one, and I plan to get all the pieces draw up on CADD soon so that either the full kit can be reproduced, or just the Luan parts in my kit replaced with good ply. Does anyone here have any interest. If you do, would I need to supply all the wood, and would AUTOCAD 2009 format be acceptable. I will be doing all the CADD, so you can talk directly to me about the stuff needed to make it happen! Thanks, Mike

Just a thought but cad is a lot of work use the luan as templates with carpet tape and a router to make new parts. Much faster and less work.

 

[Mike Luszcz]

I am looking to see if anyone here does laser cutting, and if they have done the Dumas Circus Circus. I just got one, and I plan to get all the pieces draw up on CADD soon so that either the full kit can be reproduced, or just the Luan parts in my kit replaced with good ply. Does anyone here have any interest. If you do, would I need to supply all the wood, and would AUTOCAD 2009 format be acceptable. I will be doing all the CADD, so you can talk directly to me about the stuff needed to make it happen! Thanks, Mike

Just a thought but cad is a lot of work use the luan as templates with carpet tape and a router to make new parts. Much faster and less work.

What router bit would I use tho? Keeping a router bits ball bearing to stay on the thin luan would not be to easy! Thanks for any help! Mike

 

[glenng]

Dang, How do I even know how much has to be sanded off? lol! Yes, I want all that Luan GONE. That stuff is bad news and weights a ton. I want to build this as Electric, so all the extra weight has to be removed. I figured the lazer part would at least knock a lot of time off from hand cutting all the many pieces that the kit includes..and its a ton. What sponson mods did you make to the Atlas? Any help in that regard would be awesome! Thanks, Mike

Mike, Actually the Luan is not that heavy-the bad things are- it compresses easily and soaks up water like a sponge if not sealed very well. Look at Kevin's gallery for lazer cut carbon fibre parts. And go to Jim's R.C. boat dock and look at some pictures of the Blazer Laughterbach builds(with the skin off)- notice how the parts have been cut away to remove excess weight. The sponson mods to the Atlas consisted of removing the ride pads- the Pay&Pak was a bit more Radical. The sponsons were to plans up to bulkhead 1 Aft of that they resemble the sponsons on a Velasco hull. Worked for me. Not that much sanding is required with the Dumas kita -Just match the contours. I use a 36 grit paper with a block and board sander. If you need a visual my e-mail is [email protected]

Glenn

 

[Mike Luszcz]

Thats for the great info Glenn. I can tell this will be a LONG term project, but will be well worth it. I just want the boat to be worlds better than the original dumas kit. Are these close enough to scale to be considered a "scale" boat at a race? Not that I will use it for that, just wondering. Thanks, Mike

 

[glenng]

Thats for the great info Glenn. I can tell this will be a LONG term project, but will be well worth it. I just want the boat to be worlds better than the original dumas kit. Are these close enough to scale to be considered a "scale" boat at a race? Not that I will use it for that, just wondering. Thanks, Mike

Mike, Check NAMBA or IMPBA regs to see what applies to your area-really know nothing about electrics-all I know are nitro/namba-Drive dogs must not extend beyond transom and pipes must not protrude thru cowling. Sponson mods are allowed. May not take as long as you think Mike. Chain drilling is an alternitive to laser cutting to lighten bulkheads.

Glenn

 

[Bill Gibson]

Mike, i dont think you would have any problem with that boat being a legal scale boat in NAMBA or IMPBA....also you would be amazed at how fast you can make parts using templates and a bandsaw...just scratch the parts on some 1/32 ply or some decent card stock and carefully cut the parts out....you will find out that the best tools you will ever have when building a wood boat are all shapes and sizes of sanding blocks....dirt cheap too!

 

[Hydro Junkie]

I have a Circus kit as well. As soon as I opened it, I knew I had some serious work to do.

Mike, don't overthink this. Just lay the kit parts on top of quality wood and trace around the parts. If the part has a slot, dont' trace it out. Just mark the bottom and top, leaving the rest for later. I'm not going to use all 1/8ply like the kit. With good ply, most of the frames can be made from 1/16th ply. The exceptions are the transoms and the lengthwise frames. I'm using 1/8 for the lengthwise frames and 1/4 for the transoms. There are lots of ways to save weight in this boat. Don't be afraid to ask questions since there are several of us that have experience with the Dumas kits that can help you out

 

[Mike Luszcz]

Thanks for the info everyone. I just went threw the kit tonight, marked all the pieces with the part# and template#, pulled them from the template, sanded all the rough edges off, and realized there was not that much of the luan wood. 70% of it was nice ply! I am going to just trace all the luan pieces on to the proper ply and cut it out. Just removing the wood from those templates rid of a lot of the box weight! It was ridiculous, haha. I actually cannot wait to begin the build. After working with a lot of WOF designs, this should be a breeze honestly. I have thought about making some of it frame less and WOF to really reduce the weight. Gotta get some framing together first to see how it looks, then I can make that decision. Thanks again, Mike

 

[kcvnd]

Thanks for the info everyone. I just went threw the kit tonight, marked all the pieces with the part# and template#, pulled them from the template, sanded all the rough edges off, and realized there was not that much of the luan wood. 70% of it was nice ply! I am going to just trace all the luan pieces on to the proper ply and cut it out. Just removing the wood from those templates rid of a lot of the box weight! It was ridiculous, haha. I actually cannot wait to begin the build. After working with a lot of WOF designs, this should be a breeze honestly. I have thought about making some of it frame less and WOF to really reduce the weight. Gotta get some framing together first to see how it looks, then I can make that decision. Thanks again, Mike

Mike,

Like I said i used a router on a table and it works great. I have also used a scroll saw which works well too. Like hydro junkie said most of the 1/8th stuff can be replaced with 1/16 ply. Seal under the decks well. For the sponson bottoms, lay some light fiberglass cloth down on the inside to prevent flexing. I would also replace the wings with fiber glass ones from RC boat company or Phil Thomas. My two cents.

Cheers,

Kevin

 

[glenng]

Thanks for the info everyone. I just went threw the kit tonight, marked all the pieces with the part# and template#, pulled them from the template, sanded all the rough edges off, and realized there was not that much of the luan wood. 70% of it was nice ply! I am going to just trace all the luan pieces on to the proper ply and cut it out. Just removing the wood from those templates rid of a lot of the box weight! It was ridiculous, haha. I actually cannot wait to begin the build. After working with a lot of WOF designs, this should be a breeze honestly. I have thought about making some of it frame less and WOF to really reduce the weight. Gotta get some framing together first to see how it looks, then I can make that decision. Thanks again, Mike

Mike,

Like I said i used a router on a table and it works great. I have also used a scroll saw which works well too. Like hydro junkie said most of the 1/8th stuff can be replaced with 1/16 ply. Seal under the decks well. For the sponson bottoms, lay some light fiberglass cloth down on the inside to prevent flexing. I would also replace the wings with fiber glass ones from RC boat company or Phil Thomas. My two cents.

Cheers,

Kevin

Kevin, Let us know what thickness of carbon fibre you are using for the My Gypsy frames, also what kind of adhesives you are using. I had one glue joint fail(30 min. epoxy- carbon fibre to wood). Also do you and HJ use basswood gluing blocks on the 1/16" ply?

Thanks,

Glenn

 

[Hydro Junkie]

I don't use basswood anywhere. I use spruce 1/8th stick stock only on one side of a butt joint. This is also why I said to not cut out the slots when tracing out the parts. What I do is draw a line down the center of a slot and cut out the slot to the width needed so I can remove all of that slop designed in by Dumas. Shimming and filling adds lots of weight as well. I've learned to rework these areas instead of just copying them so that I don't need to put in the large fillets of epoxy and filler material at each joint.

 

[kcvnd]

Thanks for the info everyone. I just went threw the kit tonight, marked all the pieces with the part# and template#, pulled them from the template, sanded all the rough edges off, and realized there was not that much of the luan wood. 70% of it was nice ply! I am going to just trace all the luan pieces on to the proper ply and cut it out. Just removing the wood from those templates rid of a lot of the box weight! It was ridiculous, haha. I actually cannot wait to begin the build. After working with a lot of WOF designs, this should be a breeze honestly. I have thought about making some of it frame less and WOF to really reduce the weight. Gotta get some framing together first to see how it looks, then I can make that decision. Thanks again, Mike

Mike,

Like I said i used a router on a table and it works great. I have also used a scroll saw which works well too. Like hydro junkie said most of the 1/8th stuff can be replaced with 1/16 ply. Seal under the decks well. For the sponson bottoms, lay some light fiberglass cloth down on the inside to prevent flexing. I would also replace the wings with fiber glass ones from RC boat company or Phil Thomas. My two cents.

Cheers,

Kevin

Kevin, Let us know what thickness of carbon fibre you are using for the My Gypsy frames, also what kind of adhesives you are using. I had one glue joint fail(30 min. epoxy- carbon fibre to wood). Also do you and HJ use basswood gluing blocks on the 1/16" ply?

Thanks,

Glenn

Most of the Gypsy frames are 1/16 thick but if you look there is a lot of material taken out of the frame. Also it does not need any additional sealing which means no added weight. The adhesive I will be using, (I have to get back on the project with all the interest) is West Systems.

On my old circus I used the spruce that came with the kit. I would also follow HydroJunkie's advice on the slots to interlock the frames and watch your 90 degree angles. You don't need all the glue blocks that are shown in the plan. I believe they place all the vertical blocks there to serve simply as fillets to cover up the slop between the frame. This is really unnecessary and just adds weight in the end.

Cheers,

Kevin

 

[TERMINATOR]

Thanks for the info everyone. I just went threw the kit tonight, marked all the pieces with the part# and template#, pulled them from the template, sanded all the rough edges off, and realized there was not that much of the luan wood. 70% of it was nice ply! I am going to just trace all the luan pieces on to the proper ply and cut it out. Just removing the wood from those templates rid of a lot of the box weight! It was ridiculous, haha. I actually cannot wait to begin the build. After working with a lot of WOF designs, this should be a breeze honestly. I have thought about making some of it frame less and WOF to really reduce the weight. Gotta get some framing together first to see how it looks, then I can make that decision. Thanks again, Mike

Mike,

Like I said i used a router on a table and it works great. I have also used a scroll saw which works well too. Like hydro junkie said most of the 1/8th stuff can be replaced with 1/16 ply. Seal under the decks well. For the sponson bottoms, lay some light fiberglass cloth down on the inside to prevent flexing. I would also replace the wings with fiber glass ones from RC boat company or Phil Thomas. My two cents.

Cheers,

Kevin

Kevin, Let us know what thickness of carbon fibre you are using for the My Gypsy frames, also what kind of adhesives you are using. I had one glue joint fail(30 min. epoxy- carbon fibre to wood). Also do you and HJ use basswood gluing blocks on the 1/16" ply?

Thanks,

Glenn

Most of the Gypsy frames are 1/16 thick but if you look there is a lot of material taken out of the frame. Also it does not need any additional sealing which means no added weight. The adhesive I will be using, (I have to get back on the project with all the interest) is West Systems.

On my old circus I used the spruce that came with the kit. I would also follow HydroJunkie's advice on the slots to interlock the frames and watch your 90 degree angles. You don't need all the glue blocks that are shown in the plan. I believe they place all the vertical blocks there to serve simply as fillets to cover up the slop between the frame. This is really unnecessary and just adds weight in the end.

Cheers,

Kevin

wood over foam mike...lets do this

tk

 

[Mike Luszcz]

Already working on it Terry. I think it is very doable actually. Working up the plans as we speak. It was nice of Dumas to give all those blueprints with the Circus kit. Makes redoing them to WOF support very easy! Mike

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Probably shouldn't say this, but you could also do the Miller American since the Circus is the same boat with a turbine cowl thrown over the top. Sorta sad that Dumas couldn't even design a second boat in my opinion

Just had a thought. Another improvement in this boat would be to get the radio box out of the back end to decrease prop weight. I'm going to do that with my boat to go along with using aircraft ply to lighten everything up. I figure it can't hurt to make a few changes, especially for the better

 

[sport hydro]

Actually the Circus kit makes the 1988 U-31 Miller High Life. Only a slight change to the cockpit window and paint scheme.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Granted, that is true. If you look at some of the cross frames, they are obviously from the Miller American kit. This is most obvious around the back of the cockpit area.