I realized that I haven’t shown any pictures up close of the cutting process.

Yes we are *still* cutting, but come lunchtime tomorow we will have cut 100% of panels, and hopefully get a gore or two sewn up before the weekends out.

Here is some of arrow “test” panels sewn up. Colours look great in real life, these pictures don’t do them justice:

One of the top arrow points, pretty big. Again shows the colours well.

A nice straight edge goes a long way.

Pins and clamps help a whole heap.

Another close up.

Clamps, pins and a straight edge, nothing can go wrong.. heh

LOTS of markings on EVERYTHING!!!

All these rolls you see in this picture are bits for the top arrows.
Normally this type of envelope would require 14 patterns, this one is taking up around.
Not only is that a whole lots more cutting, but a whole lot more sewing, but I think it’s worth the extra effort for the design.

All of the points patterns are now cut, so all that is left now is the final cutting on fabric.

Then onto sewing

Today we cut a fair whack of material, check out the cutting gallery for pics. We polished off a big roll of yellow and used all of the hyperlast we need to, we still have a fair lot of hyperlast left as well.

Here is a breakdown of the progress:

(The table isn’t working, I will have to fix it.)

D, E, F and K, L, M are panels where the points are. So far we are only cutting whole panels, when we finish cutting the (70) whole blue panels, we will be about 77% of the way through. After that its the tricky bit of points, plus the nomex (easy).The circular cutter (thanks Adam!!) has been great, so far we have only put 1 new blade in and we probably did that well before it was needed. We found that it was easy to cut through 20 layers at once.

The only yellow we have left is the big roll, which has around 217m left on it. I guess that we will have at least 150m of it left over, if not more. We probably have 20 or so meters of Hyperlast left as well.

Hopefully we should get at least the rest of the whole blue panels done early next week.

Next week I am looking at buying a car. I have found a few I like so after I go see the accountant I am going to get myself a car. This should make coming home much easier because I can always find at least 1 other person to split the fuel with, so it works out to a $35 trip is way once split.

Hopefully this means that I can come to all the normal balloon events as well.

Anyway, don’t forget to keep checking the gallery because I am adding new pictures all the time!

Sewing machines are a barrell of laughs.

I got some screws to mount the seam folder onto the machine on Friday, so I decided to mess around with the machine and see what I could make it do.

After a while of winding bobbins and threading up the machine I found that rather than sew, it wanted to be the first singer 212G to land on the moon. It was rocking and shaking all over the place.

So after a few hours of “setting up”, 2 things were concluded:

1. We need a new belt.
2. Unless we want the white thread to turn oily golden brown, we need to give the machine a good clean.

Oh and DAMN! I am not sure how many people have used a machine like this before but they get absolutely smoking (fast) when you put your foot down, I think some adjustments are in need to make it easier to manage the speed.

Today should see panels B + C cut.

Quick update.

Cutting has started, slowly.

Panel A has been cut, that was the easy one so now to start on the next panels.

I will upload some photos soon.

As far as deadlines go, with all the things coming up around here that I have to do, I doubt sewing will start before I leave, but theres always long weekends

A little bit of progress, I just whipped up the final design, its basically just the same things but tweaked a bit. Top arrow heads have moved down so they will be more visible from the ground and an extra panel was added in due to newer plans.

I forgot to mention my first minor stuff up, I told the plan making software that the Nomex was 1.5m in width like the fabric, but in fact it is just under 1.5m. Not a major problem, it just means that panel A will have to be cut out along the fabric not across it, there may be a tiny bit more waste but I doubt it.

We were in Melbourne for a day on Tuesday so took the oppurtunity to buy some more bits, this included some vent rope andsewing machine bits like oil, needles and some screws. So far I am still under budget by a bit but there is three more (costly) things that need to be purchased.Firstly the nomex, I am looking at around $500 for this, secondly the cables, probably around $300 and finally the load tapes, which at the moment I have no idea.

Heres a photo of the vent rope, yes its not red, get over it.

The 20th deadline is looking a bit less reachable at the moment, I forgot to factor into that the fact that ALL the rest of this week is out. NO cutting out has started, but if I am lucky I may get a few of the basic panels done before this weekend.

I have a deadline now which is not for the balloon, but for me. I have to move into International House (University College) on the 23rd, after that all balloon work is either on long weekends or holidays.

Scobie (Dad) and myself made a probably somewhat more achievable goal, to fly the balloon at Leeton this easter. So at the moment thats what we are realistically aiming for.

I am sure you readers (if there is many) are getting sick of all this talk and no action, so next week I promise you will start to see some seams done

The basic patterns were done tonight.

When I say basic, I mean the patters for the whole 15 panels in a gore, what isn’t cut is the patterns for the arrow tips or the parachute.

Hopefully we can get all the fabric cut by the end of the week, then that gives me 24 days to sew it up.
I am still not sure whether that is a long time or not. I mean, thinking about actually sewing makes me think if I worked all (say, 10 hours roughly) day I should be able to get at least 3 gores done. Keep in mind I have never sewn anything like this before so have no idea of how long it takes, but even if I hit my target of 3 gores a day, thats 7 days for sewing the gores. Then for sewing the vertical gores, that in my mind seems easier as there is less stopping and starting, so I am guessing I could get 4 vertical seams done a day.

If I reach these randomly thought out targets, that is about 12 days for sewing, so who knows I might get it test inflated before the 20th. Actually, I have just decided thats my goal, a test inflation before the 20th. I don’t care if its not got a COA or registered before I leave, as long as its a single (rigged) bag of fabric which inflates. The stuff after that is all minor in comparison to the sewing I think.

Heres a picture of the finished basic patterns, the bottom (nomex) panel is on the top.

Check out the Cutting gallery for some pictures of the space I will be using to cut/sew, its quite big, and air conditioned too.

Well its been over a month since my last post. I have been very busy, not really with balloon stuff, but more with general things. I got accepted into the university course I wanted to get into, Computer Systems at RMIT so I will be moving to Melbourne on the 24th.

This creates a bit of a problem, I always thought I would have to leave around that date, but I now realise how much less time I will have to build.

I am sure I could cut a sew in a month, if thats all I was doing, but there is so much else I need to organise, and eventually I need to start packing which is going to be bad, so while there is lots of time to go, not all of it can be spent on building.

I am starting to have doubt whether it will get finished or not, if it doesn’t, I will just be coming home regularly until its done. I may get the sewing done in time, but I don’t know about the rest, like airworthiness, riggint and test inflation.

Anyway I will post something thats actually interesting just after this.