hey t00fatt, what do you think of bandpass boxes. i just had one custom designed and i built it today. it only has .8cbft per sub. does that sound right. im running 4 RE/SR 10'' subs and 8000watts.

 

Bandpasses are the trickiest boxes to design, and tend to be "one note wonders" . They are good a producing a lot of SPL in a relatively small range. A bandpass can help you squeeze every last dB from your subs, but because of their narrow range they aren't the best choice for a SQ setup. While you can design a bandpass to sound good, it is far from easy. It's not even easy to get a bandpass tuned for SPL, which is pretty much why not every one is using bandpasses in SPL competitions. I'm sure hondanut can give you more technical details than that.

 

Go to decware.com and pay the 10 or 20 dollars to join and get the plans. It will be the best money you ever spent on learning to build boxes. I built a few of the deathboxes from the site and it was the most musical bandpass I ever heard,not a one note wonder. I hit 138 DB with a single 10 inch sub in my old RX-7 measured with a coustic rta-33. It also sounded good while doing it. I later built the deathboxes big brother with a single 12 and now use that in my home theatre. Decwares plans are excellent but do require some more than basic woodworking skills. They also have support forums. Go build a deathbox,you'll thank me later.

 

Im having a hard time getting this little weed eater engine to run decent. I am looking at a zenoah G260PUM bran new on ebay for 199.99 shipped. Thats without a clutch and without a pipe. I want to keep the clutch feature. Im thinking of going with a dry tuned pipe. Im working a lot right now so the boat molds have not progressed much. You have any old zenoahs or tuned pipes kicking around toofatt? I also remember you said I have too much setback on the drive. Im thinking of starting over as I could have a new hull from my molds fairly quickly and just redoing the entire boat. Everything was cobbled together. Too bad your so far away with some help I could make these hulls faster. Im anxious to see what the cat hull does with a decent zenoah in it. Im hoping mid to high 40's. If I hit 50 I would be happy. Got a new order in the mail today from fibreglast they had a 20% off sale so I bought some goodies. Got some trick kevlar/carbon fiber hybrid fabric would make a sick looking top deck! I need to be up in 5.5 hours so Im off to bed.

 

$200 is about right for a new zenoah, can get them from a few stores at that price. You'll sometimes find them on sale or on ebay for closer to $180 though. If your looking for a little more bang for your buck I would look at the new RCMK motor. Makes a lot more power and RPM than a box stock zen, and is built tougher. The crank is beefed up, and rests on 4 bearings instead of just 2 like in the zenoah. The ports have A LOT more material to work with, the RCMK is better than the zenoah in just about every aspect. The only down side is the RCMK uses sealed bearings instead of a rubber crankshaft seal, and there have been a small number of leaks caused by the bearings. A bit of CA glue around the outer seas before the first run seems to guarantee it won't fail and leak. The RCMK is a serious motor, it has more power than my mid mod zenoah. If you want the extra power but are still weary about the RCMK read up on it over at Jim's RC boat dock, everyone is in love with them. Zenoah have better come out with a new motor, or RCMK is going to take over the marine market.

As for a clutch WHH's clutch system is bullet proof. Most people that run a clutch are using WHH's clutch. It really is the best built and lightest one around, I've got one with a grease cone in my magnum 57. THIS combo is your best bet either for a zenoah or an RCMK, it includes the clutch and motor mounts which your going to need, don;t mess with fabbing your own. Don't be turned off the the composite, it is some strong stuff. I was skeptical about them until my newest boat came with them. They weigh nothing, and feel like they are indestructible and on top of them they come with a lifetime warranty. They also come in aluminum for like $5 more if you prefer.

Well the set back may be right for that hull, the prop needs to be in clean water and it may have to be back that far. If I remember correctly, the rudder was in front of the prop, that can cause turning problems. In a mono you want the rudder either inline with the prop, or behind it. But you can experiment with new hardware, it very well may not be set up properly. You can get top secret hard ware on ebay for around $25 for a stinger or rudder. Top secret has an ebay store, and they start their auctions are $0.01 and usually get up to around $20 to $30, while on their online store I think it's $40+, why they put stuff on ebay I have no idea.

If the cat is designed well a stock zen will have it in the high 40's, and an RCMK will push it into the mid 50's maybe more if trimmed real loose.

I'll see if I can find the thread, but the guy here in states made a big 92" (I think) cat with the deck in clear gel coat and carbon fiber. I forget what happened but he had never done anything like that before and had to do the deck twice. I think it had to do with getting a good finish with the clear gel coat. But if you already know how to work with that than your a step a head, a deck in Kevlar CF would look sweet, just have to keep it out of the sun.

Man if I was closer to you I'd offer to rig the boats for you so you could sell them read to run, would love to make a couple bucks actually doing what I enjoy. I haven't got any extra engines or pipes, I've actually got to order a new pipe for my big mono, I'm sick of this wet tuned crap. My buddy may have a mid mod zenoah to sell though, I'll talk to him about it this weekend. But you can find nice deals on ebay and on Jim's boat dock forums. Be prepared to spend $150 for a complete exhaust system from a store. While you can find much better deals on ebay and right from people on the dock.

 

Ok thanks for the tips. Please do ask your friend if he has a spare zen he wants to sell,I dont mind rebuilding one. Im thinking simple is good and a tuned dry pipe is simple. I will check the places you mentioned. I have a product made by duratec thats a gelcoat additive that makes the gelcoat flow like paint and much easier to sand and buff later. I use this in my black gelcoated speakers. Its 80.00 a gallon but a gallon goes a long ways. I also use it with clear gelcoat,works excellent. It also has UV protectants in it!!! So the sun is no problem. Have you seen the kevlar /carbon fiber hybrid fabrics? I could make my decks in this but the hull would be very difficult. USComposites.com has a nice selection of hybrids if I remember right. Also when using kevlar or carbon fabrics you need to use premium special purpose crystal clear resin. He probally used regular polyester resin. Most carbon parts are made from vinyl ester resin which is a lot more expensive. The bas a$$ wat to build one of these boats would be too make everything from kevlar/carbon and vacume bag it. Unless these boats sell like crazy I wont be buying vacume bagging equipment anytime soon. Makes excellent lightweight parts but very pricy and the bagging materials are expensive too. Everything is expensive. I just bought some white/blue ghost pearl powder. I add it to my clear gelcoat and at different angles it flops from blue to white. Over a black base this looks really sharp. I also have some kameleon flakes I can add to the gelcoat. I can do this on boats or speakers.

 

i finished the box today and put in in the car but only on one amp. it is crazy. it sounds great. i cant wait untill i get my second amp on them. it was killing my batt so tomorrow im throwing another in the car. ill let you know what db it hits.

 

Glad your happy with your new sub box project lapro,still check out decware.com. Toofat I am super mad at you....you snatched up that tuned pipe on Jrcbd before I could even respond! Good buy too! I need a tuned pipe badly,the exhaust on the weedy engine is absolute crap rigged together. I plan on buying a replacement engine but would just swap over the pipe. I now have my cat plugs spit shined and polished well enough to shave in them and will begin making molds out of them very soon. Once I have molds I can make hulls. Then I will start the process of making a copy of the mono hull. Im thinking of making the mono a one piece seamless hull. I am ordering the last few items I need tomorrow,pva,white gel coat ,new gel coat gun,styrene etc etc. I spent about 20 hours wet sanding the 3 cat plugs and have them super straight and defect free. This will be a top quality hull. I them polished them with aquabuff 2000. Great stuff for polishing gelcoat,I won't use anything else. Maybe we can work out a deal,I send you a hull of your choice in your choice of color for a used working zenoah with tuned pipe? I now have red,black,grey and white gelcoat as well as clear with the metal flake option in red,blue,orange,silver or gold. I recomend a black background behind flakes,looks the best. I also just got some flip flop ghost pearl that can be used with gelcoat. It flips from pearl white to pearl blue,over a red or black base that would be sharp! Hope your getting some time on the water.

 

HAHA my friend is pretty upset he didn't catch that deal either, being online at 2 in the morning sure has it's benefits. Just keep your eye out on the dock you will find a nice deal on pipe, and even a motor with time. You just have to be quick to respond, as you've seen it is usually sold within a few hours. So there is a bit of luck involved. Man I wish I had a motor and pipe to trade you, but maybe someone on the dock does and likes the offer. If I come across the funds to get another boat together, I think I will be going with your cat if it performs well enough. I'm not working now, so that won't be happening too soon. What do you think you will be selling the cat for?

Well you've got all the colors anyone could want, and quite a few actually manufacturers sell them painted to cover up flaws in the gel coat. And people are aware of that, so offering different colors in gel coat is a definite plus. People even buy black hulls, or paint them black, even though you can't really see them on the water. They look mean on the stand, but not so great smashed up on the shore.

Oh and you will have to adapt a zenoah manifold to mate with your weedy exhaust bolt pattern. Weedy motors were weeded out about 8 years ago now, so I really don't know exactly what they were doing. I would just keep an eye out for a real engine, then just run a canister exhaust until you can grab a pipe. A can will only run you about $20, versus $70 to $150. I got really lucky with the $50, never seen one that low and I just needed the pipe and manifold. A Stock zen with a can exhaust has my buddies 47" mono at a consistent 40 mph.

What's your email? If I see any good deal's on the dock or anywhere else I'll send them your way.

 

My direct email is Azenis29@aol.com. No Im not 29 anymore very old address. Im not sure about any prices yet,I like to build one 100% complete before taking the dive into pricing. It will be a very fair price on a very well made hull. I just spent 313.55 on materials plus hazerdous material shipping! And I still need to buy more resin and gel coat. Im curious as to how well this cat will perform also,it looks like a nice well designed hull. I was able to sand out many small blemishes and flatten the bottom pads. I paid a lot of attention to the steps and transom edges. I try very hard to make my products come out of the mold 95% finished,only needing a quick buffing with aquabuff to be done. I also ordered a bunch of 3/4 ounce mat and 2 ounce cloth just for these boats. I still need to find a local supplier for 1/4" high grade plywood. Im looking for aircraft grade 5 ply. What do you think of the seemless mono idea? I thought that would make it different than a lot of the others. I like the smooth seamless look. The cat is a clam shell and is staying that way,wayyyy too many hours wet sanding to change it now. Being a higher speed boat the clam shell joining has benifits anyways. Its stronger usually and will not seperate unless put under extreme stress. Where do you think is the best place to post my build threads? I have already begun taking more step by step pictures. I will wait a bit longer before beginning so it will go quickly. I also need a few last things,I like to have everything before starting. I hate delays and waiting for materials. I order a lot of the specialty stuff from a place uscomposites.com in Florida. Best prices and fast shipping. Locally I get my resin and gelcoat to avoid hazerdous shipping fees.