Plastic Classic Forum

Quetzalsailor

Not enough choices: After email; after checking the LeComte site, the Challenger site; before eBay; generally even before the rest of the office turns up.

Always something to learn from the sages and the rest of the folks, and maybe a little experience or opinion to share.

Quetzalsailor

Gasketing fasteners adequately is always the problem. As compared to a fitting, the fastener head is rather small so the sealing surface is as well. Normally, the fastener exerts its force on the fitting, spreading load. Using a flat or flared underside of the head bearing onto or into the 'glass me...

Quetzalsailor

A drain in an icebox is a very nice thing to have. But even better when you can control it. I added one to the previous boat which consisted of a cheepie plastic through-hull / hose barb, a length of hose and a hook which held the end of the hose above the melt. We used the icebox normally, but when...

Quetzalsailor

I don't know how much of a mess you're making with the first application of fairing goo; I'm pretty slapdash. You can stiffen the fillers such that you have a little better control. Anyway, I use a Surform for my first pass. It takes my excesses down pretty quickly and it doesn't fill when carving s...

Quetzalsailor

If there's no structural problem, don't add structure. Uffa Fox's comment comes to mind, "Weight is for steam rollers." You really do have to think about where the moisture collects in an insulation system and there's lots more opportunity for excess moisture in a marine environment. Encap...

Quetzalsailor

Yes, the zinc chromate (it's the yellow, thin coating) is the usual primer for aluminum, applied after the correct etch (Alodine), within the requisite time. Interlux sells their answer which is Epoxy Primecoat, also used after their etch (Vinyllux Primewash). Being a lazy so-n-so, and because I've ...

Quetzalsailor

It would not hurt to use chunks of solid fiberglass for the core at the load points. Buy the stuff at McMaster Carr, or lay it up yourself. The rest of the panel can be the foam.

Quetzalsailor

I bought the Wichard stuff at Rigging Only in Fairhaven: http://www.riggingonly.com/ email: sail@riggingonly.com

These folks should not be forgotten; fast service and good prices. I'd used them 10 years ago when they duplicated standing rig and lifelines on the Morgan 27.

Quetzalsailor

I have spot primed my aluminum mast using Primocon, an Interlux product sold for underwater use on freshly-sanded aluminum outdrives and similar, as well as a barrier coat between bottom paints. Instructions say, in plain English, that this stuff cannot be used above the true waterline. Given that e...

Quetzalsailor

Perhaps a sage will tell us what the difference is between cutting oil and WD40 or motor oil for the purpose of lubricating cutting tools. I recall dad's cutting oil would sort of foam when sprayed. Using cutting or, as I do, any oil that comes to hand (even dipstick oil(!)) certainly makes drilling...

Quetzalsailor

Thanks Jet. Yes, Tom, I bet LeComte learned alot by finishing Challengers (He'd been building fine wooden boats starting after WW II). And no doubt, those early designers were looking over each others shoulders and building on a world of wood construction knowlege. More pics added and all are in 'al...

Quetzalsailor

For large expanses I use a variety of tile adhesive type notched trowels. Wet out with neat epoxy, first. You get good control of quantity. Not my idea, it's right out of Gougeon's book. For small stuff, I use one of my pre-prepared stir sticks. These are rips of 5/4 decking, 1/8" x 10" or...

Quetzalsailor

I use the West System as well. Pay attention to which of their fillers is a thermoplastic; the instructions will tell you. (I don't remember which it is.) It creeps under heat; fine for the bottom or interior, bad for dark hulls and for decks. Adding to other's list of ersatz fillers, I've used Maho...

Quetzalsailor

Kosher to gang multiple conductors into butt connectors? Come to think about it, there are connectors designed to take several conductors into one side, look like a very small witches' hat. I wonder if these are available big enough, let alone rated, for 4 #12 stranded? Pretty easy to do it over aga...

Quetzalsailor

You can see a slug of pics of works in progress at: http://s278.photobucket.com/albums/kk90 ... =slideshow

Included is demolition, through hulls, hoses, cabinet work. More to follow.

Quetzalsailor

Well, then to eliminate the wirenuts, do I tag all the conductors onto the screws of the device, using spade connectors? Max would be two on one screw and one on the other. Comments about the spiral whoosie in the wirenut being steel ring true until you remember that components in the devices are no...

Quetzalsailor

I have replaced nearly all the 110v wiring and devices in the boat. Plastic boxes, 12-3 tinned stranded Ancor wire, 'Pro grade' 20 amp receptacles. What an absolute pain to do! The stranded conductors are nearly impossible to do neatly; I tried soldering the ends and bending the hook, but you cannot...

Quetzalsailor

So, how come West Marine sells Wichard metric-sized and threaded eyebolts, and only up to about 1/4" dia., and Wichard english-sized eyenuts up to 3/8"? Pretty perverse, but typical of that monopoly. Now, Wichard makes both english- and metric-sized stuff and up to 5/8", if I understo...

Quetzalsailor

Yes, I have shopped the recyclers. Got used steel beams, radiators. Tried to buy chunks of copper, but that's pretty rare. (if you're welding thin aluminum you can use a copper back-up to keep the molten aluminum from dropping out). I've often used scrap stainless, but only for places that I did not...

Quetzalsailor

Reanodizing is not all that difficult to arrange when the pieces are small, like your port frames. I found two or three places in Philly. I used one that did industrial work; cheaper but their anodizing is slightly greenish. OK for a catwalk or a bridge sign, but you'd want to know what your anodize...

Quetzalsailor

I spent a little time sniffing the 'net. There are several sources like Online Metals.

Then I remembered McMaster Carr. They're a little more limited in alloy choices but cheaper. Excellent service, too.

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Quetzalsailor

I recall reading some time ago, and maybe not on this forum, that there's a seller of small quantities of metals, I think, in Boston. They mail order this stuff to you. Anybody know about these folks? I'm lookin' for material for a new trim ring around the mast inside the head. The original was varn...

Quetzalsailor

Our NE 38 has bright Teak hatches and hatch frames. All joints are 1/8" wide and were made as you describe, with sealant stripes between the planks, also at the mitered corners and the perimeter trim. Clearly, the tongue & groove profiles of the joints were all worked out very carefully afo...

Quetzalsailor

Might be easier to match Teak if you were to use a wood whose grain is more similar. Oak is pretty identifiable and tends to stain (if you rub the stain in) unevenly because of its contrasts between dense summer wood, ring porous spring wood and the very dense medulary rays. Other woods, like Mahoga...

Quetzalsailor

I've done this to the bottom of the cockpit floor in the Morgan 27. I used a couple useful variations: Ground the perimeter of the cored area to disconnect the whole of the cored area. Ground the disgusting remains of the balsa off and the new perimeter tabbing surface clean. Laid up fiberglass onto...

Quetzalsailor

Stood the piece on a tin of lacquer thinner over two nights. It seems to have driven a thinned amount of oil up higher along the grain. However, wiping down several times and waiting for drying in between has reduced the apparent stain to just a few speckles of oil in deep pores. Probably good enoug...

Quetzalsailor

Several of us correspondents have this same detail and have the same concerns about knowing all is well with these 40 year old unverifiable things. The best news was referred to above, the mid 60s NE 38 and the stress test against the reef. I'd rake out what I could, preferably over an inch everywhe...

Quetzalsailor

I wish I'd read this thread before I did all my battery work. I moved the batts from an acid-ruined wood box over the fuel tank in the keel to a new polyethylene box in each lazarette. I reused all the runs of multi-aught wire. The heavy wire is serving a 100 amp Balmar and the starter motor. Relati...

Quetzalsailor

A fellow in the Swan Creek Sailing Association renamed his boat with one of these ceremonies last Saturday. Much champagne was dolliped to the four winds but more to the surrounding dock lizards. The fellow's kids got a kick out of it (sans champagne), and a good time was had by all.

Quetzalsailor

I've got a bit of Teak trim in the head sole that was unfinished on the bedded side and varnished on the show side. The end grain was not finished, either. Some substance was spilled in the head. Might be oil or head lube. Having stripped the varnish and cleaned what looks like butyl sealant bedding...

Quetzalsailor

If I understand correctly, you have an external sleeve which is affixed by setscrews pressing against, or maybe into dimples in, the rudderpost. If you're lucky, the sleeve has enough thickness to pry against. If you pry against only the edge that faces you, you may be lucky or you will more likely ...

Quetzalsailor

I'm sure most everyone has broken an 'Easy Out' off in a broken bolt. It's what eventually distinguishes real mechanics from hackers like me. Since the successful outcome only involves preserving the original rudder post and the rest of the boat, you can consider more options. One would be to drill ...

Quetzalsailor

Jim, What percentage of your 14' +/- boom has failed joints? Can you see whether the joints are T & G or splined? Maybe something other than straight through? I had failed joints on my Flying Dutchman mast. Wall thickness is about 3/8". Failure was only about 2' long in a couple places of a...

Quetzalsailor

The hardest part is starting. I doubt you can work solely from the cockpit side, unless it does not matter much what it looks like from the other side. It would be difficult to make neat straight cuts in the easy portion of the work and clean up the chips, etc. Even more difficult to extend the cuts...

Quetzalsailor

I'd for sure bet that tabbing is intended to be seriously structural. It's what holds the deck down, not just locating the bulkhead. By comparison with a Morgan 27, it's far less wide onto the plywood. By comparison with our NE 38, it's about the same width. Both these boats suffered failed tabbing ...

Quetzalsailor

Turns out that this stuff is made in China. Something new to worry about! We routinely close all the seacocks when we leave the boat for the intervening week, so not a huge worry.

Quetzalsailor

Epiphanes Clear High Gloss Varnish. I've been shying away from the not-quite-varnish wood finishes, like the Cetol, because of the masking. I've been shying away from the urethanes because the subsequent repair is so much harder. It is not satisfying to put in so many hours, aches and dollars and re...

Quetzalsailor

I've had a really tough time getting the brightwork to behave on Q. Using Epiphanes gloss, I'm even following the instructions. I started by trying to patch the least offensive places and wood the worst objects. Both types of area seem to fail prematurely. I continued the next year by wooding more o...

Quetzalsailor

Azek is cellular PVC. That is, it's slightly foamed to save on the cost (and weight) of the PVC. PVC will creep under load and heat, and is variously brittle, depending upon formulation. I specified it for use on a very large porch, southern exposure, on a local yacht club. It mills well (beads and ...

Quetzalsailor

Some of you may have been flummoxed by West Marine, and everybody else, who sell a very limited line of bronze fittings to go along with bronze seacocks and hose barbs. I have just had good, instantaneous, and cheaper than marine success with: "Fittings and More", http://www.fittingsandmor...

Quetzalsailor

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/8402/img0225qn6.th.jpg http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/6461/img0221qu7.th.jpg http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/9310/img0218ht6.th.jpg http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/1774/img0216kr7.th.jpg http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/3907/img0209ze8.th.jpg http://im...

Quetzalsailor

Part of the 'scope creep' occurring around the head rebuild project is the entire 110v system. Apparently, there was an original 110v circuit aboard when the boat was new. It was added to with 12/3 stranded but non-tinned old style marine wire in ungrounded metal boxes and in an unknowledgeable/non-...

Quetzalsailor

I've done the tap fiberglass trick several times with success: a layup of polyester-glass, a plug of filled epoxy in an outsized bore in wood or polyester, tapped neat epoxy too - but that was for the adjusting screws when I made a set of wood harpsichord jacks. I've used the cast around method once...

Quetzalsailor

Setscrews in fiberglass? Or in a bronze sterntube? Easy enough to clean out the fiberglass bore, paste it full of epoxy filled with microfibers, drill and tap. Easy enough to go one size up in the bronze. I've enjoyed epoxying things together (inadvertently); holds entirely too well! And just a smid...

Quetzalsailor

Hooo! I failed to notice that you are in Texas. The place is death for boat plastics, judging by those I saw on our $1000 weekend in Kemah. Even Miami did not seem so bad and it's just as far south. Johnnyboats will be bringing his boat home to Maine from Florida, but I don't know on what schedule.

Quetzalsailor

John, I think you have a little more time than Charlie suggests. Here in Philly, I've left filled WEST exposed for an aggregate of a couple years. I suppose the filler kept the sun away from the epoxy deeper in. I've left neat epoxy coating on wood exposed for an aggregate of about a year. In both c...

Quetzalsailor

I thought mat was used for the first lamina inside the gelcoat to reduce telegraphing and on cold bonding to get a better amount of glass against the previously laid up, rough surface, and the new roving. Otherwise it's just a quick way to get thickness but not so densely fibered as roving would giv...

Quetzalsailor

Wear the gloves. Cheap at your local medical supply. I toss the roller covers, foam and fiber brushes: life's too short. I wipe tools and self where ungloved with lacquer thinner. The thinner is supposed to be bad for you, though; it's transdermal. I have a plethora of stir sticks, some shaped for f...

Quetzalsailor

Yup, my camera's aboard. But, as reported, the vast majority of the head interior still looks unaffected by the hours of work and is not yet photographable.

There are photos of NE 38 heads, including Q's, on the LeComte Owners site which would look very much like mine still looks.

Quetzalsailor

Follows is text already posted on the LeComte Owners Site. Well, I've spent my first full day working on Q this season. The goals are: new throughhulls and seacocks in the head, rebuild all the shabby wood under the head sole, maybe raise the stick by an inch (to get the heel ot of the perennial pon...

Plastic Classic Forum

Search found 1099 matches

Priming Aluminum

Quetzal spring fitout 2008

Wichard eyebolts and eyenuts

Metals in small quantities

Oil soaked

Bronze plumbing fittings source.

Rebuilding the head and lots more behind