Plastic Classic Forum

Maine Sail

I suspect a lot has to do with your level of interior moisture, wet bilge etc.. I have an 8 year old Kenwood car stereo that has zero rust inside it or on the outside of it. http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/image/91743105.jpg I live only 30 yards from the ocean so I doubt my house and work shop se...

Maine Sail

With the exception of an alt being ignition protected, which on some is nothing more than a piece of high temp felt sealing brushes from sparks, I have never seen a modern auto alternator that was not sufficiently prepared for the marine environment in an enclosed engine space inside a cabin. Keep i...

Maine Sail

1) Should the pump go before or after the filter? This all depends upon which polishing filter you chose and there are many. I chose a Racor 900MA and Racor wants to see the pump on the vacuum side for the best performance of water extraction. 2) What is the best kind of filter to use? They will al...

Maine Sail

Just ordered some copper bar stock 3/4" wide X 3/16" thick from McMaster Carr item #8964K241. I then lined it up and drilled it in my drill press. I then coated it with NoOxiD terminal grease to prevent corrosion. Really wish Blue Seas would just make these in a tin plated version.

Maine Sail

If it "eventually dried out" then it was either not butyl or a very low quality product calling itself butyl tape. There are a number of low quality products out there mistaken for butyl or even called butyl tape by some re-sellers. I am sure it "dries" to some extent but not to ...

Maine Sail

I have had dripless or PSS seals on many boats as well as traditional stuffing boxes. I worked on a 55 foot sport fisher that had over 5k hours on two PSS seals with zero issues. My buddy Jerry owns a 100+ foot "yacht" (how the other half lives) and it has two huge 16 cyl Cats and two PSS ...

Maine Sail

Hey Maine Sail, I see your saw table extension with the router mounted up under ... i made something similar myself many years ago ... but what is the other piece of beige coloured equipment hanging there? Looks like it could be a second router??? I've tried to 'reason" it in my mind but I see...

Maine Sail

Got one and love it!!! Great products. I also love my Bench Dog router table extension wing for my table saw. Saves shop space...

Maine Sail

Ok, I think that's something I can explain to my helping friend so that he can see why it's the better way. Thank you for clearing that up. Denise Wiring direct to the battery is not advised as it can be a safety issue. What if the stater motor were to fail and you had no way to isolate it? You cou...

Maine Sail

Barred Islands? The second photo is throwing me and looks more like the outer island at Seal Bay...

Maine Sail

My explanation clearly was not very good.

Notice how the current is now forced through the entire bank with ground and positive on opposite sides. This forces even discharges and charges of the entire bank.

Maine Sail

Maine Sail, If I understand you on this, I shouldn't go to the positive house bank busbar with the ACR, but rather directly to the bank itself? Yes the shortest path will be the most efficient with less chance of voltage drop and it will limit the amount of connections. It's not that I'm trying to ...

Maine Sail

Batt charger should go to the POS buss bar, same as alt, and the ACR should be BETWEEN the house and reserve banks, you have it between the batt charger and start bank... It is a good idea to fuse the charger at the POS buss as well as the alt. Here's how I laid it out on my own boat. http://www.pba...

Maine Sail

Looks good though you can save some money on battery cables by jumping the neg from one 6V side to the other for "parallel" then going to the gnd buss. The shorter the runs for "parallel" the better. The alternator would be best served by going direct to the house bank, not the s...

Maine Sail

Anyone know what kind of transducer the old Datamarine units used? Mine works, but the display is small and my eyes are getting older. I'd love to swap it out and put in a display with larger numerals. Mostly they used Airmar transducers with coax cable and RCA male connectors on the ends. I think ...

Maine Sail

Great discussion and so timely for me. I have a set of 5 season old batteries that just don't hold much of a charge now. I run a start battery and 4 6 volt Group 24s. Charged off a stock universal alternator and a combiner. Group 24 is a 12V size designation. Are you sure they are 6V? If they are 6...

Maine Sail

If it's a 200kHz transducer it will likely work with Raymarine and some others that are 200kHz. The center conductor of the coax cable is hot and the shield becomes ground. To confuse everyone the new Airmar transducers are often three wire; hot, ground and shield. When using an old coax transducer ...

Maine Sail

You MAY find that 225 Ah's is enough. As i mentioned do an accurate energy budget or get a battery monitor. A 50 amp alt may be fine so long as you are not totally depleting your bank. Our own boat had a stock 50A alt running on her for 2982 engine hours and many, many thousands of hours of solar ch...

Maine Sail

.I want to install the longest lasting , most durable ,most cost affective there is.how many should I have ? Longest Lasting: Gells = Most Expensive: Theoretically gell batteries can last for a very long while BUT they must be charged correctly and they like to be at or near 100% SOC (state of char...

Maine Sail

To Maine Sail: Thanks for the great explanation... butyl it will be for me. A couple questions. 1. You said when tightening "Tighten, let sit, tighten, let sit etc. etc.. ". Can you elaborate on the duration of the "let sit" intervals... 5 minutes? an hour? What is the purpose? ...

Maine Sail

A wire wheel on a Dremel should work. Try the Dremel Scotch Brite wheels if they will fit in the frame.. http://www.dremel.com/en-us/AttachmentsAndAccessories/Pages/CategoryProducts.aspx?catid=42&catname=Finishing+Abrasive+Buffs http://mdm.boschwebservices.com/MDMCache/English%20%5BUS%5D/t06/00...

Maine Sail

I am wondering if that is the same stuff that we used to install windshields with? We used the black, came in a windshield kit long roll and very sticky like you said. I never looked at the product information only windshield kit. Now of course we (They) use Urethane. Dan Yes, it is basically the s...

Maine Sail

I personally don't like to let any water get under the fitting and sit there. In Maine we have to deal with freeze thaw cycles so I prefer to bed the entire bottom of the fitting. No water under it no freeze/thaw, expansion/contraction. Also salt water under sitting stagnant under a stainless fittin...

Maine Sail

... Lots of good advice in this thread. ... Can Butyl be safely used on Thru-hulls below the water line? ... I have lots of black sheet Butyl available to me, but you advise against using black. I'm curious ... WHY NOT? Buytl "sheet" rubber is not the same as butyl tape. Butyl tape is ten...

Maine Sail

Personally I prefer butyl tape over most of the caulk type products but I do like Sika 295UV and 291 LOT and really liked the old 3M101 polysulfide but it is no longer available. A few months ago I was in the barn staring at a cleat, and a small scrap of clear Lexan, hmmmm...... A drill, counter sin...

Maine Sail

Great shot Tim!!

Maine Sail

On the later Pearson's 31-2, 33-2 & 36-2 I know Pearson used some rather questionable hollow aluminum cleats. I know of one 36-2 that broke one and have heard of a few others. Below is a pic I took of a 36-2 bow cleat. If I owned one of these boats my first order of business would be cleat repla...

Maine Sail

Good stuff Ryan. I agree with all of the modifications. My only question would be: How does he charge the start battery while cruising if the alternator goes to the house? I suppose he could switch the battery switch to both and get some charge that way. You can simply add a digital Echo Charger or...

Maine Sail

In the fall of 2003 I replaced the teak eyebrow trim above the ports on the side of the coach roof of my Sabre and bedded them with Dolphinite bedding compound after giving them 3 coats of varnish on the underside. I have been very satisfied using Dolphinite and if I ever have to remove the eyebrow...

Maine Sail

A couple of thoughts. Yes you CAN connect directly to your batteries but the + cable should really be fused as close to the battery as possible. Not so much to protect the inverter but the cable from chafe and the possibility of a dead short and resulting boat fire. As for charging small phone batte...

Maine Sail

IMHO it's bunk, if a sander is used by anyone other than a total dunce. I suppose, if you held a high RPM rotary sander in one spot for a long while you could heat the substrate to a dangerous temp that may afffect some pockets of uncured resin, but anyone with half a wit knows not to do this. A dar...

Maine Sail

The aft reef line ideally should do two things. 1- Act as an outhaul. 2- Hold the leech reef cringle close to the boom so you can efficiently shape your sail. You can do all this with one line if you run it through the leech reef cringle from the aft block then nearly straight down down to a spot ju...

Maine Sail

Since the only time I almost sunk a boat was when the sink drain hose slipped off the thru hul l(no sillcock) while heeled over, j guess I'll go with\ the sillcocks. Randy, As a point of reference for your project sillcocks are used to pass through the outside walls of buildings and are generally f...

Maine Sail

I have been using a Flexcharge PV7 for the last four years and the PO's used it for over five years while on a five year cruise. It does not over charge the batteries and has worked & performed flawlessly. While not a fancy MPPT controller, it works extremely well for the $60.00 they charge. I j...

Maine Sail

If they are below the waterline the ABYC wants seacocks on them. As an individual boat owner you don't have to restore your boat to ABYC standards if you don't want to. That being said it is generally good practice to have a seacock at any below waterline location. It is also a good practice to inst...

Maine Sail

Bluenose wrote:http://www.lackeysailing.com/circe/circe.html

Doh' kept thinking of her as Circe....... I must have daim bramage...

Maine Sail

I was in the yard today when I see from a distance a trailer with a BEAUTIFUL Triton on it. Even from across the yard I can see Tim's logo. I wander over and ooogle for a while and admire the bright work and restoration but I don't recognize the vessel? The name was Rookie but I don't recall seeing ...

Maine Sail

By the way, when I talk about an internal strainer, this is what I mean. This is mine, and I wouldn't use anything less than this. Note also the easy access, which is just as critical, I think. http://www.triton381.com/images/exhaust1.JPG Also note that Tim is using the correct type of sweeping elb...

Maine Sail

You might consider using the Groco round style with holes rather than slots or none at all. Hamilton has one that opens which is a very good idea. These have much less propensity to pick up eel grass: http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/browse.cfm/strainer-round-hinged-pl-brz-138280/4,20121.html http://...

Maine Sail

Welcome to the club. I have had three Balmar regulator failures and will no longer use them because I can't trust them. They advise putting them outside the engine compartment but then give you a harness that will not reach. My second and third were outside the engine compartment yet still failed. T...

Maine Sail

Could be a number of things. Here are some thoughts that pop to mind. 1- Some boats have a seacock/valve on the exhaust outlet to prevent following seas. This may be closed. 2- Bad hose collapsing under suction. This happens sometimes with wire reinforced hose where the inner membrane breaks free an...

Maine Sail

Sorry so late to the thread. If the old name was there a while, and on gel coat, you have two options: #1 Time #2 UV But both need to work together so the real option is time+UV=blended If they wore not there for long they can sometimes be buffed & blended but if they were, not so much.. Please ...

Maine Sail

My first sea kayak was a Valley Nordkap. Sweet boat and fast too... I like the Anas better but when I bought my Valley they only imported two models.. Nice plastic..

Maine Sail

H&H is a joke. I have abandoned them forever for reasons that I've documented elsewhere in detail. That is exactly how I feel I just did not want to get into it. Glad you said it Tim! As Tim said, Donovan/ Hamilton is excellent and price is fair. I forgot about Accutech but never used them for ...

Maine Sail

I stopped using H&H and switched to New England Propeller. Not that H&H is bad but they are just darn expensive and can have horrible turn around times. Ron at NE Prop does amazing work and trues every shaft that leaves his shop to .001-.002. His prices are better too. I would not personally...

Maine Sail

The blade is easy, it's brand new and only ripped a few board feet of teak in that photo. The old blade had been ripping some southern yellow pine and was toast.. The barn is fairly new too, only about four years old. As for the cleanliness I learned a long time ago to stop 15 minutes early to clean...

Maine Sail

I think by the time you get done all the prep work the cost of the paint will be a limited concern. You'll likely spend more on sand paper and misc products than you would for a quality two part paint anyway. If I was stripping and painting any exterior portions of my boat, and I have, I would use a...

Maine Sail

For those of us with small shops and limited floor space I wanted to let you know about a router table I just recently found and purchased. My old home made router table was on its last legs and after a little research I discovered Bench Dog Tools. For anyone who has a "contractor" type ta...

Maine Sail

I was very un-happy to hear of this and bought a few tubes of 101 from Hamilton in honor of an old friend. I always questioned Thiokol being the sole supplier as I found 3M 101 and LifeCalk to be somewhat different in properties such as thickness, smell and resistance to yellowing but each manufactu...

Maine Sail

Maine Sail I agree the flanged adaptors make sense all around. Based on a check of prices on Jamestown Dist. site the price is not much different than going with the less expensive Groco flanged seacock - 3/4" for $56 adaptor & ball valve vs $44 for the seacock in one. But at the beginning...

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