PeterP Posted October 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 What do people use for tread compound on throughhull to seacock joints? Will regular plumber dope work? PeterP 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hirilonde Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 What do people use for tread compound on throughhull to seacock joints? Will regular plumber dope work? PeterP Yes, or Gasoila or teflon tape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterP Posted October 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Thanks David, never heard of Gasoila but I have tons of dope and tape.PeterP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hirilonde Posted October 9, 2012 Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 Gasoila is used for threads in fuel systems as it does not dissolve from petrol products. At the last marina I worked at we used it for all but potable water systems (used teflon tape there) as it meant not having to stock another type of dope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterP Posted October 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 Thanks, I am relieved that I won't have to use anything "marine". For my potable water (which is non-pressurized to discourage excessive use) I used regular 1/2in PEX - crimp on since the "marine" 3/8in is hard to find and substantially more expensive. I'll look for your Gasoila ( sounds a bit like a gated community Dick Cheney would gravitate to) PeterP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dunsworth Posted January 17, 2013 Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 Peter it has been over three months since we had an up date. I don't want to bug you, but I think about your build at least weekly. Would love to see some updates!! Â Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lathrop Posted January 17, 2013 Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 I dropped in to see Peter and the boat last week and it is coming along nicely. Of course, it is a big project and there is much left to do before it hits the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterP Posted January 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 Scott -you right- where does the time go?! Well, I got a few things done. What I am most proud of is the diesel. Aligning the shaft with the engine is supposed to be the bugbear. I spent a lot of time procrastinating but in the end it all just came together and so well I almost felt -too easy- like the shop gremlins are setting me up for something. Beta engineering was a big help. The shaft coupling and the engine flange are machined to fit together - lip on the coupling & groove on the flange. If they fit together you're centered. And I was -first try. Then it's a question of left/right up/down. Turns out I just needed a couple of turns on the rear engine mounts and she was done to 0.01in recommended tolerance. Unbelievable! Of course we'll never know until she floats - they say that sometime the boat settles in the water funny and throws the alignment out of whack. So the diesel is all in: raw water intake, exhaust line with muffler and a water-lift. PSS dripless all in. All 3/8" bolts torqued up to 35 ftlbs. All I need now is to run the fuel line and return and 12V wiring, main panel hook up and a throttle line. Second picture shows the underside of the cockpit sole with the drain plumbing and my home made discharge tube. The last picture shows the hatch. Looks a bit dull as I have just sanded it - there is a cold front headed this way so I'll move inside and varnish a bit. You can also see the cockpit sole is down and down for good. Not a minute too soon as I was getting sick and tired of climbing in and out of that hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dunsworth Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Thanks Peter, I needed that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterP Posted January 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Glad to help. I can guess how you feel. Can't work on your dream 'cause you're up to your butt in cold and nasty weather for next eon and a half, taxes going up, lottery not coming through -seems like the only bright spot in life is Dolly & Kenny singing Islands in the Stream. If you have a full set of plans( which I doubt somehow) you could work on do-ahead-stuff like rudder, tabernacles, you could make some molding(s) which you're going to need a bunch of. Rip up some laminations for your cabin beams. How about knocking out some rails&stiles for your doors. Laminate your engine beds - oversize,of course- so they can be trimmed and put in the boat when ready. Pour the lead keel maybe? That'll keep you busy for a while. If I sound too clever by half don't take it wrong -I'm way behind schedule myself. We'll get it Scott - one of these days. Cheers PeterP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dunsworth Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Yes your right there are plenty of things I could be doing. But time is my problem at the moment. I have be building a house for a customer ( friend )Â for three months now and have about six weeks left. Slow process without a crew to help, I subbed out the electrical, plumbing and this week the drywall. So that should help get me back to the boat barn sooner. Thankfully the owner wants to do most of the inside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterP Posted January 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Well, at least you making money - that's always good. I'm going to start dipping into my cruising stash soon. Scary thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dunsworth Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Peter if you still have your shaft log drilling jig and bit, I would like to borrow it when my time comes. Going to start my little Beta next weekend and let her run for an hour, its now been 7 months since I started her. I just feel better running her a few times a year. She wasn't new like yours, she had 160 hours on her. I hook her up to my tractor fuel system which has a filter and water separator. Â Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterP Posted January 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Scott, that stuff got recycled. The guiding block was made out of couple 2x4s screwed together - dadoed in the centre to guide the bar. Bottom trimmed off to the angle of the shaft inclination. The bar is a piece of 3/4" black pipe with two 1/4" holes tapped in the end- opposite each other- to take two 1/4" bolts - with heads cut off and sharpened to give good shearing action. Screwing those in and out fine tunes the bore diameter. In all honesty I spent way too much time on that. Saved a buck on epoxy and wasted hours on labour. If I were to do it again I would rough out the bore the quick and dirty way -slide the stern tube in and get it lined up real good then back fill the gap with epoxy. Nobody will ever know how slick your bore turned out. Glad you mention cranking up your diesel. I was going to drop you a line -guy on ebay has a listing for a two stick engine control ( 10 -WAY below regular price). I am going to order mine today and I wondered if your engine package came with that stuff or not. Also- I don't know if you want to let that engine just idle for an hour without any load on it. Bad for diesels.PetrP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dunsworth Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 I don't think I need anything for my 20, everything came with her all the way down to the prop. An hour is an exaggeration, it usually is about 30 minutes of various rpms with about half that time at just above idle. It always amazes me how easy the system bleeds and she starts up, then how smooth she runs even at idle. The first time I ran it I noticed she ran just a whee bit on the warm side, so took the heat exchanger apart and 1/3 of the copper tubes were plugged up. I cleaned those up and that brought her back in line on temp. Very simple system to clean and maintain. So once shes in service Ill keep that as part of routine maintenance. I think I'll install two fresh water strainers on separate sea-cocks, where I can switch from one to the other on the fly in case one sucks up a plastic chunk, seaweed or something. I know thats another hole in the bottom but worth the risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterP Posted June 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2013 Just a quick update - mostly for Howard, since it is about the rudder. As per our discussion - I bumped up the thickness on the blade to 2" finished. I like it really well. It produced a much smoother curve with virtually no flat spot on the board. The black stuff on the rudder box is carbon/kevlar hybrid cloth. One of those things that did not quite worked out. It is pure cosmetics, by the way - the kevlar being green - I had hoped that it would pick up my green trim paint and give the boat that whiff of low key agression. In the end it all turned solid black when wetted out. As for the speed factor I am still hoping when one of those pesky twenty sixers shows up it will provide a nice touch when I show 'em my high tech tail. The hardware is custom/home made. Half in. pintles are commercially available but gudgeons for 4in and 6in box would be custom (meaning MONEY). My metal working skills are not that great but I get by. I can cut, bend, drill and and clean up - pro did the welding - very reasonable. Installing a depth sounder and more painting is next. PeterP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 Peter: Â Looks perfect. Is that mahogany? Also looks like you added the cheeks to the rudder box, which would explain the need for 4 and 6 inch gudgeons. Â Where did you find the transom half of the gudgeon / pintle equation? Do those come pre-drilled? If so, what is the distance, center to center for the mounting holes? (I'd like to pre-drill and backfill the mounting holes while the transom is still flat). Â There are two similar versions of my existing boat. One is a 17, the other a 15. The 15 has a kick up rudder similar in operation, at least, to these designs. The only complaint is once it is up, you lose most of your ability to steer. If left far enough in the water to maintain steerage, the "barn door" affect of the balance point being shifted so far aft makes steering difficult, or so they say. I've never tried one and have never tried to steer my Spindrift with the rudder up. Â The 17' version gets it's shallow water ability by being a one piece rudder that slides vertically up and down on a rod. Fully up, the rudder still has the bottom half in the water and in the same profile and balance point, just less of it. You never lose full steerage, nor does the balance point change. The trade off here is it never fully retracts out of the water. The tip would always hang down about as deep as the keel. Â I may wind up building both........the kick up and solid (to the same profile) and let trial and error sort it out. The only alteration to the boat for the two choices is you need three of the transom gudgeons to mount the one piece. Â If you are ready to install the depth finder, you may be close to floating? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterP Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 I had a feeling you'd like it. The rudder blade is white oak -ripped, flipped, re-glued- to approximate a quarter sawn board. I can't afford mahogany so my go to look alike is sapelle which I get locally for a decent price. That's the dark strips in the (ash)tiller. The stainless is 316 grade from on line metals. Not cheap but what was my alternative in terms of sizing components, availability, convenience of being on one site, one shipping charge and so forth? The gudgeon box is 3x1/4in square tube/box channel, cut& drilled. You'll need a drill press and set of SHARP bits if you're contemplating making your own. The box cheeks I added after consulting Graham and Allan. You can't beat thickness for increasing stiffness. Howard, next time you are perusing you boat plans, do something for your own ease of mind: make a cut out of your rudder blade (to scale) and pretend it is a pivoted board -leading edge level with the lowest point of your keel. Draw the water line on it. Now do it with the board going vertical to the same depth. Draw another water line. Compare the areas. On my 28 I can actually put more wood in the water with a pivoting board. Yes, the geometry is changed, laminar flow not ideal but when you're scraping bottom, theoretical contemplations of ideal fluid flow properties are usually the first to go. Seriously- how much super shallow water sailing are you thinking about doing? The way it happens with me is I screw up -get the boards up super quick and get out of there ASAP. Last, don't laugh -pivoting boards scull like demons. The depth sounder - I had originally planned to put it under the cockpit sole but then I started to worry about getting interference from the alternator so the next best place is under the galley sink and there I have to run more plumbing before I can get on with more painting. Never a dull moment... Cheers PeterP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 I should have known there was some type of easy, yet not apparent, way to do those. BTW, if you are not entirely happy with those, and think you can do better next time, those would be good enough for me.  If happy with them as is, but you are looking to market your metal scraps, and think you can do better next time...........  What did you use to glue the white oak? Resorcinol? Rumor has it white oak and epoxy are verboten. I presume you are going to leave that bright?  You are about far enough along I may need to visit again. By now, there would be a lot to see (that is still visible before the paint goes on) and notes to take. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterP Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 You wish! I have over three weeks in the wood work and metal work in this thing and it's still not done. It's obviously not a high end production job but it'll work for this guy. If you are ever out this way swing by - I can let you have a good chunk of that square tubing - you may get what you need out of it. I also have a brand new solar vent and a through hull I am letting go for half price that you maybe able to use. I still have a fair way to go: wiring, the whole center board assembly, lead keel, masts/sails, paint/varnish -PeterP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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