Plastic Classic Forum

A standard guitar tuner will only tell you 5 notes: A, B, D, E, and G. A more expensive Chromatic tuner will show you any notes, including half-steps, but I know from experience that most have trouble with lower notes. My Boss Chromatic tuner (that cost around $80 or $90) reads the lower strings on ...

Well, I'm calling them winches because they're winch-shaped and you wind the sheets and halyards on them, but they're not actually geared, and have no real mechanical advantage to them. "Winch" is just a lot easier to say than "ratcheting drum".

Thanks for the input. You make it sound like I'm probably on the right track for most of it. As for my intentions/expectations, once she's swimming probably 90% of her life will be daysails where we might never even go into the cabin except to stow or retrieve something. For the occasional week-end ...

Well, being as motivated and full of gumption as a half-buried rock, in the months since I brought the Cal-20 home, about all I've accomplished is to get the cushions and crates of stuff out of the boat, and get the biggest of the rain leaks plugged. I thought I'd post some 'before' pictures and see...

I'm planing on doing this project on my Cal, but it'll obviously be a smaller issue. One thing I've noticed on bikes (a lot of sportbikes have been goin to aftermarket LED turn signals & tail lights) is that many people don't realize that, unlike an incandescent, the LED actually cares which end...

It looks beautiful, but are you using solid-cored wire to get that nice "Schematic" look? It's one of those things that runs a .0001% chance of causing a problem, but I've always been really leery of using solid wire instead of stranded on anything that moves more than a house. Not that th...

Looks like a hopeful project on a lovely hopeful boat!

I free up a lot of frozen fittings like that at work. (I'm a motorcycle mechanic) The gear puller is the right tool; put it on, get it spring-loaded tight, and hit the bolt of the tool with a small (3 lb.?) sledge. If you can get a small propane torch to the fitting without damaging what's around it...

Not an expert in marine electgrical, but my gut instinct would be that the only possible problem to using a wood panel would be if it got wet and provided a potential source of path to ground for the hot leads. Of course, any electrical installation would presumably be located in order to minimize e...

Here's a basic idea of how I'd wire your circuit. Again, I'm ignorant of ABYC standards, but the layout is pretty basic. http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/rr78/Bikermouse613/Generic%20stuff/StarterSchematic.jpg This arrangement works well if you want to mount the fuse block for all your systems clo...

Not sure what the starter draw on your outboard would be, but assuming it's similar to a motorcycle would put it at around 100ADC at most, unless something is wrong. If you have a service manual or can talk to your local shop, they can probably tell you how big a draw you have. You can get automotiv...

I noticed the same problem and worry on my Cal. I had been planning on replacing all the other plastic thru-hulls with "real" thru-hulls and seacocks with wooden plugs attached. Problem with the plastic transducer housing, though, is that it seems that a) unless the entire transducer housi...