Plastic Classic Forum

CharlieJ

On his web site, James Baldwin ( The Triton Atom) just posted a list of 65 small boats, to be considered for blue water. You might find it interesting-

http://www.atomvoyages.com/articles/boatlist.htm

CharlieJ

Yeah, well. We got a gooseneck from Bristol Bronze and while it was a bit rough, it was very functional and is still in use 3 years later. On the other hand, I tried and tried to get something from Port Townsend Foundry and even after several phone calls and repeated emails with pictures, I could no...

CharlieJ

Diesel, kerosene, mineral spirits- pretty much same deal with any of them. All will work, all are available easily. By the way #218- lemon juice will clean regular tarnish off of bronze quite nicely. My wife has in the past just cut a lemon in half and used it to polish bronze. Wash it afterwards of...

CharlieJ

Budget? What's a budget? You get the boat, you start on it, and you do whatever is required to finish it.

Budget doesn't enter into the picture.

CharlieJ

..i guess one of the reasons why the authorities gave permission for these fiberglass tanks could be because most people here drinks and cooks with commercial distilled water... I don't know that that is necessarily true. I know it's not for most of the people I know who sail or short term cruise. ...

CharlieJ

only took off what I had to to get a smooth surface and used a spray gun.

Finished with 220, wiped with acetone and IMMEDIATELY shot the primer. You can't wait a day- otherwise the bare aluminum will oxidize again.

Then I sprayed the finish coats

CharlieJ

Online Metals-

www.onlinemetals.com

Ship quickly, have reasonable costs and will cut to size for you if you need that done.in

CharlieJ

I've had good usage from a zinc chromate primer , then a polyurethane top coat. Did one mast that is still looking good 8 years later. And that's sailing salt water.

CharlieJ

Now that's interesting. I'm currently doing some rigging work on a Pearson Vanguard ( Rhodes design) at House of Boats. Also supervising the coordination of the painters, wood work guys and glass guys on the same boat, since I'm much closer than the owner is. I was down there yesterday. John has a r...

CharlieJ

Yeah- that's a shift from the Gougeon's. Years ago when I built my Cross 35, the first Boatbuilding with epoxy book they published, way back in the early 70s, had details on building fuel and water tanks with epoxy. I did so then- built a diesel tank and a water tank using plywood, glass and epoxy. ...

CharlieJ

how about this one? Maltese Falcon ( 289 feet) T-boned in SF bay by a Nordica 40

Here's the thread on CSBB-

http://www.cs-bb.com/forums/CSBB/index.cgi?read=133578

CharlieJ

ROFL- Glad Hirilondë answered you. Look at my name and location. What do I know about cold weather-grin

CharlieJ

One small point. Although they do the same thing and work the same way, most users of the electric DA's such as the PC 7335 refer to them as ROS machines, for "Random Orbit Sanders" and the air driven ones as DA's, for "Dual Action" This in the furniture refinishing and cabinet m...

CharlieJ

either will work, provided you grind the surface well. Lets clear something up here. There really is no such thing as "fiberglass resin" Fiberglass is the glass strands that make up either the matt, or cloth, or roving that you apply resin to. Resin can be one of several things, the most c...

CharlieJ

Holy Crap!!!

Good thing it wasn't nicely painted over.

CharlieJ

Congrats. And now perhaps you should drop into SailFar. There are at least three Ariel owners there including the site owner who lives on one.

http://sailfar.net/

CharlieJ

First, thanks to those of you who pm'd me and pm'd Rachel ABOUT us. Your thoughts were deeply appreciated. When the storm was still threatening to centerpunch us here in Port Lavaca, we boarded up the house, shop and studio, took Tehani out into a small bay off Matagorda Bay, stripped her down of ev...

CharlieJ

You guys are missing the boat on spreaders if you aren't saving the blank credit cards that come with the pleas to open a new account. I have a stack about 4 inches tall and they make GREAT spreaders. You can also cut curvesin the corners and use as fillet tools, then just pitch the card- there'll b...

CharlieJ

I watched a crew in a large yard over in Galveston last spring glassing a 2 .5 million dollar tour boat. They were applying matt to the exterior of the pilot house, using a 5 gallon bucket of 5200 spread with toothed spreaders, then rolled in with ridged metal rollers. The base surface was aluminum,...

CharlieJ

Hmmm- I guess I'd better go check out my Gusher 10. It still works fine when I test it, but I haven't tried to disassemble it in a long time.

Sounds like a good project to do

CharlieJ

By the way Zach- Thanks for the tip. I am repairing a broken rub rail on a dinghy for a customer and yesterday laid up the new glass over the rolled edge. Allowed the excess to run well past the edge so I could cut it flush. I tried out a cutting disc in my angle grinder- SLICK!! Took mere seconds t...

CharlieJ

I'd glue the teak down, spacing it out as you want it and holding it down with screws through washers in the gaps between the strips. Once the epoxy cures, pull the screws and fill the gaps with epoxy /graphite mix, or your poly in black, which ever. No need to screw and plug through the strips. One...

CharlieJ

Yep- I have two or three old "knock-about" chisels I keep for just that sort of jobs.One smaller and one larger one.

I've cut a good bit of tabbing using those. Just use the belt sander to put a rough edge back on quickly ( DON'T overheat it!!!)

CharlieJ

Several people around here have purchased electric compressors with the "oil-less" setup on the compressor. I dove with one and my Hookah hoses- works just fine for shallow work. I don't know if it would support you deeper than 10 or 12 feet, or support two divers like my Brownies Third Lu...

CharlieJ

probably not- it's a water based product. I really don't know but next I'm in the Sherwin Williams place I'll for sure ask.

They won't have any idea of course, but I'll try.

CharlieJ

Rachel- third paragraph down on the referenced site- here's a cut and paste- "PERMA-WHITE® is made from PREMIUM LATEX ACRYLIC RESINS ( emphasis mine-CJ) to produce a washable, blister-proof, and stain-resistant finish. It is self-priming and will adhere to any sound surface. It bonds to existin...

CharlieJ

Yep- another Acrylic latex. I've been trumpeting those for years now. That's all I've used on boat interiors for at least 20 years now, both our own boats and customer boats.

CharlieJ

I don't know if this is the Zinsser primer you mean, but the Gougeons used it in a test of painting over epoxy and liked it. http://www.westsystem.com/ewmag/15/pdf/primertest.pdf Also, Laura attended a class recently with a paint rep (NOT from Zinsser) who spoke highly of the Zinsser Bulls-eye 1-2-3...

CharlieJ

if the trasnsducer has to come out, just bang it with a hammer on the side. Most of the time it'll just pop off, but if it breaks so what? You're replacing it anyway cause something doesn't work.- grin. Then flatten the area and put the new one on. I've used the PVC pipe and suspended transducer. Ha...

CharlieJ

We use a piece of the foil covered roof insulation. The kind used under metal roofs. It's about 1/4 inch thick. We cut it to fit the top of the ice box and have it in two pieces so when we reach in we only lift the side needed. Makes a HUGE difference. We started with a space blanket, but they get c...

CharlieJ

An in hull transducer is glued to the inside of the fiberglass hull, and shoots through that hull. Solid glass fiber is transparent ( for all intents) to the RF used for sounders. The normal adhesion recommended by manufacturers is epoxy. I've called several and asked. You must make sure there is NO...

CharlieJ

I've had two of the Makita 9.something volt drills for years- pounded them unmercifully in the woodshop. But the batteries are ridiculous to replace. So I soldered a pair of wires to the clips inside, about 10 feet long and put a cigarette lighter plug on the other end. Now the drill lives aboard th...

CharlieJ

From my perspective, after 28 years in the furniture refinishing business, and quite a few years doing boats, I'd let the wrinkled stuff dry WELL, then sand it. Scraping might work ok, but you do run the risk of scraping too far on something like that. It's different than taking off a drip or run. P...

CharlieJ

I'm with you on that one Rachel- that could cause others to have serious problems.

CharlieJ

Just as a point of fact here. We recently tried out some Rustoleum Spar varnish on a boat that will be kept stored inside. We've been sailing it since and that stuff is going away after less than three weeks exposure to the Texas sun. I never expected it to last like Z-Spar 2015, but jeez- under thr...

CharlieJ

When I was towing an inflatable regularly, I made up a tow bridle with large loops at each end. Those loops had plastic hose on them for chafe protection. The loops fit around the stern of the dinghy where the tubes extended past the transom. The lines then ran alongside the dinghy and through the b...

CharlieJ

Zach- I showed that to Laura- she IMMEDIATELY stated LOUDLY- "There ain't no way we're chopping up Tehani's transom for a damned MOTOR" Hirilonde- The idea was to put a small bilge pump in the bottom , flush the engine with fresh water, then pump the bag dry- water pressure would hold it a...

CharlieJ

Yep- it is for us, and in our marina we don't have a huge barnacle problem since the city storm drains exit there. We get regular ( ??? IF and when it rains) influxes of fresh water, which stops the barnacle growth. But the slime and weed doesn't seem to slow at all. So I scrub the lower unit regula...

CharlieJ

Now you need to figure some antifouling on the lower unit. We bought some special spray anti fouling for lower units from Pettit and it sucks. I had grass growing on the lower unit within two weeks. I don't know what to use but you need something and regular antifouling can react (copper/aluminum) a...

CharlieJ

here's another nit picking point- it's a "Cutless" bearing- got nothing to do with swords.

And yeah, I know most people use Cutlass, but that isn't correct.

Having picked the nits, I will add I totally agree with Tim. It's been working WELL for years- why change?

CharlieJ

two or three points here. Set it up so the ice doesn't sit on the bottom. In ours we set the ice on a shelf that is drink can height off the bottom. Ice sitting in water goes away MUCH faster. Make the lids in two pieces. We have a larger side and a smallish lid. We only open the bigger side to put ...

CharlieJ

we used foam insulation from the home use market. It's foil both sides urethane foam, 3/4 inch thick. We staved the hull sides, fit the foam between the staves and then overlaid that with ceilings. We used varnished ash. Somewhere on here is some pictures of Tehani showing the ceilings.

CharlieJ

We are looking quite seriously at an anchor light from them. Seems like a good place to do business.

CharlieJ

Pulverized Limestone makes an excellent, smooth, strong filler for epoxies. As hard as silica and works just about the same, but makes a smoother fillet.

JUST as hard to sand if it's cured for a while.

CharlieJ

I'd like to add here- my nylon rode is spliced to the chain also. There is no swivel anywhere in my rodes. ONE shackle, between chain and anchor. Over the years I've been extremely happy with the back splice nylon rode to chain- never seen ANY chafe there since the back splice is so tight nothing mo...

CharlieJ

Rachel- that thread seems like years ago-grin

CharlieJ

also- most auto parts stores sell plastic squeegees, in assorted sizes. I often use them, and wash 'em down afterwards- or not- often they'll bend and pop the epoxy back off. If the edge gets a bit rough, a smoothing on some 150 grit works fine. When I'm fiberglassing a hull I'm building, the squeeg...

CharlieJ

From a LONG time ago ex-machinest, I agree- he pretty well nailed it.

CharlieJ

Look for Ipe. It comes very close to matching teak. I buy it as decking boards.

CharlieJ

ROFL- yep- my wife of 16 years. She is 22 years younger than I am though. About her moving up north? She HATES cold weather. Even here on the Texas coast she thinks we should have moved further south- hey- it gets into the low 40s here wintertimes-grin And since she's now working 4 tens each week, I...

Plastic Classic Forum

Search found 641 matches

Charlie, Laura and Tehani dealing with Ike