The Big Chill !

[yachtsmanbill]

The remainder of the day was spent prepping and painting the switch panels. I am gonna mount the oil pressure and temp gages here with a remote start button as well.
Question... The OEM gages read off the front of the water manifold. I plan on tapping in the capillary tube on the aft end. Is this Kosher? Experts??
Tomorrow, I need to pull and rebed a 3/4" seacock under the V berth. Its not used anymore, but the 3 bolt flange is leaking. About a drip an hour.
Question... do I heat the mushroom and unscrew it before unbolting the flange? I need to save as much of the assembly as possible. ws

[spartonboat1]

Thanks man... read on;
With all the oil changing going on, I pulled the dinghy cradles off to get started on the roof repaire. They had been leaking for years which attacked the coring, and the aft salon bulkhead. Some of the bolts were green from leaking, and 4 out of the 8 broke off with the wrench. They were completely galvanically wasted.
I marked out the spot that I need to remove. Theres about a 2 X 3 foot soft spot (the kidney shaped mark), so I figured that I'll perform a epidermectomy of about 5 X 8 feet to make sure I get all of the offending marrow out! One big piece will be easier to blend back in instead of a bunch of small ones. This needs to get done before the "big chill". Paint will happen in the spring. ws

Ok, here's my chance to ask. Will you use balsa or divinyl cell and how will you bed it?

[yachtsmanbill]

Dang!! What a memory!! All this coring bizness is new to me, so I dont quite know what to expect. As far as I can figure, the core is just under 2 inches.
I think BigBill did some repairs on his and used treated wood to rebuild for added strength. Cant wait for this job ! ws

[sgharford]

Morning Bill. Was perusing your latest pics and noticed your battery switch appears to be mounted like mine – kind of a reverse surface mount. Just thought I would throw out there (since you’ve been working on replacing battery cables) a problem I found with my battery switches which are Guest Heavy Duty 600 cont amp. Both switch housings (port and starboard) were cracked because the front of the housing is curved and not made to have pressure against face. Assume when PO tightened 4 scews holding switch to plywood, it cracked the housing’s on both switches (cracking may have taken place due to fatigue over time). Anyway, two new switches at $150 a pop and ½” long nylon sleeves placed on screws between front of switch and plywood took care of it. It wasn’t obvious just how severely housings were cracked until I looked at terminal side of switch. By the way - your work looks great and appreciate your post, especially with pictures.

[Maynard Rupp]

You do want to use a coring material, Bill. Don't try plywood or whatever. If you use Divinicell, or another closed cell foam, you won't have any rot concerns. The new concern is de-lamination as that foam doesn't absorb water or epoxy. Remember, it is "closed cell". The epoxy sticks to it fine but does not penetrate. Now if some big oaf, (Bubba), jumps up and down on your repaired area it can and will seperate. End grained balsa is the best for bonding and will stay together very well. When Bubba jumps on that section he is working against end grained wood and well absorbed epoxy. Balsa is perfect unless you get water in it. You need to leave the core out in an area surrounding a thru-bolted bracket. If you mount something later, you need to brill a big hole, tape the back, and fill it with epoxy. After it cures you drill the onsize hole through your new epoxy bushing. So, foam is not the answer and balsa is still the preffered coring material.The company is called "Baltech".

[yachtsmanbill]

Yeh man... the switches have 2"+ long screws, but the OEM deal used flat washers under the nuts. The PO painted over the screws and finish washers which made the whole deal look like hell. I only pushed the switches in 1/2" to be able to paint the edge of the wood. Just wait till you see it with the gages mounted... yummy!!! I will take your advice and use discretion when tightening them today!
The starboard switch (house) has a loose post on the back. I can wiggle it and lose the ER lites, but the main seems to crank just fine. Got a link for the new 600 amp switches? I'd appreciate it! ws

[yachtsmanbill]

You do want to use a coring material, Bill. Don't try plywood or whatever. If you use Divinicell, or another closed cell foam, you won't have any rot concerns. The new concern is de-lamination as that foam doesn't absorb water or epoxy. Remember, it is "closed cell". The epoxy sticks to it fine but does not penetrate. Now if some big oaf, (Bubba), jumps up and down on your repaired area it can and will seperate. End grained balsa is the best for bonding and will stay together very well. When Bubba jumps on that section he is working against end grained wood and well absorbed epoxy. Balsa is perfect unless you get water in it. You need to leave the core out in an area surrounding a thru-bolted bracket. If you mount something later, you need to brill a big hole, tape the back, and fill it with epoxy. After it cures you drill the onsize hole through your new epoxy bushing. So, foam is not the answer and balsa is still the preffered coring material.The company is called "Baltech".

Thanks Maynard! I do like the end grain approach when mounted to a mesh backing. I would guess that Hatteras used that to maintain a consistent height for uniformity. Would sure hate to end up with dipsy-doodles in the roof!! ws

[sgharford]

I'm a big fan of defender - they are cheap, carry good quality parts, and don't whack you hard with shipping charges. They are great for special order too - just special ordered the Pompanette Quad base stool you recommended to me in prior post a few months back at 10% off list. Here is link to switch I bought http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|328|51495|299265&id=52351

My chartplotters would go out when I started starboard engine - was the first clue something was amiss as I have new Rolls 8D batteries. Pretty sure broken switch was to blame for large voltage drop. Hope switch also to blame for new windlass easily tripping breaker as well.

[J's Dream]

Bill,

Try these guys.

http://www.themarineconnection.net/index.html

If they can't find a Guest 2304A switch (they have new and ols styles in stock), let me know, and I can drive down buy one for you and ship it. I think they're only $120 there, last time I looked since I am soon to be in need of two for myself.

Jason

[NAN-PO 41]

When I mounted some new equipment to the cored deck last year I drilled the oversize hole with a hole saw and if you are careful you can feel the saw when it contacts the inner skin of fiberglass. You stop there and dig out the balsa core larger than the hole. This gives you a large hole from the top to fill with thickened epoxy that is undercut from the top deck and only the 1/4" hole from the pilot drill to tape over before filling. You can then drill the actual hole for the mounting bolts from the inside using the 1/4" hole for a guide as it is exactly on center of the epoxy. I drilled 1/4" pilot holes from the bottom and then enlarged them from the top after checking hole positions with a template. May sound a little complicated but really easy.
Fred