52.1/2ft Ex Admiralty Harbour Launch

[colnerov]

Hi, excellent. A good touch with lining the all screw head slots the same way, a common proper coachbuilding practice. Did you choose slot head screws on purpose instead of cross head? Or is it still common practice to use slot head on boats? It must make the use of power screwdrivers a delicate art.

Colin

[norniron]

Great update, good to see the progress!

[dodgerover]

Loads of progress, are you living on board while you work on it?

[Frankenhealey]

Good to see an update. Trouble is now we've go to wait for the next. I love this thread.

[dikkehemaworst]

Its like reading chinese , havent got s clue wat it's on about, .but I'm loving it! And it has an engine , so its bookmarked. Lovely job , great skills

[Smiler]

Hooray! Updates! Fantastic reading as ever. Really does put my 'projects' to shame.

[Morris63]

I've just sat and read through the lot - flip me you've done some absolutely cracking work on her.

I'd go round the twist trying to work out all the different angles needed where each different piece of wood intersects with another; I have enough trouble just cutting a straight line through a piece of 2" x 1"

Total and utter legend.

I also now have an urge for a feck off great spotlight - not that I have a use for one at all!
Steve

[coalnotdole]

Aug 9, 2015 20:47:37 GMT dodgerover said:

Loads of progress, are you living on board while you work on it?

I think It's been continually occupied since it was first bought! Even when the facilitys were bit "basic" ...!

Cheers for all the comments.

[ProjectBobcat]

Wow, great work! I know nothing about boats so it's really interesting to see the techniques you're using.

[bazzateer]

Love this!

[fastblatt]

Super update thanks. You have great skills.

[qwerty]

Aug 11, 2015 9:33:05 GMT ProjectBobcat said:

Wow, great work! I know nothing about boats so it's really interesting to see the techniques you're using.

My thoughts exactly. Really enjoy this thread despite not having a scooby doo about boats.

[coalnotdole]

Bit of an overdue update this one so i'll split it into a couple of posts...
This shows progress on making some of the replacement fittings to go on the new aluminium hatches - I'm going to re-use the old hinges but the rest will be made out of stainless steel.
These are the brackets that hold the hatches open by clipping to the retaining stunchions shown in earlier posts



Original steel bracket at bottom and the first two stages of making the stainless replacements:





Marked and drilled:





Cut using a .8mm ultra thin disc on the angle grinder:





Ground to shape with the grinder:





Clamped against a piece of alloy as a former ready for heating with oxy acetylene:





After heating and hammering to shape:





Cleaned up with a flap disc and marked out for the retaining pin hole:





Chain drilling using a 3mm drillbit:





Breaking out the unwanted bits with a cold chisel:





Ready to tediously hand file to shape - theres five of these in total:



These have since been finished and are ready to fit to the hatches - it might not look a lot but theres actually three days work and £60 of stainless in these five brackets!

Cheers
Dave

[coalnotdole]

This updates a bit poorly represented photographically - inevitably when I'm in the middle of doing something i forget to take pictures so you end up with a series of before and afters!
I completed the top of the transom a while back and am finally in a position to fit the fairleads I bought to go on top of it about 5 years ago, the originals were fabricated steel and got binned as they were beyond redemption and not very nice to begin with.
This pair of bronze ones came from Beaulieu boat jumble for £100 the pair i think.
Because they're mounted on the top of the transom fastening them down is a bit interesting - screws wouldnt really be man enough so i've used barrel bolts/gallery bolts which should hopefully be explained by the photos - this is the first time ive ever used these and getting the two drillings to line up is quite a task!

Barrel Bolt made on my old myford out of scrap bronze prop shaft:




Showing the bolts fitted to a fairlead:




These are Lifeboat fairleads and are pretty unique in the way they open and lockshut:




Fitted - in the end i used large admiralty brass screws in place of the center bolt as it seemed overkill to use three bolts when two would do. the two gallerys you can see the barrel nuts in are blind holes so don't go right through the transom and have since been plugged with wooden dowels so are now invisible:




Overview, Note the covering boards around the edge of the cockpit are now finished and painted:



My dinghy has also had a bit of overdue TLC - it mostly gets used as a work platform and has been out of the water for a year or two after getting various holes in it culminating on it sinking and getting crushed between my boat and the 50ft ex PLA launch i'm alongside.

I've done a ridiculous amount of fibreglass repairs and replaced the missing wooden seat with a replica made out of teak from my old cockpit floor - I just need to sort out some toe straps and rudder hangings and I might actually get the rig for it out one weekend and sail it again! :



Cheers for reading,
Dave

[coalnotdole]

Aug 9, 2015 10:21:06 GMT colnerov said:

Hi, excellent. A good touch with lining the all screw head slots the same way, a common proper coachbuilding practice. Did you choose slot head screws on purpose instead of cross head? Or is it still common practice to use slot head on boats? It must make the use of power screwdrivers a delicate art.

Colin

I bought a few boxes of old stock nettlefolds chrome brass screws from my local hardware store about 5 years ago when they were having a clear-out, with the intention of using them for interior joinery. In the end i had to buy a couple of hundred more old stock ones off ebay (in packs of ten!) to finish of those slats as i couldn't get modern ones that matched. modern brass screws are rubbish compared to old stuff as well, really soft and more of a platinum colour - less copper i guess.
Screwheads are one of those things i'm a bit OCD about - if they're on show i like to line them up, don't really use power drivers on the boat as its all hardwood and easier to feel if your going to snap the screw/split the wood with a hand screwdriver.
I also like to fit nuts on bolts with the letters/numbers facing outwards and with the rounded face of stamped washers facing outwards even if you cant see them

[coalnotdole]

As part of my new aluminium hatch project I'm remaking the handles in stainless steel - The main part of the handle was too large a diameter to turn in my myford late so they're with an ex shipyard machinist who has done various bits for me in the past. I needed to make 5 discs out of 8mm plate for the flange that the handle passes through (see earlier posts for a photo showing the full assembly) I'd hoped to cut these discs on the piller drill but stainless being stainless it didnt work out and just mullered the holesaw i was using.

I had a go turning one on the myford but couldnt work out how to hold the metal and attempts to grip it using a bolt through the middle werent a sucess.
I recently bought a larger lathe and have taken to watching youtube videos of other latheists machining things (I know, I need to get a girlfriend) on one of my youtube sessions I came across a video which gave me an idea of how to cut the discs.

Original flange and a completed stainless replacement:




Stainless blanks cut out using .8mm ultra thin grinding discs (I love these things they're even better and more lethal than the 1mm zippy discs used for cutting stainless etc)




1" thick plywood disc the diameter of the finished flanges and a pot of high temp contact adhesive:




Ply disc in the lathe chuck with the face coated in glue:




Stainless blank glued to the ply disc and held against it and centred by the tailstock (a live center would have been better but i don't have one yet)




Turning:




Finished item removed from the chuck ready to chisel off the ply disc:




Stack of 5 finished flanges, now awaiting boring the centres and tig welding a tube through the middle:





Thanks for reading/commenting
Dave

[Smiler]

Epic as always, thank you for taking the time to share.

[melle]

Oct 9, 2015 18:50:48 GMT coalnotdole said:

[...] one of those things i'm a bit OCD about [...]

That's not OCD, just good engineering practice!

[georgeb]

Brilliant update, thanks.

The work going into this is staggering.

[flyingphil]

Just read the whole thread - Amazing work!
Thanks for sharing and looking forward to seeing more progress.