Category Archives: Projects

All the various things we’re doing to get Mahdee into shape

Reading the Instructions

Posted on by under car repairs

I really should NOT read the instructions. Typically, this will stop us dead in our tracks. Yes, we’ll be going along quite nicely on a project–all the materials at hand and work getting done. Then, as I open a new container of some sort of “goo” I’ll read the instructions and learn that we’re missing a part, a chemical, we’re doing the task in weather that is too hot, too cold, we haven’t properly prep-ed the surfaces…something! And, then the brakes go on the project while I frantically try to figure out the “work around” or if we’re really OK with whatever it is we’re doing.

This happened as we were about to align the car’s rebuilt transmission with the bottom of the engine. Ah, I made the mistake of reading the directions on the Locktite 518 anaerobic gasket maker (used as a dressing to the actual gasket) which stated I needed the same brand “anaerobic gasket maker activator”…umm…huh? Call a couple auto parts stores that carry the gasket maker. Nope, they’ve never heard of the activator product. So, I pull out the notebook computer, google.. only thing I find is that many other people have the same issue I have–what is this “activator” that nobody carries locally? Oh, yes, I can buy a can of it online for 3x the price of the anaerobic gasket maker. Also, the advert states that it makes the 518 and other anaerobic gasket makers go-off faster. Oh, yes, and if I use 518 on an intert metal (um, what is an “inert” metal??? oh, it is stainless steel, galvanized steel, pure aluminum…things that aren’t going to readily oxidize) then I MUST use this stuff. So…go look up the MSDS to figure out what’s in this stuff. Now we’re getting somewhere. It’s got a copper oxide and seems to act like a rust converter. Hummm…

I now give up and tell David “we’re OK, we’re not using it on an inert metal and we don’t care how long it takes to cure.” Oh, but an hour has gone by while I’m frantically reading up on this and now we don’t have time to put it all together before the hobby shop closes. Tomorrow is another day…

All that angst just because I went and read the instructions on the 518. I need to make a New Year’s Resolution that I will NOT read instructions.

Update on the Deck Moat

Posted on by under interior, Systems

It is really funny how long we continue to use our “stop gap” solutions on a variety of things, in the case of the wood stove chimney, we still are using what we started out with. See post link here on deck moat installation. We still are using a 4′ length of galvi 6″ pipe and a T from the Home Depot for the upper stove pipe. The part that comes through the deck iron is stainless steel which I had made by a fellow in Maine called Dan who markets himself as Dan’s Rugged Pipes on Ebay as I recall. When we’re underway, we stash the stove pipe in the forecastle, put a watertight rubber sleeve over the “stub” and a good looking sunbrella cover over that (attached with heavy duty hose clamps of the sort you use on exhaust system). The entire bronze deck moat is actually above the deck itself because of the way we did the wood blocking.

ondeck

One of these days, gotta get around to making a proper Charlie Noble and getting the extension made in SS.

At anchor, baking all day.

baking2

Sort of “hillbilly” LOL.

They should call “Varnish” “Vanish”

Posted on by under living aboard, Musings, Projects

Just remove the r and that will do it. Every few months I varnish a bit of Mahdee’s brightwork. Coat after coat after coat I wonder what happens to it. For example, I have at least 20 coats on the cockpit combings but yet there are places where it has worn down to bare wood and I can say with certainty that the thickness of the existing varnish at best is the equivalent of something like 4 or 5 coats. Today, I sanded the cockpit combings and put on a coat. Tomorrow morning, I’ll achieve another coat and hopefully a third tomorrow afternoon and a fourth on Tuesday before the weather gets too cold again for good drying.

The few places I’d “spot varnished” in September on the combing were bright and shiny still; the problem was that I’d not varnished the combing at all in August when I varnished everything else on the boat. My notes say that the cockpit combing was last varnished in late April of 2010. No wonder it was pretty much gone!

We’re calling it “Vanish” since it certainly wears away to nothing.

The logistics of varnishing keep it as an illusive and seldom completed task here on the boat. I cannot varnish when it is wet, too hot or brightly sunny (the varnish will bubble) , too late in the day (dew will fall) or when David is doing any of his typical messy work. Can’t varnish when we’ll be moving the boat from one anchorage to another (that’s every three days) but yet varnishing is best done at anchor rather than at the dock (too many lines in the way when at the dock). So, a good varnish day is like getting all the stars to align–we’re at anchor, it’s not our last day at anchor (since it is best to varnish two days in a row), David has other things to do besides make dusty messes; and the weather is neither too hot, too cold, too wet, or too windy. Got it? Yep, very rare days are the varnish days.

Since I’m “ahead” of David on getting a cold, I feel better than him today and thus can go about my sanding and varnishing while he sits inside barely able to think and not in the mood for dusty projects! Perfect varnish time. The weather is great, and we’ll be here until early Tuesday morning! The stars have aligned.

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