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#1
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Round and round we go, or, "sand in your eyes"
On Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:55:25 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote in part: Ed. Note: So, that's what I'd had last night. In the meantime, I came up with various sorts of pipe solutions - 2" PVC, a 2" nipple, and, today, as I was wandering in the yard and happened upon the welder here, I realized that he probably used 2" aluminum pipe in his work. He confirmed that he did, and that 2" dimension was ID, and has offered me a cutoff. I don't think that I can get it down the shaft, and if I could, there wouldn't be room for sandpaper's thickness, even if I could figure out how to adhere it. I'd first test it to see how exact it was, of course; if it's very slightly oversized, that changes matters, as, of course, its being slightly undersized would, in my thinking. However, I believe that if I cut it lengthwise at slightly less than exactly half, I will have a small section which I can carefully ram/wooden-hammer (lengthwise) over the shaft, thus expanding it slightly so as to allow for sandpaper's thickness. This would solve both the straight line challenge I posed above, as well as enhance the ability to end up with a round finished product, by going not only up and down the shaft, but around it with this slightly-more-than-half pipe. If I can't make it expand enough, I could use the slightly-less-than-half-pipe nearly as well to the purpose. Both would be amply stout to preserve a straight line, my original thought/challenge, from good material over pit repair to good material on the other side, but would have the advantage of a curvature closely matching that of the shaft. So, back to all my begs in one ask-it, are there any better ideas? And, if this idea is da bomb, what's the best way to manipulate this sanding shoe to achieve the best results, in your collective opinion? L8R, y'all Skip, working on the boat Skip, I really hate to throw in a very negative note, but... I've used that Devcon commercial stuff quite a lot. You really don't realize just how difficult that stuff is to sand. Imagine you welded around to build up the shaft and then take that metal down with sandpaper. That's pretty much how the Devcon is. When they say can be "machined", they do mean machined with a lathe, milling machine, drill, etc. One thought. Take that 2" drop off and verify it'll fit over the shaft snugly, even, in fact preferably if it has to be heated a bit. Camfer one end. Apply the Devcon to the shaft, letting it build up a bit. Coat the inside of the drop off with some kind of mold release. Heat it up and slide / hammer it over the area and fasten in place. Remove all the Devcon squeezed out. After it's cured, hammer and cuss to get the drop off "mold" off. Rick |
#2
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Round and round we go, or, "sand in your eyes"
"Rick Morel" wrote in message
... Skip, I really hate to throw in a very negative note, but... I've used that Devcon commercial stuff quite a lot. You really don't realize just how difficult that stuff is to sand. Imagine you welded around to build up the shaft and then take that metal down with sandpaper. That's pretty much how the Devcon is. When they say can be "machined", they do mean machined with a lathe, milling machine, drill, etc. One thought. Take that 2" drop off and verify it'll fit over the shaft snugly, even, in fact preferably if it has to be heated a bit. Camfer one end. Apply the Devcon to the shaft, letting it build up a bit. Coat the inside of the drop off with some kind of mold release. Heat it up and slide / hammer it over the area and fasten in place. Remove all the Devcon squeezed out. After it's cured, hammer and cuss to get the drop off "mold" off. Rick Hi, Rick, and group, I just got off a long phone call with Devcon, before seeing this. This stuff (Devcon PN 62345, AKA Versachem 47709 for automotive and the like) hardens from the outside in, and as a result I'd identified the problems you cite. While I like the idea of the slicer, and it basically is what the SKF folks have one do if the surface being repaired is like mine, except that the epoxy not only fills underneath, but (also) secures the sleeve, which acts like your slicer on the way to its resting place. It's the securing part which has most of my attention in your suggestion (getting it off might require another cutting episode, like my driveshaft!), but also that I'd need something about 30" long to go over the repair area as well as have something to beat on to get it to that point. Once on, particularly if I had to heat it to get it off, I'd be afraid of compromising the epoxy if I had to notably heat it to expand enough to make a difference (though aluminum should expand markedly faster than SS, I'd think). Hammering to try to get it to go UP - against a chamfered end - would be pretty interesting, too :{/) If I could manage a small enough portion - looking at my pix, with the ruler showing approximate actual area involved - perhaps by peening I could get the aluminum expanding sufficiently to slide off, but I'd sure hate to have that sort of abuse wind up causing shattering of all that work I'd just done. (I'm trying to not only fill the pits, but end up replacing that 2-8 thousandths of an inch of missing material, recall. I suspect that whacking on it might cause some flaking of that very thin stuff - and I'd be left with sharp 1-4 thousandth inch [half the 2-8 missing now] edges of the stuff remaining...) In working with West System, and the AdTech fairing compound I used on the hull, I've very successfully sanded it "green" - that is, partly but not fully cured - no tack, but able to make an impression with a tool. Does this stuff act the same way? My contact at Devcon made it sound like I couldn't touch it until the outside was hard, but then, it would already be as hard as it would get, just not all the way to the bottom. Of course, I'd expect to take it down in stages, like I did the polishing on the anchor roller system repair I did, but I was using power tools, and dimensions weren't critical as I'm trying to make them here, and that was a great deal of work. So, I'm stuck with hand tools, and, as you've identified, don't want to be faced with taking down hundredths of an inch of steel equivalent. Thanks for the heads-up. I'll try some test spots on some of the scaffolding around the boat and see how they respond to my attempts and timing. Other comments and ideas solicited :{)) L8R Skip -- Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land. - Dr. Samuel Johnson |
#3
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Round and round we go, or, "sand in your eyes"
Hi, all,
Thanks for all the discussion so far. I'll try to address each of the issues/suggestions I've seen: Flaking/breaking off from future corrosion: I don't know. I suspect (but, obviously, can't prove) that there might have been a bonding issue causing the pits. The shaft has pits only in the area of the packing contact (and slightly above), none below. My pix show a ring at the bottom (and one fissure which extends downward, but that's the ONLY exception on the downside) of where the bronze tube tops out. Everything else is above that point, and ends slightly above where the gland tops out. Having moving water below the gland would help with no corrosion/pits there, but having the extent above the packing gland suggests there is something more than just unoxegenated water at work here. As this pitting was present to at least some degree when we bought the boat, I have no idea how long it took to get to that stage, and what, if any, progress occurred since we have had it. We've next to never been tied up for any extended period of time (a couple of months during our 2009 refit, in a marina with recently new power stands being the exception), but the boat spent most of the 15 years before we bought her at a dock in FTL. There may have been some issue with the electricals there; certainly, the zincs on the shaft and prop were much more worn than I'd have expected after a short while between their haulout and spiff-up and our haulout for our initial refit. There was a bonding strap to the shaft which I had to remove to get the steering gears off; I'm going to leave that off, as it goes to the ground plane stuff, and we've got plenty of other help in that regard. The ground plane stuff is electrically grounded, but the thru-hulls aren't part of that, other than our keel cooler, so there's no issue there. If there WERE some internal electrical issue, this should remove that. Back to the question/concern of future pitting/corrosion displacing the epoxy, if, indeed, there is any connection (pardon the expression) I'd hope that this will remedy that. I have some difficulty believing that the level of pitting - and the very localized nature of it - could be just salt water and air exposure. In any event, it took many years to get this point. My conversation with Devcon assures me that my cleanup I've done and will do is adequate for bonding. From Rick's frequent use, and their assurance, and the local machine shop which uses it to do the same thing I wish I could do for this rudder shaft with drive shafts (much higher velocity, of course), yes, I think I trust this epoxy. As to standing back and rethinking, that's what I'm doing by not proceeding yet :{)) Replacing the shaft or having it addressed in a shop: It's impossible to (merely) replace the shaft, as there are massive plates welded to it internal to the rudder. You'd have to destroy and rebuild the rudder to replace it (I'm not comfortable with the thought of cutting it off and welding another to it, for a variety of reasons.) I called Foss Foam, who provided the mold to Morgan at the time of build; he was pretty sure he had it, and the replacement was $2200. As it was new, that was what I'd planned to do, given that I'd thought a new rudder was much higher. However, he searched through all his molds and it was one of the many molds which Catalina dumped when they bought Morgan, in either the bay or the Gulf, which wasn't recovered. To make a new rudder he'd have to have mine, and fabricate a mold from it, and an extra $1500, which was my cost; he'd keep the mold. Between getting it to him (and the new one back here) and the now-cost of $3700, I abandoned that thought. I've queried all the usual suspects about the norm of my experience in shaft repair, which is to turn or grind down to all clear, building up metal to an excess, and removal by turning (e.g. a crankshaft). There is no place I've asked, including asking for referrals to someone else, anywhere, with the means to accurately remove new metal if this were to be done. Without the means to do that, I'm stuck with what I have, and/or can do here, or a new rudder. See above about the new rudder :{/) Sanding green and/or flat: I'm familiar with the pilling and clogging of the sandpaper. Sandpaper's (relatively) cheap :{)) However, getting down to the base metal of the area of the pits, if I weren't to try to build it back out to the original dimension, is something I'm not worried about. If I'm not going to try to build it up or be concerned about roundness, I can easily attack it either with a machine or with the sticky-back stuff we used on the fairing compound, including some finer grits I also ordered, in 2.75" width rolls. Leaving the plastic on the sticky side allows me to make a shoeshine cloth (it's what we did the back of the rudder with, e.g., when it got another layer of cloth, and fairing compound, but was still in the skeg slot) style sanding setup without having it stick to my hands :{)) I'd, of course, go through several grits before stopping. In my work on other entirely rough (mill finish) SS, I worked my way up from 80 and stopped at 600, then used two grades of rouge on a buffing wheel in my 4" grinder. Of course, sanding was with a power sander, and still a lot of work. If I started with something relatively soft (the assertion that this stuff isn't as hard as steel is agreed), I think I could make it happen without croaking from the effort. So, I'm not afraid of the work, other than I'd like to make it as little as possible. However, I'd rather it were as round as possible, and also as back-to-2" as possible, which is why I went to all the thought about a mold (slightly expanded 2" aluminum pipe, at this point) for the sandpaper. The only reason we're doing this is to end, once and for all, the stream of water which has been running through our bilge; that stream is what caused all the rust in the driveshaft bearing due to the vapors created. As it is, I'm having to replace several clamps due to accelerated corrosion in the same areas. If it's smooth and round I should be able to get it to as few drips as would evaporate before it got more than a couple of feet along. Attacking it as Bruce has suggested, with a hard flat "something", across the shaft would, at best, yield the same configuration (as to round) as before, because I'd be stopping the removal at the point of exposed original (slightly undersized due to 30+ years of wear, and especially tight glands attempting to stanch the flow for the last 5 years and perhaps before by the prior owner) metal, but if I weren't pretty aggressive in the shoeshine phase of it, leave lots of flats/edges. If that (the above/Bruce's suggestion) is sufficient, it certainly would be simpler as I could be more aggressive without concern for perfection. Has anyone had experience in out-of-round shafts to say whether the standard packing will do its job? If I were to do a lot of shoeshining, I think I could attack the flats/ridges, but probably not get it perfectly round no matter how I danced around the circumference to avoid irregularity... Smoothing before sanding: I have coke cans, saran wrap and other possibilities for minimizing irregularities in the surface, but no Mylar pattern making material. Certainly, using something of that sort would minimize excess needing sanding. However, if tightly compressed, it might also make it such that the original configuration (however much wear-removal was present) would likely result. Then, there's the earlier suggestion about tapping a 2", mold-released pipe down. Getting that off is a previously expressed concern :{)) What kinds of places would use Mylar patternmaking material where I might obtain some scrap (I only need ~4" square)? I really had only thought to build it out to the original 2" as a side benefit of my pipe-sander's rigidity/conformance-to-shape. If the experience with slightly undersized shafts (anyone??) shows that it's of no consequence to a standard packing gland (my thinking is that it shouldn't, particularly when the packing is 5/16" - 0.3125 but both sides, 0.625 down to max reduction to 0.617, a 1.3% difference at worst), I'll abandon the build-out-to-original part of my thinking. So, who's got a measurably undersized shaft which works just fine in a standard packing gland? Thanks for all the ideas and troubleshooting! L8R Skip -- Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land. - Dr. Samuel Johnson |
#4
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Round and round we go, or, "sand in your eyes"
On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:34:02 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote: What kinds of places would use Mylar patternmaking material where I might obtain some scrap (I only need ~4" square)? === Sailmakers will definitely have some, possibly canvas shops. You can usually buy individual sheets at art supply stores. It's also possible that you could use a small piece of Strataglass or something similar. Canvas shops will definitely have that. |
#5
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Round and round we go, or, "sand in your eyes"
"Wayne.B" wrote in message
... On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:34:02 -0400, "Flying Pig" wrote: What kinds of places would use Mylar patternmaking material where I might obtain some scrap (I only need ~4" square)? === Sailmakers will definitely have some, possibly canvas shops. You can usually buy individual sheets at art supply stores. It's also possible that you could use a small piece of Strataglass or something similar. Canvas shops will definitely have that. Hi, Wayne, and thanks for that. Strataglass I can come by, and it's possible that my canvas shop has some mylar, if that's common - but I'd inferred from what you'd said that it would be harder/stiffer than that. From our windows, it seems to me that it would not make a very straight (straighter than saran wrap, of course!) surface, as flexible as it is, and what I see canvas folks using for patternmaking is VERY floppy, not very heavy stuff.. Inferred is that the stuff you're talking about is pretty flexible? L8R Skip -- Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land. - Dr. Samuel Johnson |
#6
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Round and round we go, or, "sand in your eyes"
On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:55:48 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote: Strataglass I can come by, and it's possible that my canvas shop has some mylar, if that's common - but I'd inferred from what you'd said that it would be harder/stiffer than that. From our windows, it seems to me that it would not make a very straight (straighter than saran wrap, of course!) surface, as flexible as it is, and what I see canvas folks using for patternmaking is VERY floppy, not very heavy stuff.. Inferred is that the stuff you're talking about is pretty flexible? === Mylar comes in different thicknesses. The kind I'm thinking of is probably comparable to crispy new (and relatively heavy) Strataglass. It needs to be heavy enough that it is relatively self fairing as you wrap it around the shaft. You can wrap multiple layers of course for extra body. |
#7
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Round and round we go, or, "sand in your eyes"
On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:01:32 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote: Mylar comes in different thicknesses. The kind I'm thinking of is probably comparable to crispy new (and relatively heavy) Strataglass. It needs to be heavy enough that it is relatively self fairing as you wrap it around the shaft. You can wrap multiple layers of course for extra body. Thinking about it, thick is not good unless it's cut to perfectly butt the edges, which would be difficult. Otherwise, the epoxy will make a shaft increasing in diameter to a raised "cliff-face" where the mylar wraps over itself. The thicker the material, the longer the incline portion. Wish I could draw a picture, but let's say the wrap is 1/4" thick (I know, that's ridiculous, but..). Wrap it around a shaft and look at the end. You'll see a curving right triangle with the base 1/4". Rick |
#8
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Round and round we go, or, "sand in your eyes"
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#9
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Round and round we go, or, "sand in your eyes"
On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:34:02 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote in part: Has anyone had experience in out-of-round shafts to say whether the standard packing will do its job? If I were to do a lot of shoeshining, I think I could attack the flats/ridges, but probably not get it perfectly round no matter how I danced around the circumference to avoid irregularity... This part I can address. Unfortunately the answer is no, it will not do the job. As the high spots go by, they will compress the flax, or move it out of the way if you will. The flax will not "bounce back" as the low spots go by, leaving a gap. Thick of a rubber ball and a ball of packing material. Hit the rubber ball with a hammer and it compresses, than resumes its original shape / Hit the ball of flax with a hammer and you have a disk with rounded edges. Remember the "trick" of fitting too thick flax by rolling a pipe on it to flatten? Rick |
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