Well, it's been a noisy week in Lake Wobegon...

The windlass gearcase, as noted in other space here, broke, as we tried
to remove it via puller. Oil contained reasonably well, but I still
have to figure out, now, how to saw it out. Perhaps I'll use that
dandy new side grinder I bought recently, along with a cutting wheel,
lately used a lot (see below).

One of my contractors made some repairs to my pulpit, which had many
areas which had pinholes in it. I saw him use a side grinder with flap
sanding *disks* which cleaned up the welds in no time flat, and then,
cloth wheels, along with tripoli rouge, ditto to mirror finish. That
was enough for me. Off to the Depot and 39bux later, I was the proud
owner of a Ryobi 4" side grinder. Of course, that's a disposable tool;
see below...

So, this week, since he caught his finger in an oversized flapwheel on
his grinder and was unavailable to me due to pain and meds, I picked up
the steel he was going to bring to me to take from mill finish to
bright polish, then give back to him to turn into platform brackets.

Off to Harbor Freight, where he got his flapwheels, and I now have a
great deal more tools, including 60, 120 grit, and cutoff wheels, as
well as the grinder wheel which came with the original (and another
which came with the replacement, more of which anon) from Home Depot.

I took the 60 to the metal, and it did a reasonable job, despite very
slow going, some of which strained the tool, and other of which
strained me, and I could probably have left well enough alone, as it
was a nice brush finish after I'd gone through about 5 flapwheels in
12' (both sides) of work. However, I'd meant to get 120, so when I
went back, I noted that they had zircon based wheels, too, so got them,
instead of the standard abrasive.

WOW! They cut incredibly fast. I had to use an extremely light hand
to avoid removing too much, and, like the 60 before, the finish looked
very nice, with a bonus that I didn't even consume one, let alone
several, of them. However, I went ahead and took cloth and tripoli to
one side, which, while I can't shave in it, and a few of the cut swirls
from the 120 remain, it easily passes the 10-foot test as a bright
polished surface. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of that adventure
- didn't think fast enough! Brackets for the platform will soon be
fabricated and installed, and we'll add tubing/stanchion-base end
support connected to the pushpit (actually rails, part of the arch).
However, in that process (sanding flapwheel 2x, buffing out) I burned
up the first grinder. HD immediately replaced it, of course.

The other application I've had for that tool is the cutting and shaping
of the railings. That project is finally under way (pix in the
projects section; click the URL in the sig, click "Home" in the top of
the page, and then the projects to see that section).

Aside from the obvious cutting tool, the other unusual thing I've done
is to use two stubs of telephone poles, about 5' apart, conveniently
left in front of my boat as part of a prior neighborhood utility stubs,
as a bending jig. For tighter turns - and for the end of the 24'
stick, as the last 5 feet don't bend in that! - I use a full-keel,
attached rudder, boat's gap of a couple of feet. In both cases, I put
towels over the bearing surface, and just pull sideways on the tubing
as I pull it through. I do it gently enough that I have to do it
several times, so as to not kink, nor go too far.

When I had the arch built, I specified 7/8" stubs at the rail attach
points, thinking I'd get .063 tubing to go over it. Hah! First, it's
..065, and, second, enlarging 316LSS tube, despite it being relatively
soft, takes forever. I originally expected to use 1" flapwheels, but
those took *way* too long to not get adequately larger. I have taken
to a two-step addition:

Despite it being irregular, I use a grinding/cutting tool in a drill,
with an extension, to "grossly" enlarge the hole. I follow that up
with the flapwheel to even that out. However, the key, it turns out,
is to take some 100 grit sandpaper, and aggressively take down the
already slightly less-than-7/8" (because it was bright polished in
construction), cut off (so I had less of it to deal with) stub. At
that, it's still a wrestling match to get the tube on, and then marked,
so I can make the angle cuts needed to get the end to butt up to the
arch legs (at an angle, of course).

So, I'm off to do more of that today; there's been a lot more progress
aboard, mostly belowdecks, this week. I'm in the countdown to when I
have to get off and go for surgery; I have less than 2 weeks to make as
much happen as possible, which won't nearly finish even the "must-do"
list, but might possibly finish the stuff for which I was/am needed
aboard.

For those who are interested, I solicit your prayers for my upcoming
surgery. They're taking a back muscle over the top to replace the
twice-failed attempts to reattach the two middle rotator cuff muscles,
in order that I might raise my arm, pretty important in sailing. It's
August 1st, and I'll be immobile for up to 8 weeks, followed by several
months of physical therapy, before I can even think of returning to
(what will no doubt be a still-sizeable list of things needed to do on)
the boat, let alone cast off.

I'll try to post about the other stuff which gets finished before then;
Lydia's joining me for the last week, as we flog the slaves.

L8R

Skip, refitting as fast as I can!!

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 - The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

"Skip Gundlach" wrote in
oups.com:

Off to Harbor Freight,

This was your worst mistake. NO man can get out of Harbor Freight for less
than $100. Many are even worse! They ought to offer you pickup window
service in case you want just ONE pack of sanding disks or ONE #1 Phillips
screwdriver. "Oh, look! They've got (pick anything in the aisle and put
it here) on sale for $7.99!", you say like every other man in blue jeans.

Might as well get a shopping basket, dammit, on your way in....just to get
those disks....(c; I commend you on passing up that 10,000 GPH pump or the
12 HP, 12 gallon air compressor...

--
Larry