Project 40+ tonnes of Boatshite - engineshite update 9/5/20

[Honey Badger]

Great update as always, keeper coming.

[RoadworkUK]

By far the best project on this channel. Amazing work.

[DSdriver]

Nice work, keep going. I am a bit worried about the lack of clearance over the hob. You may need a slab of asbestos sheet or something on the bulkhead. I used a sheet of stainless on my boat when I changed the grill/hob to an oven/grill/hob which obvs was much higher. Whilst it did reflect some of the heat, when the guy who bought the boat from me checked behind it the vinyl lining I had just battened over was apparently a tad scorched, probably because our sole method of keeping warm was to use an upturned earthenware flower pot on the hob. Great for radiating heat but the whole in the middle lets out an almost plasma stream of hotness.

[coalnotdole]

Well spotted - theres actually more clearance than it looks, 16 inches between top of hob and underside of the deck.

I intend to clad the underside of the deck in 6mm asbestolux (glasroc or whatever the modern equivalents called) with 1.5mm stainless on top.

[DeeJay]

Excellent work as usual.

Framework needs less straight edges and more thumbprints according to your plan 

[Felly Magic]

BOAT SOS! This is an utterly awesome thread, several billion out of ten so far, and it gets better with each update

[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]

At this point i must say a (somewhat overdue) Massive Thanks to Twiggy from the forum who got in touch a few weeks ago to offer a garage load of woodworking tools and other bits and bobs which he thought might be of use to me. I'm not very good at conveying emotions in text form (or real life for that matter) but Its really amazing when someone I've never met can make such a kind and generous gesture. Twiggy is a top bloke and sums up all the 'shiters I've met or had dealings with - you guys have helped me out on several occasions with shitely requests and the like and the sense of community is one of the things I love about autoshite.

 

Anyway a date was arranged to meet up and Joes scimitar was chosen as the transport vehicle of choice (due to most of the other vehicles being broken)after meeting Twiggy and his Mrs and having a cuppa we spent an hour or two trying to cram everything into the scimitar:

 

 

 

Theres an air compressor in there as well as countless chisels, planes, boxes of *stuff, powertools etc etc.

 

The journey back highlighted that the new wheels and tyres have some clearance issues when severely loaded and there was much smoke and burning rubber throughout the journey! joes nearside rear alloy now has a large quantity of molten rubber gunge dripped down it that doesn't seem to set or clean off!

 

I'm still sorting through the tools and finding the correct storage place for various bits and pieces but theres quite a few tools in there that i've always wanted but somehow never possesed - A Record Compass Plane for instance with a spring steel bed that can be adjusted to plane curved surfaces! I have just the job for that which will no doubt feature in a post on here at some point.

 

In closing, once again much thanks to Twiggy for quality tooling (and a handmade leather belt that will last me a lifetime as long as I don't eat too many pies)

 

Cheers

Dave

[coalnotdole]

This updates a bit poorly represented photographically - inevitably when im 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 theyre 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 dont 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]

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 theyre 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 dont 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:

 

 

 

Off to bed now!

Thanks for reading/commenting

Dave

[Cheggers]

Awesome work on a fantastic project...thanks for sharing.

[beko1987]

Brilliant stuff! Im envious of it all tbh, especially the skillz!

[Honey Badger]

Great update as usual Cole not dole, and Twiggy sounds like a top man as well to let you have the wood work tools, decent old hand kit can cost a pretty penny to collect but once you have a decent old hand plane it makes jobs so much easier.

[holbeck]

^^ rather like an episode of McGyver, but with workshop skillz

[UltraWomble]

I was only just thinking about this old tub yesterday and wondering how you have been doing with it.

 

And now I know

[DeeJay]

Jealous level has just gone off the meter.

[nigel bickle]

Big big fire in that, or the adjacent boat yard last night

 

No casualties reported, but a lot of land and water based damage

 

You, and the boat both Ok?

[PiperCub]

^^ Likewise - That fire in Cowes was all over the news down here last night, big damage, apparently some classic boats went up too - hope you/your boat is OK.

[coalnotdole]

Fire was in cowes so dave's yard and boat are both well. (Newport is further up river!)

 

The fire has destroyed a number of historic shipbuilding sheds that were once part of Samuel whites shipyard. They were still being used for fabrication so it's going to have a huge impact on the firms affected.

 

I hope the outcome is not simply demolishing the lot and turning it into shitty flats...

[Tamworthbay]

Bad news but good to hear this one is safe.

[coalnotdole]

Dave here..

Thanks for thinking of me - Like Joe says the fire was downriver a bit in whats left of what was once the largest shipyard on the island.

Pretty awfull for everyone concerned and several historic boats have been lost as well as most of a racing fleet and about 15 small to medium businesses. Including the fabricators who made up my aluminium hatches for me.

The site was up for redevelopment to a "riverside village" anyway but most of the tennants have now lost everything. Hundreds of thousands of tooling and materials.

 

I understand that the fire was started by someone mig'ing up a sill on a Kia in a garage based in one of the units there, spark ignited some fuel and as the car was up on a 4 post lift it quickly spread into the roof of the workshop and across to the neighbouring buildings.

A stark reminder that you really cant be too careful when fucking about welding cars. I'm sure we've all done similar "it'll be fine" jobs and usually get away with it but in a split second your normal day can change completely with lasting consequences. Thankfully nobody was hurt.

 

I must do a photo update soon but Havent made any huge progress really  - too many distractions I guess, I've done a bit of progress on my stainless window bars but still have the most awkward bit to do and need to throw a lot of money at getting the lugs TIG welded onto the ends.

 

Should really crack on with the galley as its all sat flat-packed in the workshop ready to fit as soon as I sort out the floor under where it goes and de-rust and paint the bulkhead.

 

I did spend a whole day scrubbing the manky green slime off the top of the boat recently though so it at least looks smart again!

 

Cheers All

Dave

[panhard65]

I saw this last year and thought of this thread.

[hauserplenty]

Aquashite

 

Rules

 

Dude!

[DeeJay]

Dave here..

 

 

I must do a photo update soon but Havent made any huge progress really  - too many distractions I guess, I've done a bit of progress on my stainless window bars but still have the most awkward bit to do and need to throw a lot of money at getting the lugs TIG welded onto the ends.

 

I did spend a whole day scrubbing the manky green slime off the top of the boat recently though so it at least looks smart again!

 

Cheers All

Dave

 

I personally don't care how small the update is

Any progress on this always cheers me up.

[Waderider]

Any news?

[coalnotdole]

Random Update!

I've made progress with some of the parts for my new aluminium deck hatches - These are the locking handles and are stainless to replace the original steel ones that were in poor condition.

 

Scrap Stainless Propshaft parted off to length and with the major diameter reduced:

 

 

 

End reduced ready for threading:

 

 

 

Cutting M12 thread on the lathe:

 

 

 

Threads cut and main body tapered to the correct profile:

 

 

 

Onto the vertical mill to cut the square shanks:

 

 

 

 

Getting there slowly:

 

 

 

Heated up and bent in the vice using a V block to prevent it deforming:

 

 

 

 

 

Using a length of tube to bend it:

 

 

 

Finished Handle:

 

 

 

Now I just need to get the mounting bosses that they fit through tig welded up and theyre ready to fit to the hatches.

 

Cheers

Dave

[coalnotdole]

I've also got my new rudder guard assembled/tacked together awaiting seam welding (i have the rods now so no excuse not to finish it really).

This wasnt really at the top of the joblist but i spotted some stainless weld bends on ebay going cheap so bought them to play around with and see if they would be a good way of making the guard rather then trying to bend steel pipe and get it galvanised like the original.

 

When they arrived i decided it was a good way of doing it but that I wanted 316L stainless rather than 304. So I ended up ordering new bends and tee's as well as some eye wateringly expensive tapered flanges (as I think they look better than plain flanges) The tubing is all Schedule 40, thick wall and is about 10mm thick so quite heavy.

I can just about pick it up to move it around.

 

Nice Flange:

 

 

 

Kit of parts:

 

 

 

Tacked together:

 

 

 

In its correct orientation:

 

 

 

Thanks for reading

 

Dave

[billyboy406v6]

Great skills, love the roll cage !!

[RoadworkUK]

As a Classic Boat subscriber, I'm really looking forward to reading about the first Autoshite coastal adventure. Perhaps one day placing a foot aboard.

 

Stunning work. Legendary dedication.

[coalnotdole]

Those of you bored enough to have been following my thread since the beginning may recognise these bits of wood:

 

 

 

They're the fashion pieces that bolt to the inside of the back of the boat and help join it to all the longitudinal stiffeners. I laminated them up in Jan 2015 then started machining them to fit in May 2015.

Now in Sept 2016 I've finally almost finished them ready to actually fit! As i've changed them slightly from the originals I had to make it up a bit as I went along meaning I had to laminate some extra lumps of wood on the top to fit against the bullwarks.

 

In situ with extra bits stuck on:

 

 

 

Roughly trimmed to shape with a handsaw:

 

 

 

This gives a better idea of how the bullwarks will fit against the top of them:

 

 

 

Planed off nice and flat:

 

 

 

This weekend I machined a radius onto the ends and also rounded over the exposed edge:

 

 

 

Then drilled all the holes to bolt them to the transom and the stringers - This was a pain as i needed to match up with existing holes in the stringers which are all at random odd angles and had to be marked through from the back with a pencil pushed through the old hole then useing a bevel gauge to transfer the angle in two differant planes across to the new piece of wood and drill it.

 

Drilled:

 

 

 

Then I counterbored the holes for the nuts to fit into - as the holes are all at odd angles and the counterbores need to be square to the hole i used a wedge with a hole bored in it to help start the holes.

 

This was done using one of the forstner type drillbits kindly donated by Twiggy last year:

 

 

 

This bolt hole for the lowest stringer exits out the end of the fashion piece at an extreme angle:

 

 

 

So i mounted a holesaw of the correct size on a length of 10mm stud bar the same size as the bolt hole:

 

 

 

 

 

A tidy result:

 

 

 

With all the holes counterbored:

 

 

 

Then using a holesaw without a pilot fitted and some iroko offcuts I made up some plugs/dowels:

 

 

 

These will be used to plug the counterbores for the upper bolts once the fashion pieces are fitted (the lower holes will be below the deck and so have been made shallower as I wont plug them)

 

 

 

Then I Epoxied some Bi-axial glass matt onto the tops of both fashion pieces to help stop them splitting when they're fitted and exposed to the weather:

 

 

 

I've also spent quite a bit of money on this pile of Teak handrails off of scrapped ocean liners - I intend to use it for the slats of the seating which goes around the top of my cabin:

 

 

Cheers

Dave