New construction: She:Kon

She-Kon said:

We had white sh*t falling from the sky yesterday. High temp was 27 F! Brrrrrrr!

Hard to think that 'season 5' is now over and still working on the hull.

Back to work in 2 weeks to refill the project kitty. Hopefully there'll much more progress next year.

Stand down.

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You're dong well, Rick. It's like in our business when we are developing the land on the mountains installing infrastructure through a depth of 18' of solid rock, many say that we are just screwing around. Then when the project gets to the framing stage, the same people will say that it went up over night. There are always slow parts to the work, and then parts that make a showing. Our philosophy as yours is to build on a strong foundation. If that's not right the product will never be right.

I am impressed with your work. Looking forward to next season.

Any more updates on the build?

Hey Rick!

You out of hibernation yet?

If so,how are things in the big blue boat shed?

ben2go said:

Hey Rick!

You out of hibernation yet?

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Nope not yet.

ben2go said:

If so,how are things in the big blue boat shed?

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Ground is still soaked. Can't level the boat till it dries up a bit. Up till now I've just tinkered a bit and got all the pieces coming together to have my rudder built. Got the material for the skeg, changed my mind from aluminum to stainless. Gotta find someone to waterjet cut the parts for me.

Back to work in a week for a 7 week contract. That'll give me more $$$ fo the project but I'll loose a month of premium boat building time, 'cept for weekends.

Back at it soon. Standby..

Good to hear you're making some progress.

Standing by.

Fully out of hibernation now Ben.

Finished up my contract with the gubment at the end of May. Had a few family related things get in the way but I'm back to work on the boat now.

Leveled it up this morning and set to work locating the main bulkhead. Needed to do this to get my stringers in place and start on those.



More details & pics on today's blog update: M/V She:Kon: I admit, I've been slackin'!

Rick, it's great to see you back at it

It is good to see you back at it Rick, it's easy to get sidetracked as I have on my organic garden recently. Spent the morning getting it back into shape and feel better for doing so. Good luck going forward man, don't always comment but love tagging along on your build.

Welcome back. We're looking forward to the next chapter.

Thanks fellas. It was too long a break.

This morning, cold & rain. I glued up a few more pieces for the stringers. They'll be ready to go in tomorrow. Not much else I can do till then.

Anywho, that large deep keel is telling me I need to do something with it. I was thinking of a 200 l Plastimo flexible water tank. In all likelihood I'll need ballast down there so $170 for 200 KG of weight seems cheap compared to lead and I'll have that much extra fresh water if needed.

There will be approx. 4" gap between oil pan and stainless drip tray. The flexible tank will go under that with about a 1" air gap between the tray and tank. I don't think heat will be a problem. We had bladders on our old boat for f/w & b/w. They weren't the best but on a small boat it was what it was.

Any thoughts?

Not a huge fan of liquid ballast but understand the quandary. Where I looking to ballast a home build it'd likely be steel punchings in epoxy. Lead is ideal but as you've noticed it's pricy, besides air and moisture cannot wreak havoc with the steel if it cannot reach it.

I think you want to keep the spaces under the tank dry. Don't know how you will do that with a flexible tank. for temporary ballasting water is fine but steel is much denser. Concrete has also ben used but steel in still much denser.

I've got 460 lbs of lead. These boats always appear to be very light in the bow when built so the lead will likely go in the bow. My NavArc buddy thinks I'll need approx. another 800-1000 lbs to get her down on her lines.

I've looked for steel punchings but haven't found any. A buddy has them in the keel of his steel sailboat encapsulated in epoxy and they've been fine for over 30 yrs. Problem is just with supply.

Ask a local steel supplier to either sell them to you(can take a couple of weeks)or if one of their customers has a punch press. Trust me those of us who work with steel are always willing to make a buck off our waste. Selling to the scrap man isn't so much lucrative as it is convenient. In most cases it's neither. Case of beer and a good attitude can go a long ways in bringing these deals together.

Welcome back, Rick! Happy building.

Glad to see things rolling again.

Contact a heavy equipment outfit who works specifically on track undercarriages. You can buy discarded pins for scrap value.

Good to see you back at it Rick.

Conall

Easing myself into this. Web log updated: Web log updated: M/V She:Kon: Easing myself into this

Thanks for the tips folks.

I vote you sit back a have a few cocktails to contemplate the next move. No sense in rushing into these things.

Cheers Rick

Greetings,
Mr. SK. Another possible source of "weight" may be a high volume tire shop. I have no idea what they do with their old wheel weights but you may be able to swing a deal with their discards.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. SK. Another possible source of "weight" may be a high volume tire shop. I have no idea what they do with their old wheel weights but you may be able to swing a deal with their discards.

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Tried that route already RTF. There's a well established network of 'scrappers' who routinely scoop (they pay approx. 25 cents/lb) up all the used weights around here. Only about half are actually lead anymore though. I've even tried to mine the berms at the shooting range. Apparently they have a prior arrangement with someone who does that a couple times a year!

Why not build a wildly large battery bank

CPseudonym said:

Why not build a wildly large battery bank

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Thought of that too. Having batts under the engine and inaccessible could be problematic methinks. I could fit 2 x 4D's down there. To remove a batt I'd have to remove the drive shaft etc.

Thoughts?

Lots of barges use old rail track 'connectors' as ballast; heavy small and flat , easy to fit under the engine.

You can get them free when they rip up the old tracks and replace them with welded track; ask at your local train station maintenance depot.

Greetings,
Mr. Rb. Could be wrong but I think they still bolt the tracks together here in North America. Temperature extremes and all...

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. Rb. Could be wrong but I think they still bolt the tracks together here in North America. Temperature extremes and all...

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I think they heat the rail before welding it to allow for heat expansion, and some systems actually stretch it with a hydaulic rams as its laid. Not sure how long the welded sections are?

I seem to remember some rail used in Australia has a slots cast into the bottom to take some heat expansion?

I think there's a big desire to have something useful take up the space and make the weight for ballast such as batts or f/w. My NavArc buddy is willing to do the stability calcs for me when we get it in the water so I'll know either way. If it's not a good setup I'll pull the bladder or whatever out and stick in some iron or lead.

Anywho. You know you're making progress when you start drilling holes in the hull!



ACME Holes. Web log updated: M/V She:Kon: ACME Holes

PS. The tracks are bolted together in this part of the world.

Greetings,
Mr. SK. Agree that your "space" would NOT be a good place to put items that need periodic service (batteries). While it would be very nice to have your weight AND useful storage in that particular area, for the life of me, I can't think of anything nautical that would fit the bill or space, as it were. Beer just isn't heavy enough and hefting tool boxes in and out of the bowels would get stale really fast. Sections of old rail track perhaps??? Only problem with that is you'd have to know how much to add...Still thinking.

AGM batteries are "service free"

Rearranging Inventory. Web log updated: M/V She:Kon: Rearranging Inventory