Thread: Bloody boats

Originally Posted by Tombie

Get yourself a Stahlbus sump plug.
I can get my fat arse under and easily drain the oil just by putting it in raised mode (with stands placed for safety).

Makes it such a quick, clean job.

I have one and that's exactly how I do it, but getting the belly pan off is still a bit of a challenge lying on my back. An extra couple of hundred mm so I could get on the creeper would make it a lot more comfortable.

Originally Posted by ozscott

I did MMAW and TIG at TAFE as an adult, to enable me to weld for practical reasons around home and for the fun of it. I have used both ARC and TIG many times since doing projects at home. Both have been very very useful (everything from welding hinges on posts to gates and general repairs to welding up a side console for my boat (that with TIG as its alloy). Cheers

Yeah, I've been using TIG for years but I find I need a very controlled environment with no breeze and where I can steady and prop. Arc would have been the right tool for this job, but I've never been any good at it.

In a former life I was stationed at the Army base in Penrith. I believe that there is a museum there now, which seems appropriate. The workshop there was small. One other bloke ( plus a corporal but we will ignore him). The other bloke was helping a woman to do up her speedboat. A 16 or so foot clinker hull. We were roped in to do up the old Ford 272 Y block. Weekend work.
We got it done and running, so it was time to put it in the water. The Nepean River had a spot where people water skied. I can’t remember where, but Ron might know.
Anyway, we put this boat in, John, the other one, drove and I went along for the ride. Boat was going well. Took a bit to get it up on the plane, possibly because it was so heavy. But we were roaring around and having fun.
We noticed that the people on the bank were waving at us. That’s nice of them, we thought. Turned out they weren’t being friendly. They were trying to warn us about the rock. I could have told them not to worry, we were perfectly capable of finding it ourselves. Which we proceeded to demonstrate. BANG! The engine bounced off the redline and my feet began to get wet. Seems we had pulled the prop and its shaft clean out. The boat was going down. I had my hand pressed over the gland, for all the good that did. But the alternative was to abandon ship. Bravely we remained aboard and another boat came and towed us in. This was a struggle because the thing was up to the scuppers.
I never saw that boat again. Dunno how, or if, they got it out of the river.

Originally Posted by BradC

I have one and that's exactly how I do it, but getting the belly pan off is still a bit of a challenge lying on my back. An extra couple of hundred mm so I could get on the creeper would make it a lot more comfortable.

Mark its location, and then hole saw a cut out.

I do all mine with bash plate in position.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Mark its location, and then hole saw a cut out.

Out of interest (because I'm going to do it) what diameter hole saw did you use? Clearly it needs to be enough to get fingers in to remove and replace the cap, plus engage the bayonet. I figure a bloody big blob of blu-tak on the cap and a decent shove on the bash plate with a jack should mark the inside of the plate sufficiently for me to zero in on the valve.


As for boats, we went down last night to measure the shafts and stern tubes to arrange replacement of the bellows before it sinks. While we were there I replaced the PTC fuse in the toilet valve so it actually changes from "holding tank to overboard" without 15 presses of the button, removed the toilet flush PCB because it wouldn't flush and a few other things. It's amazing how time gets away from you when stuck in the bilge. We had to cut the session short because the "Club" kitchen closed at 8.30 and we had to get dinner orders in before then. I certainly don't go there for the service. Location, location, location.

These toilet flush control modules are an American version of an originally Italian designed and manufactured module (would you believe the Italian version has a better reputation? Me neither, but it's true!). The internet is scarred with instances of "it stopped working" and a replacement is some $350 USD + shipping. After an hour or so of diagnosis, there is an RC power on reset circuit that is comprised of a 1M ohm resistor and a 1uF SMD electro. The electro has gone leaky and prevents the voltage from increasing enough to take the module out of reset. About 17c worth of parts and we now have a toilet that flushes again. Took me an hour to find / fix which is less than the cost of a new module by a few times (although it'd be less at current exchange rates I suppose).

Our mechanic (There are some things I can do myself, but would rather trust to someone who does them every day) asked for measurements and photos of the shafts and stern tubes so he can pre-order the right parts. That was the original mission, and was completed.

The Toilet diverter valve (Holding Tank / Overboard) is made in New Zealand. The fault we had was actually a manufacturing defect. The manufacturer put it together so one of the cables cracked the PTC fuse when assembled. This was some 15 years ago. I alerted the manufacturer and asked for the availability of spares but they responded with "No longer available, buy a new one". For $1300 they can **** off. I spent $35 at digikey including shipping and fixed it myself. Bastards! If they didn't make such robust hardware I'd replace it with something else, but their plastics & seals are brilliant.

I've just placed an order for filters, oil & coolant. 40L of oil and 80L of coolant is going to sting a bit, but much cheaper than a re-power.

From memory i have a 45 mm hole there - enough to poke 2 fingers in.

Originally Posted by BradC

I have one and that's exactly how I do it, but getting the belly pan off is still a bit of a challenge lying on my back. An extra couple of hundred mm so I could get on the creeper would make it a lot more comfortable.



Yeah, I've been using TIG for years but I find I need a very controlled environment with no breeze and where I can steady and prop. Arc would have been the right tool for this job, but I've never been any good at it.

I was never much good with a cheap traditional ARC welder. Splashed out about 20 years ago and got an Esseti inverter Arc (DC TIG also) and it made learning and developing so easy. Just a magic welder. I imagine that cheap Chinese inverter Arc welders now would be fantastic to use also. When I bought the Italian made Esseti there were no cheap Chinese versions available. Cheers

My cheap Chinese welders do beautiful arc welding in skilled hands. My ex-neighbour can lay down a bead that looks like a polished TIG weld. I lay down seagull ****.

What is also neat is you can use the HF start with arc also, so you don't have to strike the stick. I just need some lessons.

We've inherited my grandfathers caravan. Many moons ago, somewhere in the middle of Aus they cracked the chassis. He limped to a local servo to grab some scrap metal and used welding rods with jumper leads and a couple of car batteries to weld it up. Grandad being grandad wouldn't have had a mask with him. His "get out of trouble" trick was lining up the weld and then closing his eyes. He could see the arc through his eyelids.

He was an artist with a transformer arc welder or oxy.

Hi,
My first welding used a controller from a decommissioned Metropolitan Transport Trust tram.
It would either blow everything away or stick the electrode firmly to the work, while buzzing like a demented hornet. It was not very portable either!
Cheers