Home Handyman Aluminium Repair

Have you ever had an aluminum repair or 'thing" you wanted to make, but thought you had to use a TIG welder, which you don't have, and end up taking it to someone who has?
Then try this product; HTS2000


Other products (rods) that do a similar job are Durafix and Alladdin 3 in 1. Shop around with the products to get the best price. I've heard of prices from $5 to $60 per pound for very similar products

All of these rods are aluminum brazing rods and they are made basically from aluminum and zinc
You can use propane, oxy/propane, oxy/ acet. The smaller and thinner the pieces, the better it is to stay away from the O/A and use the mapp (preferred) or propane unless you have the correct size tips as the O/A can get to the melt temp really quickly. Use a very fine tip (00 or 0) when working with 1/8" or thinner material with O/A.

If you can braze then you can use this product.

Don't use this product on high temperature items. Even though it says you can do cylinder heads and exhaust manifolds, I wouldn't. Use a TIG instead.

And then of course there is stainless steel brazing rod, of which there are a few varieties. Most all contain silver as one of the alloys. You can do the search to find out what's out there.

These items lend themselves to emergency repairs on a boat, or a DIY project that doesn't need the expense of a TIG welder. You would have to make a decision as to whether a TIG is required or brazing will do. Keep in mind that if the brazing doesn't work, and you have to use TIG, all the brazing work will need to be ground out, before you can use the TIG. 

My intention for my next cruising season, is to carry a propane torch that will run off the BBQ gas tank, and some of these rods for emergency repair. Any comments?

New Port Hole Bug Screens

 I have two port holes in the side of the cockpit well (near the floor), which we keep open all the time. We place in the port holes, these snap in bug screens; but as you can see, from the picture to the left, some of the plastic has broken off. It is also broken in a couple of other places not visible in the photo. These bug screens are 1985 vintage and have just deteriorated through use and I suspect UV damage. Also, these sit around shoe level when sitting in the cockpit, and occasionally get popped out by an accidental heel kick.

Wooden Template

In reconstructing these, I first made a wooden template suitable for a router. I used MDF (medium density fibreboard).
Next I procured some PVC board, which when doubling the thickness of the PVC board, was just a few millimeters thicker than my old bug screen.
I used PVC, but could just as easily have worked with Polyethylene plastic board.
Next I cut out of the PVC board, four rough finished frames which were about 5-10mm wider than my template.
You might notice that my template has a wider surface than the original bug screen. This was to give it some added sthrengh and make it easier to place the bug mesh between the two PVC cutouts.

Routering

I used double sided sellotape to secure the template to the rough cutouts and then routed the remainder of the PVC off to the finished template. Each one was done in turn.
Then because my template wasn't exactly symmetrical  I matched two pairs so that all corners lined up perfectly.

Mesh glued and trimmed

 I lay one side of my PVC cutout down and placed a small bead of 3M 4000 deck caulking compound in the centre of the flat surface. Then I placed my bug screen mesh (Nylon I think) over the top off this, then spread the 4000 over the mesh so that it was in the middle and not near the edges, and sat level with the mesh and not proud. Final tension was then applied to the mesh and it was allowed to set up. This was to act as a "glue" so I could the trim the mesh about 1mm in from the outer edge after it had set up.

4000 applied before 2nd side attached

Next application of 4000 was applied in a thin layer over the mesh, but not approaching the inside edge by about 5mm. If the 4000 is squeezed out to the inside and over the mesh, the job looks "ugly" and once set is hard to remove from the mesh without damaging it.

Glass over top for glue to set

Finally the other side was applied, being careful that both PVC cutouts lined up perfectly. The PVC was pressed down from the inside edge to the outside, squeezing out any excess 4000. A plate of glass was applied over the two pieces and allowed to set up.
After it has set up, a sharp craft knife was used to trim the excess off, on the outside edge.

Finished product

 The finished product to the left. It's both flexible and hardy. Should last several years. But, if you need to change the mesh, just slip a  blade between the two sections to break the bond. Clean up and repeat the process for new mesh.
What am I going to secure it with in the port hole? Probably "blue tack"; but one could use a double sided foam tape, like they use to secure mirrors on walls.
Don't try to do the glueing in one step with the mesh. I tried and it was very difficult to have both PVC pieces line up perfectly. Also when trimming the mesh off, you could still see the mesh on the outer edge and it looked "ugly". A much better finish, if you glue the mesh to one piece first; have it set up, and trim the mesh back from the out edge. Then, when trimming the final outer edge of 4000 is done, a nice white finish is all you see.  So, in essence, what you see here is a bug screen that has had the mesh replaced once because I didn't do it right first time. Cost $30 for the PVC 1 square meter sheet; and $7 for the mesh.

An iPad Experience

   I wrote in January 2012 about using iNavX and an iPad as an affordable chart plotter. I have yet to procure mine and install. Till I do check out this other bloggers experience.           
  Andrew from the yacht Arabella has written a blog about his experience of using the iPad as his charting display of choice He starts out by saying........

"The loss of my trusty, semi-retired MacBook Pro, as a result of its impromptu shower on the Round The Island Race, had forced me to consider alternative methods of chartplotting. "

His blog is quite jnformative and is aimed more to those whose boating is in Europe; even so, well worth the read for his comment around 5 charting solutions listed here.

• iChart (Solent)
• Marine Imray Charts: English Channel
• Navionics HD UK & Holland
• Memory Map (Free version)
• iNavX

Andrew covers such topics as which iPad to choose; waterproofing and mounting; tides and wind vectors. Overall, lots of photo's, discussion and practical examples given through out. Hop on over to his blog to read more. 

Rebuilt Hydraulic Linear Drive

Repaired HLD upon receiving. Oil included.

At the start of  this cruising season, I checked out my autopilot and after some discussion with the experts, came to the conclusion that my Hydraulic Linear Drive was faulty. The prior year we had had all sorts of issues arise with the Furuno and intended this year to get them sorted. I had a spare, so fitted that and still had no success. Both failed the rudder test, in the dockside setup menu, of the Furuno autopilot.
So, I sent both of them out to be repaired, and soon learnt that both HLD's had "bad"(worn) gear pumps and needed to be replaced. Unfortunately you can only receive the motor and gear pump as one unit.
I told my repair guy to go ahead and repair one HLD and see if that will fix my issues, before committing to to both being repaired. At that time, we were about to leave for the Whtisunday Islands in Queensland, Australia, so arranged for him to post the HLD up to us. We would continue our journey with our CPT autopilot.
Cutting a long story short, it took nearly five months for the HLD to be repaired and sent back to us; and we received it just before we were getting ready to leave the Whitsunday Islands and head south again. It mostly revolved around the issue of poor supply from the dealers in Australia. Simrad would not allow the repairer to source directly from the company.

Fitted HLD

The HLD was fitted to the quadrant again, and everything worked well. What a relief. We have now given the guy the OK to go ahead and fix the second HLD. This should be ready for us to pick up when I return to the boat next March. We have a long journey next year; heading to Thailand.

You will notice perhaps in the photo to the above, two rudder reference units. (one is disconnected) This is because we also have our Robertson Autopilot available in case we need to change from the Furuno at some time. For the season we used our newly purchased CPT autopilot; a great autopilot that drives the wheel instead. But the Furuno is our favourite, and all our issues with the Furuno seemed to have disappeared with the rebuilt  HLD.
Cost; Australian $1300. about $300 more than quoted; but all in all, half the cost of a new unit. All the seals etc were replaced and the ram unit hardly ever wears. Finally some peace of mind.

A Wifi Booster Installation

Internet access can come from various sources, but popular amongst boaters is wifi. The people on Sea Trek have an article, in three stages, about installing the Bullet wifi booster, replacing their Engenius system. Click on over to their site for a run down on their installation, and  it all ends with a review of the two systems. Part one here. Part two here. Part three here
 The Ubiquiti Bullet linked here to their web site has the specs and details about the wifi booster. This is what Sea Trek used for their latest installation.

I have taken a different approach. What do we use on our boat? We use a broadband (3G) wireless ( through cell towers) wifi, which can connect up to five devices on the boat. Most phone companies now sell these devices, but you can always put another (cell phone) companies sim card in if the device is unlocked.
 This is good for where ever there is cell phone coverage, although we carry two different provider devices, because we have come to realize that some cell phones coverage can vary depending where we are. Usually if we can't get service from one, the other will pick up. To complement this and increase our range, we use a cell phone booster, which can give us coverage up to 50 miles off shore. Take a look here for what a cell booster can do for you. 
Finally, when we go to a different country, we go and buy their data sim and put it in our device, or buy their device depending how the country has set up their cellular data network. What do you use for internet?