UK’s 78 SN

Shall see if this works, got some cheapo burst pipe detectors off the nett they are battery operated with a buzzer if water hits the senders, put some extra epoxy around the wire at the sender heads to seal more,(the original seal looked like clear silicon)then epoxy to the low points in the hull that will be sealed up, I have 5 set in and shall wire them up to a 6 way rotary switch and one buzzer marked up as to where they are.
It will be interesting to see if all stays dry after all the CCF mods

puertorican chrome?

Also known as gaffers tape on this side of the pond...

Hey Roger,
Is that some real wood I see in your shop?   

What is "gaffer" tape. We need an English to English translation!

I had a go at my wrapped foam, just wasn't happy with it so played with shrinking it first tried a map gas gun which worked but did not spread the heat enough so then went with a electric heat gun 1500w worked great and shrank the PVC DPC all over, it got me thinking so tried it over polystyrene with good results, I used gaffer tape to hold it together before heat shrinking,then just added new when all shrunk round.

Before heat gun

After heat gun


Polystyrene wrapped in PVC

Well said Tim. Roger I love the stuff you come up with. Very cool to see what one can do with a bit of ingenuity!

Roger, really creative, cool stuff going on here- nice work!

Im curious- what drove you towards fiber on a few of these parts? How does working with it compare to epoxy/glass? Is the strength/weight significantly higher?

Ive considered the pin vs. socket thing before, glad to see someone actually implement it!

Then set in the hull with the cradle and pylon once set removed pylon and cradle and build up with carbon sleeving and bi axial carbon have 9 layers now at different angles.
Used some carbon thread to hold it all together

BuffaloBFN wrote: Re-inventing the wheel is a much better pass-time than looting. Roger, that cradle turned out well. I'd say it's worthy of being called art. I hope it wears as well as it looks down the road. Did you, or has anyone, thought about a mod that would speed up the bolting process on the mount to cradle?

Greg I am going to use the engine mount bolts to hold the cradle in along with hook under tabs at the front of the cradle which are glassed onto the stringers, so if you remove all the bolts from mount to stringers lift the engine/drive out the cradle should slide back 5/8 and lift out,bonded bushes into the stringers will take the bolts.
That's the plan we will see if it works, and yes I will need to remove the pylon first too, look a page back I took a picture of a mock up.

I think this what your asking,

Cheers Roger.

Re-inventing the wheel is a much better pass-time than looting.

Roger, that cradle turned out well. I'd say it's worthy of being called art. I hope it wears as well as it looks down the road.

Did you, or has anyone, thought about a mod that would speed up the bolting process on the mount to cradle?

This is what I have come up with for a pylon pin holder to glass onto the hull.

Wrapped the pin with 1 layer if cling film 0.03mm thick then first wrapped a layer of Kevlar followed by 1.2m run of biax carbon fiber round tight held in place with more cling film.
Once dry spun off round on a lathe and more carbon biax 2.6m added
spun off again giving me the tube, then just tapped the pin out and removed the cling film, shall make a carbon plug to bond into base with a thread set in it to screw the pylon pin onto.
Not sure yet if I will add an O ring or just some sealer around the top of the housing and pin.
The wall thickness of the housing has come out at 12.7mm
Shall use the carbon sleeving to bond down to the hull, in the picture I have turned the sleeve in on itself giving me 2 layers, the bands are there just to show how it wraps round, will use cling film when I bond in place.
Will add more layers after that and finish off with the carbon biax.

you're right up there on the OCD list

Here is a picture of the Polaris duckbill may fit existing set ups.

Here are some pictures of the mock engine and drive to see how it works out, looks like I need to put a 1/2in glass packer under the front mounts to leave good adjustment, I used the idea off the site (think its Pete's) and made a collar that is a snug fit on the log with an inch hole for the shaft,left a shoulder on it to stop it working down the log then tape on a stick to hold the shaft out to the size I was shooting for and set my mounts to fit.
If you make the collar quite long I found the log sets the shaft out.

Shall now spot the fixing holes so I can drill out to take some bronze threaded bushes I'm going to bond in with the 3M Epoxy so I end up just bolting down through the cradle locking it up,at the front will bond on mounts(see mdf mock up) that the cradle slides under and locked by the engine mounts, this way if I take the engine out I can pull the pylon and the cradle should slide out from under the floor.

Switching to a PCM drive has lowered the front of the engine by 3'3/4in, as for stringer height off the hull I would now shoot for 7in(mine are at 6'1/2) to underside of mounts at the front( note PCM have 3 sizes of engine block mounts for Chevy I'm using the short) and 6in to the underside of the rear mounts.
If your going to use a cradle you need to take the thickness off along with the drain tray from the above sizes and all sizes are from engine side of stringers.
The prop shaft will need to be shortened by 4in all sizes are working off a distance from end of the log to the coupling of 6'3/4 which leave room to fit a PSS seal and places the engine where its always been but lower.

Once the top and bottom braces had been glassed on I then wrapped the socket around the outside onto the main frame with 3 layers of quad.

Will add a flat to one side at the bottom so I can make a twist lock on the bottom of the pylon.
On a side note I tried the 3M epoxy on plastic pipe after a light sanding it works real well and as its a modified epoxy has some flex too,down side its not cheep but it is sold in small tubes.