In The Bilge. The Sump.

I needed to add a separate sump to our grey water system. I have a store bought sump from Rule in the forward end of the bilge for the head and shower, but needed one to handle everything else including it. At a $100 bucks or more for one of these plastic boxes, I figured I could make one for a lot less.
Here is how I did it. You can build one too. It's fairly simple. I must add I had some scrap Plexiglas already. I bought the 500 gph bilge pump on ebay. The rest was scrap pieces of marine plywood.

Box measure 11x11x6 inches. It is 1/2 inch ply with 3/4 x 1 inch around the inside for a lip to help seal it and give a place to mount the bolts. The plastic screen inside is actually from a craft store. It is used for some kind of needle work.

Build the box. Then give it several coats of thinned epoxy inside and out. Save money, Don't buy CPES epoxy, just cut your already mixed epoxy with some MEK (NOT MEKP), thin till it's just a little thicker than water, almost half and half mix. MEK is just like Acetone, but evaporates much slower. Let it cure between coats, but put the first 2 coats on while still green. Sand for the last coat and thin it only a little or maybe not at all. You'll know you have enough coats when it is very shiny when finished.

Side note; this little trick will help you fix rotted post and the like without buying special epoxy. I actually apply it to porch post and columns before installing them. Then they never rot.

I used 1/4 inch bolts for the lid. Insert them as you make the box.

From Sump

Fit Plexiglas lid.

From Sump

Install pump and float switch.

From Sump

Install all the fittings in the box and screen plus the fuse holder outside.

From Sump

From Sump

Then install it. I eliminated 12 thru hulls with these two sumps. Now I only have 3 thru hulls.
I mounted it to the bilge with some stainless brackets I had. Screw them to the side of the box, make some pads that can be epoxied to the bilge , with bolts so that the whole thing is removable.
It is under the engine, but hopefully it will be somewhat accessible.

From Sump

Bring on The Cold

After looking at many different options for heat on the boat, I decided in the end to build our own.

Many folks seem to want a nice little wood stove on their boat, but there are no plans I could find and the small cast iron ones that are available or either expensive or appear to be cheaply constructed.

So. I designed my own. For the main items I had a local welding shop use their plasma cutter to cut out the parts. The rest I hand made.

From Update 3-2-2011 Wood stove

The Grate I could have made easily, but I let them as it sped up the process a little.
The entire Stove was welded with a small TIG Process torch. TIG is easy, just takes a lot of practice to be good. Although in these next few pics I actually had started welding with my MIG welder. It does not like 1/4 inch steel, so I rewelded the door and box with TIG.

I next assembled the Box and the door.

From Update 3-2-2011 Wood stove

From Update 3-2-2011 Wood stove

From Update 3-2-2011 Wood stove

You will notice the rails below the grate, that is for the stainless ash pan.
The door has a cast bronze damper I ordered from Washington state. The damper is mounted on a stainless steel bolt that is welded to the door. I cut the bolt head off.

From Update 3-2-2011 Wood stove

Next I welded the hinges on and the feet on the bottom plate and the smoke stack connection on the top plate. This pic is with it sitting together but not welded. The hinges is 1/4 inch rod with 1/8 in x 3/4 inch strap bent around the rod and welded to only one part of the set. The door is removable only when opened fully. This is a design feature.

From Update 3-2-2011 Wood stove

From Update 3-2-2011 Wood stove

Next I needed to weld the top and bottom on and then make the sea rail.
The sea rail is a piece of stainless steel strap 1 inch x 3/16 I believe. It is welded to (4) 3/8 inch stainless steel bolts.

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

I had to machine the sea rail mounts. This is before and after and also it was polished.

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

Then weld it all up. This was the hardest part to weld. Very little room to get to it. As you probably guessed, it bolts on, so it is removable.

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

Now I had to make the part that will make this stove efficient. This part really should be remade as it does not look like it should, but I don't have time or money to re do it at the moment. It will work though.

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

Last but not least I created a door catch/lock.

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

Now to test it.

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

Yes it boiled water fairly quickly.
Now to clean it up and finish it with a extremely high heat paint anf some polishing.

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

A 12 inch ruler for size. The fire box is only 9 inches square.

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

And finally in it's install location. I don't have it bolted to the shelf as of yet.

From Update 6-8-2011 Wood Stove

From Update 10-22-2011

I hope you all enjoy. Plans and precut plates may be available. Email me for more info.

***UPDATE***

 Please include your email adress if you want me to reply. I can not reply to you here. I have alot of folks asking for plans for the stove, and yes I have plans for sale. We are also thinking of building these for sale. Great for boats or Tiny houses.

From November 7, 2011

Bench in a box

A little some thing a built for a friend of mine.
Not boat related.

The Latch

When reinstalling all the doors and draws in the boat, I knew I would need to have a latch for the doors. The originally had little plastic clips. Most where broken and they would not hold a door shut in case of a knock down. So I bought several example to see what I liked and would not look out of place or to cheesy. No hooks, no turn knobs as I wanted the latch to really blend in.

Wife to the rescue. Yes I give her full credit as I could not see it myself. As soon as she began to describe the latch Idea she had, I figured it out as how to build it. So here it is. You can retrofit your boat, or better yet, make new doors and latches for your boat, as you will see that I had to.

The simple latch

From Door latch

How it's made. Cut your blocks long enough to house the spring and some of the bolt. I'll give some measurements later. I used a 1.5 x .48 inch stainless steel spring from Grainger Supply.
Part#: 1NCR1 Pack of 5 for $5.98 ( grainger.com )

Drill a .5 inch hole down the middle. Do not drill all the way through. Drill almost to the end though. Next you will need to route a 5/16 inch slot in the middle of one of the wide sides. Slot length is 1 inch. I used .5 inch dowels for bolt and 5/16 dowels for the handle. Drill a 5/16 inch hole in the bolt. Now for the tricky part. DO NOT ASSEMBLE BEFORE INSTALLING DOOR. Why?
Because you will need to mark the hole the bolt will go in. I took a extra bolt, drilled a very small hole in the center of it and inserted a pin ( cut off brad nail with point facing out ) in it to mark the holes with the door shut and mounted. Push the pin into the door frame to mark it, then drill with a 1/2 inch forstner bit a little over a half inch deep. If no frames, then you will need to mount a block you can drill a hole in. I'll post a pic of this later. Nearly perfect latch every time. You should mount the block to the door first before the marking. I screw and glued them. After you have the hole in the door frame drilled, then you can do final assembly of the bolt and handle. I glue the handle in with just a tiny bit of glue and use a clamp the press it home.

From Door latch

From Door latch

Also I back beveled them slightly so they would not hit the door frame.

From Door latch

This is all you see from the front of the door. The round finger pulls where there already and that is what I had to work around.

From Door latch

The back of the door.

From Door latch

A set of new doors I had to build to blend in with existing doors. Here I had an opportunity to build the latches the way I would for any new door. Easy one handed operation. Just squeeze.

From Door latch

Up close.

From Door latch

Installed.

From Door latch

I hope you all can use this. It took me about 2 hours to figure out all the dimensions. Then it was just a matter of cutting and drilling. One point, you will need to sand your half inch bolt dowels so they do not fit tight. You want them to slid easily in the square blocks. I would not coat them with anything as it could make them sticky, at least I was not about to after all that work.

Last note. One could make these as square bolts too. Not to hard to do actually. You could change this idea to fit your own doors. It will work with flush doors too.

Spice up your Life

I needed to build a spice rack. So I got some spice jars to see what heights and depth I needed. This is what I came up with. Sorry no construction photos as I was busy building other things.

From Spice Rack

From Spice Rack

Finished Rack in place. Just need to screw it home. It actually does 2 jobs as it hides the deck/liner/bulkhead joint to. Also you can see my electric fan is installed. The gage you see by the fan is for pressurizing the kerosene stove. I built the bracket as I could not find one. Untested as of yet. Hope it works.

From Spice Rack

The Cover up.

The Cabo Rico has a lot of these oblong holes in it. Most are trimed in teak rings, and I have had to make some new ones to replace the old ones. Well there was one over the nav station, which I thought was strange. It gave access to some wires and that was all. I didn't like the look of an open hole over my head, so some creative hatch making was called for.

Oval holes.

From Update_10_30_07

I did see an idea for a way to build a hatch that would work. It was plastic and only round. So I needed to build an oval one. Here is what I did.

I removed the trim ring. I cheated a little and used the trim ring to get the inside measurements, then I glued up two boards, drilled a hole for the 1\4 inch bolt, used a forstner bit to recess the knob I was going to make. I then used a hole saw to cut the knob, sanded on a belt sander the finger grips. On the inside I made a cross piece that will press down on the hole edge. Then added two pegs to the back to prevent the cross member from spinning. I had to rough up the threads on the bolt a little to make it turn the cross member. If I didn't, then when I opened the hatch, the cross member would not rotate out of the way. The bolt was epoxied into the knob. When closing it, the cross member will hit the pegs and not spin, instead it will tighten down. One could make this fairly water proof with an o-ring for the knob and some silicon in a bead to seal the rim.

The parts.

From Update-8-17-2010

The Backside.

From Update-8-17-2010

Assembled.

From Update-8-17-2010

From Update-8-17-2010

In Use.

From Update-8-17-2010

From Update-8-17-2010

Boarding pass please part 2

Now that the boarding ladder was finished I had to mount the ring/hooks on the side of the boat. So I made a simple jig and some backing blocks with the T- nuts in them. Worked well.

From Update 6-7-2011

From Update 6-7-2011

Mounted and Installed.

From Update 6-7-2011

Update on the Ladder varnish.

From Update 3-15-2011