I had to postpone my trip up there until next week (car troubles), so the dead lights are going to wait until then. But magically, the stanchions, pulpits and limited pieces of hardware are getting installed. BTW, thanks again for the stanchions!
I made a little more headway on the Radar project started on post #85.
the work since the last post has included painting the aluminum top plate and further work on the hardware for the following:
1. bracket for a strut.
2. assembly of the base for the radar pole
3. assembly of a rail mounting bracket.
here's the bracket for the strut:
it's assembled from a two inch fiberglass tube with a tab glassed to the side. The tube is slotted, clamping pressure on the pole will require a pair of hose clamps.
The base had a couple revisions since the last post. I was ready to machine three set-screws from the M19 cap screws shown in a previous post, but as luck would have it, the threads match those of some stainless 1/4-20 threaded inserts. I'll use those threaded inserts to attached the stanchion clamp and two set screws to grab the pole. That was a time saver. here's the revised base:
Last edited by bill@ariel231; 05-29-2007 at 07:32 AM.
The rail mount needed to stand off from my stern rail by an inch or so. While i was scratching my head in the hardware section this collection started to make some sense. It began life as a stanchion mount for a 2" spinnaker pole. The bridge to the rail is cobbled together from some bimini hardware.
fully assembled the radar and pole look like the attached photo. I can't wait to drag it over to the boat, but that's going to have to wait for the replacement 10 pin connector to get here from Sitex.
Last edited by bill@ariel231; 05-28-2007 at 02:02 PM.
I love the ingenuity of individuals on this forum! It's inspiring, encouraging, and just plain fun to follow... Nice work Bill! Looking forward to seeing that radar mounted.
bill231,
Looking forward too to seeing how the install goes.
And looking forward to scratching my head on the very same challenge -
using this thread for inspiration......
lemme see... how am I gonna make thishere sliding sleeve wit the flange, hmmmm.... that's a great idea the hose clamps.... ....
thanks for the support. I finally got the radar pole installed ahead of today's rain. ...but before we get to that part of the story:
several posts back there was the embarassment of mowing over the connector that plugs the radar antenna into the lcd display. The good news is both a spare connector and a user manual with the pin-outs were still available from Sitex. After a phone call and a wait over the holiday weekend I had the part in hand. Following a hour of strained eye sight, the replacement connector was soldered on and buzzed-out. After that, I was ready for a trip to the beach to test the unit.
The picture below shows the test set-up: Starting from the upper right, the radar was mounted on the truck's ladder rack with power from the 12V supply in the cab. On the left, the display unit is showing the beach, the two barges, a tug and the small island in the upper right. These match the scene out of the windshield shown at the bottom. Apparently a couple of years bouncing around in the garage hadn't damaged the unit.
Aside from getting rear-ended by a Honda on my way to the beach this had the makings of a great day!
Last edited by bill@ariel231; 06-04-2007 at 05:33 AM.
A couple of small changes in the parts list from previous posts included some more hardware to secure the pole at the rail. I'm still using the 2" stanchion mount however, my plan to cinch down the mount by mousing the gap with some small stuff didn't have the clamping pressure needed to prevent the inadvertant rotation of the radar pole. As a result, I ended up with the 1/4 20 machine screw clamping the pole in place (this is visible on the left).
As for the installation, it's pretty much as planned. The pole is very secure fore and aft (despite being 7' long and weighing about 20lbs). Athwartships is still a bit looser than I'd like. This is a consequense of the two part nature of my stern rail. A one part rail would stiffen the pole a lot. For my setup, I may have to change the diagonal strut for something longer that reaches to the center line of the boat.
Last edited by bill@ariel231; 06-04-2007 at 09:46 AM.
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