Fruits Of My Labor (A-113)

[mrgnstrn]

Tony,

MY vote is for the "dashboard" style on top the cabin. If I could move my current instruments on my current boat, I would in a heartbeat! That way you don't have to take your eyes off the road. Also, if you pick instruments correctly, I doubt you will be punching buttons ever. At most you will want Boatspeed, Depth, and Wind (3 total). Granted, if you want to switch between apparent and true wind, you will be punching buttons, so just pick one and learn to love it!

just my opinion.
When I had my Ariel (#3), I mounted the depth on the aft face of the bridgedeck (in the cockpit well).
What a bad idea!
Whenever we were motoring out I liked to stand to get visibility, but then had to bend way over and stick my head down in the cockpit well to see if we were running aground (depth)! Poor ergonomics. The cabin-top dashboard (or even like the true-racers: on the mast) is the way to go!

-Keith

[ebb]

Agree. The IDEAL place for instrument is over the companionway, at the front end. For coast sailing at night I wonder if there is a better location for an illuminated sounder - certainly not in the cockpit well. On an Ariel there aren't too many places.

Tube Bending.
Looked up router bits for making mandrels. There is nothing available to make a deep flute for 7/8". It is possible to have a custom bit made. $$$. So we're stuck with a readily available 1/2"R cove bit.
Shaper bits is another story. If you have access to a shaper, you can more easily find an outfit to custom a 7/8" round nose bit. They would make an absolutely perfect cradle for the tube - While having to make two passes with the router cove bit makes it possible to have a problem with the curve.
So it is likely that 1" tube is what we have to bend.
Making the mandrels will take some doing and care. I would guess the most versatile material is meranti, or birchply. You can glue it up to create a mandrel that has thicker sides, maybe even enough for the flute bit to roll on. We can glue on stuff, fix mistakes no problem.
Another great material is polyethylene - just bought a piece 1" thick, not too expensive. It's cutting board. Can't glue it, but it's as close to wax as solid plastic gets. In the photo of the green bending ap, the white mandrel must be polyethylene.
[Do you notice a little extra radius bend at the bottom of the mandrel? Maybe to take care of springback, right? Give the bend an extra kick in there.]
Stainless tube will love to be bent in this stuff.

And then there is making the bender itself. Are you thinking of doing that?

Found a Utube bending video where the guy filled the tube first with water, then poured in the dry sand. Said to pack in better.

As to wax. Paraffin can't be all that expensive in Minnesota. And for freezing it, all you have to do is open a door and stick the tube outside.


Dono what I'm going to do.
Reinventing the wheel over and over (total remodeling) is taking FOREVER. I have run out of time. I just know that a tube bending guy can take the tube, bend it just right, hold it up in the air over the pattern or the boat itself, and come up with a perfect stern pulpit. - 5 grand!
I will have a full 3D ply pattern that took me a couple months to make, and who knows HOW LONG it would take me to translate into nicely bent double axis tube? Just having to trim 1/4" off the end of a tube seems a chore. (Dang...forgot about the sand!)

Go forit, Tony.

[Tony G]

Keith,

Thanks for the realworld input. A couple of years back I lucked out on a sale and got the Navman 3100 series wind, speed, depth with a 'repeater'. The display heads are something like 4 or 4 1/2 inches square. So the main three of them and a compass will be a tight fit above the companion way. Also, I incessantly worry about the compass being thrown off by the readouts. Craig (c_amos)suggested mocking up the dash on a piece of plywood and 'swinging' the compass Some reading may be in order before I try that. The tally stands at two above the hatch...

Ebb, sir!

I cobbled together a woodie version of the bender in the technical thread. I had hung onto a collection of old plywood cabinet doors from years ago because they were nice, solid chunks of material. Now I know why I carted 'em around for ten years!! A bender they are now!

In the noodling I did, I found all of 'commercial' units did both 7/8" and 1" on the same platen/form/die, whatever you'd call it. So I suspect that 1/8" just don't matter to the pros out there... a million here, a million there... so I used a 1/2"radius cove bit and glued and screwed the two halfs together. A 10" radius seemed like the best bet for what we got planned here. (although there are a couple of 5-6inch radius bends I'm hoping to pull off with a conduit bender) It seems that the crowning machine is the one that will make a big difference in the bow shape and bow strenght. And I haven't started making one of those yet, but it's a pretty straight forward machine. A couple of bolts and a couple of pulleys.

B.s. it's only been in the 40s for the last week. Utterly depressing....

[ebb]

Tony, Yer DOING IT, way to go!
Now here is something we ALL want to see, I'm sure.

Want to see how it goes, lots of photos, OK?


I got the terminology wrong, tho there is some confusion by others too.
Those curved pieces that you bend the tube into ARE dies, CORRECT.

A mandrel is an interior piece like a ball or egg shape or a series of connected rings that just fit into the ID of a tube that keep the tube from distorting or collapsing. I think sand is NOT used in drawing the tube into the die form. Sand filled tube is bent in the 3 roller or where a single point force pushes the tube into a curved form. No roller.

I also read that we need to use the thicker tube if we are using the roller/draw method, because the metal is actually stretched on the outer side to make the curve. This may only be true on very tight radius bending.

The difference in thickness between the thinner and heavy wall s.s tube is .01563 or 1/64" How significant is that in terms of, say, stepping on a short straight piece in the stern pulpit? Can't find any data. Heavier is not always stronger.


Wanna see what happens!

[Westgate]

Tony:

We had 85 here today. Ever think of moving your outfit a bit to the sutherd...extended working and SAILING season my friend!

I'm a transplant from Ontario so know the 40's and 30's and 20's in Oct all too well!


Andrew

PS I have been following your progress... great stuff...your work is always inspirational!!!