All those wires inside my mast gotta go!

[bill@ariel231]

trolling through some older posts i noticed this one. The Don Casey pop rivet method of securing a conduit in the mast looked like a difficult solution to implement.

I also fitted a PVC conduit into A-231's mast, but used a dollop of '5200 every 2 feet instead of the pop rivets mentioned above... a messy job but very easy to do. Has anyone else tried this method?

no problems with noise or chafe with any lines running internal to the mast (like the topping lift).

[Scott Galloway]

Bill,

Very interesting. How did you apply the 5200 without it being deployed ( as in smeared) at unwanted places inside your mast? Also PVC conduit would seem to put a lot of weight aloft.

I am interested in knowing if anyone has messed around with the new LED tricolor mast top lights with their very tiny and very light electic wires.

[bill@ariel231]

Scott

My method was only a little different from the pop-rivet method:

1. The mast head was stripped of the sheave and hardware to give me room to reach a couple fingers into the mast head. The mast was laid out on the lawn with the hole for the vhf and mast head wires on the ground side of the mast (I wanted the pvc to settle to that side when glued up).
2. Three ten foot lengths of pvc conduit were glued together and cut to length as a unit. In my mast, the conduit starts 6 inches above the base of the mast and terminates a couple inches below the hole drilled for the mast head light and vhf. I also predrilled a 1/2 inch hole in the conduit for the steaming light and spreaders. With the conduit ready for install it was placed on the ground in line with the mast base.
3. With the pvc conduit rotated so that the glue side was”up” I applied a 1" bead of ‘5200 approximately 16-24 inches on center along the length of the conduit. (this is shown in the left side of the sketch below)
4. Now for the messy part… at this point I passed the conduit and its dabs of ‘5200 into the hole in the base of the mast. This part is messy even when wearing gloves.
5. With the conduit now in the mast “glue-side-up” I now moved to the mast head. Reaching a couple fingers through the slot for the masthead sheave it was possible to rotate the conduit glue side down.

After a wait of 24 hours, the conduit was ready for wire and the mast reassembled.


cheers,
bill@ariel231

p.s. As for weight I wasn't too worried I used 3/4 inch pvc conduit. My bigger concern was keeping the wires clear of the internal lines in my mast.

[ebb]

I want to thank you all for sharing your advice and experiences on this subject.

I've downloaded these two post pages to study and have as reference.
It's eighteen 8 1/2 X 11 pages of good stuff.

F A N T A S T I C

Thanks!