Day 424 Rudder fill Water gen.
It has come time to fill the rudder with oil. For environmental reasons we have decided to fill it with mineral oil and some veggie oil we have around the house.
A small 1/4" pipe fitting Gena found was adapted to a nipple for the hose, then threaded into to pre-tapped hole. A second hole was drilled and tapped for a setscrew for venting.

A small electric fuel pump slowly trickled it in during the course of the day, but unpredictably, the frames caused airlock!

The only solution was to drill another hole lower down to release the air, then change the location of the nipple and fill it from the bottom up.

 
Once oils started pouring out the top, the bottom was plugged and some expanding foam was squirted into one top hole. Amazingly, foam spewed out of there for 5 hours, right into the evening. Luckily Gena had taped around the holes and put plastic wrap all down the rudder.

As can be seen in the photo, it would have made a horrible mess without the wrap. I guess she learned from our experience with the bulwark rail. It was a real bugger to get that foam off of the Ceram-kote!
The AmpAir water generator is going to be a big source of power for us. Housed in a primed aluminum housing, it weighs probably 20 lbs and mounts prop first. We thought of putting a cage around it but nobody else seems to have any problems with snagging. Now they have a shroud available for it. We'll see.

 The prop must be pretty durable in any case. I had thoughts of actually mounting 2 side by side, but Gena figured the pipe wouldn't take the stress, so one it will be.



 		 It can generate 8 amps at a decent clip of 7 knots, but still  >2 amps at just 3 knots. Some currents are more than that while at anchor! Yay! Free power! We may take up the habit of  anchoring near river mouths lol.
I was commissioned to precision bend a length of 1/8" 2" flat bar so it would fit snugly over the mount with 1/8" of rubber. This will cancel any vibration.

       

Gena capped it and did some nice welding as SS is not her suit. I would have done it but was feeling pretty down with the flu virus.

The wire comes up through the center of the pipe where it will feed into the back of the transom via a water proof plug. It had to be 4 pins because there are 4 wires.

When ordered, a rectifier set on a heatsink is included. This is because the generator's output is like 2 phase A.C.
 If we want more power, I suppose one of these could be dragged ( a slightly different setup ) behind the boat. It's a pretty nice unit, and the price wasn't too nasty. < 1k. They are filled with hydraulic fluid to equalize pressure during temperature changes. I agree with this as having air in something that is always under water is asking for trouble!

The desk almost done.		 If you live next to a brook or creek that flows year round, one of these would be great for supplementing power consumption. at full knots, that 192 amp/hours a day @ 12 volts. That's 2.3 KW per day! Enough to run a 100 watt bulb perpetually, or a 2KW heater for 1 hour. It adds up!

All I managed to do today was put the top on the roll top cabinets. Bloody flu. There should be a law against going out of the house when sick with it! So early in the year is unusual too!

The book sitting on top marks the edge of the final compromise. A bookshelf on top, curved into the wire tray overhead. That's a fairly large book, and the final stage will make a happy Gena. :))

A slight issue was the breaker panel, well still is the breaker panel. I always just ass-u-me-d it was going under the desk in the left cabinet, but to my surprise Gena had it planned above the desk. Well now what?!?

I *think* we have decided to put it below.
"I'll wire it!" I said. No comment.

It could remain in the open, conveniently mounted off of the vertical wire tray, ( as it does carry all of the wiring for this panel ) and painted with speckle coat, or a fresco, or wood grain. Ugg. I'm too sick to think about it anymore!
Gena has cleaned everything up, the steel remaining has been given away, and things are beginning to look a lot like when we first moved out here, not like a scrap yard.

The leaves have all fallen, and before we could decide what to do next, THIS happened! Temperature is now -20ºC to -28ºC and windy. Yuk!! Winter is here.

Under the tarp one can see the pedistal in place. It was heavy but carried it up strapped to my back. The tarp tore off during a freaky wind, 100km/h that night. So much for no snow in the cockpit. I'll get photos of the pedestal in place if and when the snow and ice melt off. On a good note: We have sold our business, so will have more time to work on those "little projects".

 

Day 424:
6 hours total: Made desk top, filled rudder, cleaned up for winter. PS, check out projects main for lots of new entries! (Dec2007)

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