… and there was light

April 6, 2013April 6, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

New switch panel installed in the boat (below the starboard settee)

Okay, so my labors in repairing the sailboat are nothing compared to that of creation. Nor is the labor close to that of slaying the Nemean Lion However, it is one of my longest unfinished projects, so finishing any of the tasks to get the boat into the water is a big accomplishment for me.

Then again, a 40 year old boat is probably never a finished project.

Today I created light. Well, at least I hooked up lights. I installed the new switch panel and battery. I had run new wires to the bow light and the interior cabin lights. I tied in the old wiring to the stern light and the masthead light. I turned on the switch, and there was light.

All the lights have either LED bulbs or are low draw bulbs (such as the masthead light). The battery I have is a 35Ah AGM battery. It isn’t nearly as big as most boat batteries, but I figure we won’t be using that much power. And there is room to put another battery the same size next to the current one.

The battery sits on a wood (plywood) platform on wooden supports that I fiberglassed onto the hull. I have a strap holding the battery down to the platform.

rear of switch panel (installed). The battery is on the left side of the picture

The switch panel was made from sapele and has 6 circuits, each with independent fuse holders under the switches.

I used round panel mount switches and panel mount fuse holders. A couple of lessons learned:

Use good components. I got cheap fuse holders, and I hate them. The good ones I picked up from Defender were well worth the couple of bucks I spent on them.
I couldn’t find a good source of high quality switches, so I ordered them off of eBay. Get spares. The quality isn’t always the best – I found one of my switches arrived broken, and don’t have a spare.
I’ll probably add a dedicated USB charger one of these days (before any long days out).
The wood panel is much thicker than the panel mount hardware is able to handle. I needed to drill out a recess behind the fuse holders so I could thread the nut to hold them in. I should have drilled recesses behind every hole prior to drilling the holes. The switches would have snapped in better if I had a recess behind their holes. As it is, I had to use a drop of epoxy to keep the switches from rotating and popping out.
I used all 16ga wire. I probably could have gotten by with using 18ga wire for all the lights, but it wouldn’t have saved much money anyway.
I think I would try to put the negative bus bar and the terminal block strip on the same side of the panel. Right now the positive connection for each circuit is at the forward end of the panel, and the negative bus on the aft end. That makes the cabling a little messier.

The switch panel is relatively simple. The to cables from the battery go to a double bus bar. All the negatives return directly to the negative bus. All the switched circuits go from the positive bus to the fuse holder, and then to the switch. From each switch I ran a wire to a terminal block strip. That allows me to build the entire switch panel in the workshop, and just connect each load to the appropriate terminal block (and negative bus on the other side of the panel).

Since the switches are lighted, I also needed a negative from each switch to the negative of the battery. The negative terminals for each switch are connected in a daisy chain back to the negative bus.

Currently the only electrical connections in the boat are the navigation lights, a pair of interior dome lights and a single 12V outlet.

In addition to making light, I was able to make progress on some other boat projects. Susanna helped me install two more toe rails (I have one left to complete). The boys and I made a run to the Defender warehouse to pick up some more hardware (a couple of shackles and padeyes) as well as pick up Ben a short sleeve wetsuit. Both boys saved their allowances and purchased sit-on-top kayaks (I won’t complain, it is better than spending it on electronics, and we were able to find them for a steal online). The kayaks should show up in two weeks, so I figured getting some warmer water clothes may be good for this spring.

I am also making a plan on how to step the mast without killing myself. I ordered two parts from Nautos to help make the supports I need, a pair of nylon gudgeons:

Nylon gudgeons to be used in making a mast support/raising system.

More on that project when I finish it…. Hopefully tomorrow.

(Almost) Raising the mast

April 3, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

View of the boat from the bow. Needs the mildew cleaned off, but most of the topside hardware is installed

So, I couldn’t get it up this evening. No not that… This is a (mostly) family friendly blog. I tried to step the mast tonight after work, but couldn’t get it all the way up. The standing rigging isn’t adjusted properly, and it was too cold (and dinner time) to spend much time playing around adjusting the rigging.

Plus it is a bitch to step the mast (okay, so not so family friendly tonight). I need a better system for raising the mast. I’ll have to build some sort of support to put on the stern of the boat to help raise the mast. Maybe use one of the halyards to help pull the mast up once it is part way up.

I’m getting close to getting the boat ready for the water. The goal is still April 17th. But not if it is still this cold.

We had a tease of warm weather this Saturday. But only a tease. This week has been back to cold and windy. However, I can tell that spring is coming. The evenings are cold, but not bitter cold.

I was able to get a lot finished on Saturday. Mark came over to work in the woodshop and brought his 12-year old nephew to hang out. His nephew, Greg, was a huge help on the boat. One of the biggest pain in the a$$ is to get the bolts tightened on the topside hardware. It requires two people, one below and one topside. Will and Ben are a little too young to be helpful (and not very patient) and Susanna is super busy with school.

In a couple of hours we got most of the hardware reinstalled.

Sunday I installed the chainplate that had been removed for the fiberglass repair on the deck. I also removed the mast post and built a new one from sapele. The old one was pine and had rotted on the bottom. The sapele is much nicer looking. And heavier.

New chainplate installed on the starboard side.

I’ve been working on rewiring the electrical system in the evenings this week. I hope to have the electrical finished this weekend. I have to still install the toe rails, but that needs adult help to get installed – hopefully I can talk Susanna into taking time this weekend to help some more (she already put in an hour or so this week helping with the toe rails).

I also need to figure out how to step the mast without killing myself. Or breaking the boat. I’ll post more pictures of each project as I make progress.

O’Day 22 Renovations – Masthead Light (and some progress)

March 25, 2013March 25, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

The boat in it's new "temporary" home — The boat in it’s new “temporary” home

I’m finally making some progress on the sailboat. The weather had been too cold over the past couple of weeks for me to want to work on the boat – but the goal is to get the boat in the water by the boys’ spring break in mid-April, so I needed to get some work done.

Saturday morning Will and I went to Defender Marine Outfitters for their annual warehouse sale. It was completely packed, but Will did very well walking around with me (and waiting line a little longer than we wanted when all the credit card processing went down (luckily I had a check book, so we were able to check out while the line kept getting longer and longer). We picked up some of the supplies we needed for the season. Will go a wetsuit for himself, and I picked up flares, a small inflatable boat, a new masthead light, and a first aid kit.

Sunday I decided to move the boat from where it had been sitting between the house and the garage. The boat got almost no sun on it all day and stayed cold. I moved it to a place near the workshop. Closer to the tools and (hopefully) a bit warmer in the sun.

I also took time to start getting the mast untangled from all of the rigging. The mast spent the past couple of years sitting behind the barn. Last year, Susanna, the boys, and I pulled the mast off and cleaned it up. But I never spent the time to inspect and organize the rigging.

At Defender, I purchased a Davis Mega-Light masthead light. I had to enlarge the hole on the front of the mast head (it looked like it had, in a previous live, been used as an VHF antenna). The masthead light required a 1/2″ hole. The leads to the light need to be soldered to the wires that are running up (inside) the mast. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any solder (though I did find the soldering iron) – so the final connection will have to wait until another day.

I also removed the stainless plate that was attached to the back part of the mast. I’m not sure what it was used for previously (I think there was an old, cheap, masthead light). I will probably attach a topping lift to the plate. Or just leave it off.

I ordered some additional stainless fasteners. I needed #8 x 1″ screws to reattach the teak toe rails. I also needed some more machine screws to reattach the deck hardware. I have had good luck with BoltDepot.com.

I also placed an order for the needed trailer winch (the old one was lost years ago) and trailer lights. Hopefully I’ll have all the parts needed to put the boat in the water. Now I just need to spend a day or two attaching the deck hardware.

Webhosting Server Migration

March 19, 2013March 19, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Over the past couple of evenings I have been looking at a new hosting company for hosting this blog (as well as a few other websites). I decided to move to a Digital Ocean SSD server. The beauty is that you can resize the server as needed to support more hosting (or reduce it if the larger plan isn’t needed).

This blog runs WordPress. Previously I had run a CentOS server with an Apache web server. I decided to switch to Nginx from Apache based on some reports of better performance on Nginx. I ran a load test on the site before migrating to the new server and one after moving to a new server. the Nginx server handles a higher load without slowing down. Not that this site ever gets that much traffic, but it may allow for a smaller (cheaper) server to handle the website.

The website load test before moving. The green is the load, and the blue is the response time.

Note that the response time on the post-migration server stays flat for the entire load. The time scale on the left is different from the scale in the first graph.

Website after migrating to the new hosting server (Nginx instead of apache)

So far the migration was reasonably straight forward. I need to work on the Nginx script to allow better permalinks for WordPress. That will be my project one of these evenings.

Another Sunday Project

March 17, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Will helping show off the new dog pen door. — Will helping show off the new dog pen gate.

The boys are here today – we were able to enjoy a full week together this week – so it wasn’t a day I could totally dedicate to home projects. But it was a quiet day for the boys, and they spent most of the day playing together, or hanging out helping work on projects.

During the colder months of the year, the dogs spend the days on the three season porch off of the kitchen. However, it gets too hot in the summer for them, so I fenced off the last bay of the garage to make a dog pen. I had taken down the fencing that had blocked the main door earlier in the year so we could paint the trim. I had always hated having the doorway entirely fenced off, and the quick fencing job I had done earlier looked terrible.

There is a side door to get into the bay, but a full gate would allow easier access to the space. This morning while at Home Depot, the boys and I picked up hinges and a latch to build a gate. After lunch I spent some time working on building a gate to the bay. I milled some of the rough lumber that I had picked up a couple of weeks ago. I initially pulled out some oak to build the gate, but decided to go with soft maple (the maple is lighter). Neither are good outside woods, but the gate will eventually be painted.

The gate isn’t completely finished. I think I need to add a diagonal cross brace to keep the gate from sagging (though I don’t expect to use the gate too frequently, so I may hold off on adding that). I will also add a bottom latch/lock so the dogs can’t push their way out from the bottom corner. I also need to put some bricks/stones under the gate so Tucker won’t dig his way out.

The gate was on my original (proposed) list of projects to finish on a furlough day. It is nice to move projects off the to do list.

And yes, I was finally able to get some quiet time in the evening before dinner to sit by the fire pit and enjoy a beer.

A quick project (finished) to start the morning

March 17, 2013March 17, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

I finally got fed up with the dripping faucet in the kitchen. So, this morning the boys and I headed to Home Depot and picked up a replacement. The project took less than 2 hours including the trip to the store.

A bucket load of s**t (rather a trailer full of manure compost) and a long day

March 16, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Raised garden beds with a fresh load of manure compost and hay

I’m tired tonight. More than just tired. I’ll probably head to bed when the kids go to bed.

We started this morning at 5:30 when Will and his friend, Shane, woke up. Sleep overs are fun, except at 5:30 in the morning.

Will and Ben had a great morning spent mostly fighting with each other – got to love brothers. At least by the afternoon they were finally playing nicely together. I’m sure it didn’t help that everyone was up early and didn’t get enough sleep. But that is okay, they will go to bed early tonight, and hopefully sleep in. I told them tomorrow is house cleaning morning, unless they sleep in too late to clean the house – I’ll see if that works. If not, at least we will have a clean house early in the morning.

I took the boys over to Rob and Anna Sawyer’s farm to pick up fresh eggs and a trailer load of horse manure compost. I spent the afternoon spreading compost and getting the garden ready for the spring. It wasn’t as warm out today as I had hoped, but it wasn’t too cold to get some yard work done. I could at least get some chores done while watching the boys run around the yard and the woods behind the house.

I didn’t get any time in the shop, except to build swords for the boys. But that is okay, maybe I’ll get in the workshop tomorrow. Tomorrow should be a nice quiet day – no friends over.

… and it is finished (Will’s bedroom)

March 10, 2013March 10, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ 1 Comment

Will's room, refinished, redecorated and reorganized. — Will’s room, refinished, redecorated and reorganized.

Well, nothing in an old house is ever completely finished. However, we made our goal for the weekend. I wasn’t always sure if we would make it.

Today I finished touching up the wall and trim paint as well as finished painting the door. I fixed the radiator where it was leaking (note to self, make sure the joint is clear of any foreign material before mating up the radiator to the valve). I also hung the curtains around the closet and on the windows.

I don’t mind doing the wall repair and most of the painting, but I am very glad that Susanna is a good organizer and decorator. It is the little things, like having the couch at an angle vice flat on the wall, that makes the room really stand out. She also does a great job sorting through the toys and getting rid of things no longer needed. Of course, you can see her organization skills in the rest of the house. As far as room colors, we worked together on the paint scheme, and I think it came out very nice. I am certain life would be more chaotic and disorganized without her help – but it isn’t just organizing things, it is finding a way to organize that also fits each room that makes a big difference. Now if could only get her to help with the workshop. And to top it off, organizing and redecorating is something that she loves to do (with the exception of the workshop of course…).

Will’s room is tricky. There is a chimney in the middle of the room. The chimney will be taken out one of these days, but for now it is there. It also has a large closet on one wall that used to have sliding doors. I removed the doors, but that leaves a long unusual space to deal with. We repainted the open closet – it has a lot of colors – blue for the walls, off white trim, gold for the walls and brown on the floor that was previously painted the trim color.

One of the biggest challenges with the room is fitting in his bed and the love seat. With the chimney and the large closet space, his bed really only fits in one of two places (the corner where the couch is or where we wound up putting it). I have tried several arrangements of the room, but I think this one finally got it right.

The closet space opened up and reused for storage.

We repainted the open closet – it has a lot of colors – blue for the walls, off white trim, gold for the walls and brown on the floor that was previously painted the trim color. We were able to reuse paint from other projects. The gold accent color is the paint we used for the top of the walls in the kitchen, and the brown on the closet floor is the same floor paint we used in the hallway/back stairs. The trim paint is the same trim paint that we use in most of the rest of the house.

Even though all of Will’s belongings are out of the guest room and back in his room, I still have some odds and ends to wrap up in his room. I have to hook up the wiring for the new outlets in his room, but that only requires work in the attic, the guest room and basement (I didn’t want to yank power to the guest room while Will was living in it). I also need to reinstall the inside stops on the window next to his bed. That is a quick afternoon project, and doesn’t impact the room very much. I will hang the door tomorrow (I don’t feel like going to the workshop tonight to get the parts needed to put his door back on). And, finally, I need to finish painting the window on the far wall – I will probably wait until it is warmer and take out the upper and lower sashes and paint them outside.

Planning for the furlough

March 9, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

I haven’t gotten the official notification yet, but it is coming soon. It looks like I will be furloughed one day a week starting in late-April. It will last up to 22 weeks (22 unpaid days off). It is a big cut in pay for six months – which adds stress. But on the good side, it is during the summer, and if I’m going to get extra time off, I would rather it be in the summer.

I’m working on a plan. I’m thinking that I should take the opportunity to get things done around the house. I had initially thought about making a list of 22 projects that I could do in one day (and that don’t cost much money). I think 22 projects would be too many. On the summer days that the boys are here, I want to be able to spend time with them, and not be a slave to house projects. Also, I would like to spend time with Susanna’s family when they come for the wedding.

I could also just spend the time working on whatever house project is in progress. But I’m thinking that it is a good chance to do some smaller projects that might otherwise be put off until a later year. I’m leaning towards making a list of 11 projects to finish on furlough days. I’m also discussing doing group projects with some of my co-workers if they are furloughed on the same day – that may allow bigger projects at each person’s house, taking turns at each house.

So here is my list so far (in no particular order). I’ll sit down over the next couple of weeks and prioritize them with Susanna. There are more than 11 projects below, so I’ll have to pick the ones I want, or maybe just have a long list and see if I can get 11 of the projects finished.

Replace the fence next to the workshop
Paint the ceiling in the front hallway
Rewire the back porch light (and move the switch inside)
Add two electrical outlets to the study.
Add an electrical outlet to the bedroom and a switch for the light
Spend a day cleaning the basement
Build a bridge/walkway across the stream into the field next door (request by the boys)
Add outlets and timed light to the garage
Build a proper lumber rack in the garage
Repair the windows in the kitchen
Build a gate for the dog pen in the garage
Yard cleanup
Rebuild rain collection drain system next to the front porch (south side)
Repair trim on the workshop

Finishing Touches

March 9, 2013March 9, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ 2 Comments

Will's room almost ready to move his belongings back in. — Will’s room almost ready to move his belongings back in.

We are making progress on Will’s bedroom renovation. Today I finished up most of the painting and am just working on the finishing touches to the room.

I am trying something new for the floor. The hardwood floor was in pretty rough shape, but I didn’t have time to completely refinish the floor. So, I lightly sanded the surface (removing any stains that I could), and put a coat of dewaxed shellac down. The shellac dries in an hour or two. I then covered the shellac with a quick dry water-based floor finish from Home Depot. It certainly doesn’t look like a refinished floor, but it looks much better than before. I’ll have to see how well it holds up over time.

Tomorrow I have some touch-up painting to do, including the trim around the windows. Susanna will organize and sort the toys and clothes. Hopefully it will be a nice surprise to Will when he returns home on Monday afternoon. I also need to finish the electrical work for the room, but that will wait until after next week (the outlets are in, but I need to run a wire to the attic to hook them up).