Haven't had much boat building time the past few months but have been working on some bits and pieces like the hatches.
I also added the cupholders to the console as well as getting drains set up for them so the inside of my console stays dry. You might see here I also decided to ditch the analogue guages and use a second plotter. I have the Suzuki gateway to show all engine information and warnings on these displays.
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Another problem I've been trying to figure out for a while is how to get my all around light over my head so it doesn't effect my night vision as I boat at night a lot. I also wanted a decently high VHF antenna. Both things need to pivot down so I can go under a low bridge and I wasn't loving anything I mocked up that had multiple tall things coming up from my console to mess with. Decided to make a bit of a mast with a light and VHF whip antenna at the top. The light will be directly over me, and the antenna will be high up but not super high gain since a small boat can roll around a lot. Used g10 tube for the mast and mocked up the layout for the top, then made it from plywood.
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For the bottom I am using a vhf antenna mount so the whole thing can pivot down. They use a 1"-14 thread so I needed a metal tube with that thread on one end and that would accept the g10 on the other. I drilled and tapped a short piece of 316 pipe then rounded the other end after enlarging it a tiny bit to accept the g10 tube. This whole part was one of the jankiest things I've done in a while, and I continue to think 316 is terrible to work with, but I'm trying to not use any 304 on the boat. As this is a one off part I used a cheap drill bit and tap for the threads. The drill bit had to be sharpened about 10 times to make it to depth and then went straight in the trash.
The tap made it about 1/3 in then I couldn't go further with a monkey wrench, and putting such an off center load was scaring me. I was about ready to just pay someone to make the part from the extra pipe so I decided to just power through. I did what I knew at the time was a terrible idea and hooked the tap to a 1/2" impact. I got another 20% of the way there before the tip of the tap was too chipped to continue. I tried sharpening it but had no good way to so that didn't help. Then I realized the tap was way longer than I needed, so I just used an angle grinder to cut off 3/8" from the tip of the tap exposing fresh threads. Doing this 3 more times I was able to finish tapping the hole.
Next up I rigged up a terrible "lathe" using the tap in the drill to spin the piece while I used a flap disk to shape it.
The threads are a mess and the outside is not evenly shaped but it doesn't look terrible and it works so I'll take it for now. I was going to glue the g10 in to this piece but then it wouldn't be possible to adjust the twist of the mast, so I decided to use set screws on the base instead. Of course 316 I broke a tap making these holes as well, but got that cleared and finished the part. As far as a practical fix to the problems I was trying to solve I'm really happy with this, just wish the base piece was higher quality.
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Last thing I did was etch my HIN on some 316 stainless pieces as I couldn't find anyone to make these. Had the HIN cut out of vinyl and used that as a mask while I etched the pieces suspended in ferric chloride for about 5 hours at room temp. Ended up with a nice deep engraving. I'll clean these pieces up and embed on one the transom and one in a hidden location.
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