I'd been keeping an eye out for some aluminum diamond plate material to make deck plates for the engine room for a while. Most of what I had found was either very expensive, or too lightweight to use for decking without some major re-enforcement. I mentioned this to Casey at CS Marine, and he came through for us again. CS Marine had recently been working on a contract to replace a bunch of Coast Guard channel markers and he had a pile of the old ones at his yard on Mare Island. They consist of a heavy 3/8" aluminum diamond plate platform, about 5 foot square that is bolted to a heavy ring that sits on a piling. The platform also has railings and misc hardware associated with the navigation light installation bolted to it. All I had to do was show up at his yard with some tools and a truck and take them apart to get at the aluminum decking. A few hours of disassembly and clean-up with a wire wheel and we had a nice supply of excellent heavy duty marine grade aluminum diamond plate decking for the engine room. Spent most of the day Saturday cutting, grinding, and fitting all the pieces in. Hard work, but worth the effort... now I can enjoy the benefits of the "full headroom - walk around" engine room that we designed for this boat. Thanks again Casey.
No comments:
Post a Comment