Monday, May 14, 2012

Some help from our friends...

Our good friend and neighbor Dave was kind enough to spend his weekend helping us with some more carpentry. Dave's specialty is plumbing, but he has a good handle on all the trades. Having some outside help was a rare treat as we have been doing almost the entire fit-out by ourselves to date. Dave is looking at starting his own boat building project this year (composite construction catamaran) and a weekend on our project hasn't scared him off... he is very skilled and efficient and it was a pleasure having his help.











We knocked out the side-shell planking in the galley area and the guest cabin forward. Closing up the guest cabin area required the installation of some plumbing for the fill and vent for one of our water tanks. This gave us a chance to dig into our big box of pex tubing and fittings that had been sitting in storage for the last year. The first line we ran was one inch pex for the water tank #1 fill. Pex is great stuff but definitely a challenge to work with in this (larger, more rigid) size. Other than the water fills, the rest of the pex plumbing on the boat will be 3/4 and 1/2". After starting our plumbing wrestling with the 1", those smaller sizes should be a piece of cake. We have two more sections of side-shell planking, then we'll be switching gears and starting on the plumbing for the potable water, raw water anchor wash-down, black and gray water (toilets and drains), and hydronic heater plumbing. Started the install of the engine room located pumps, filters and manifolds in preparation for the plumbing work coming up... I think we'll be playing with this part of the project for at least a couple of weeks. What are you up to next week Dave?

6 comments:

  1. Peter,

    Hello. Your build is coming along great! Can you tell me who you used to do the original modeling and lofting on the computer? I assume you started with a paper set of the George Buehler's plans?

    ReplyDelete
  2. R Jason,

    We started with the basic paper plans from buehler. When we started planning the steel order, it made a lot more sense for us to have the parts precut from wheel abraded and pre-primed steel. We worked with a naval architect friend from a local commercial shipyard to get the modelling done. This allowed us to incorporate a number of custom design features like the fwd wheelhouse windows and the custom stern and swimstep. In the end this saved us a bunch of labor as the parts arrived ready to assemble with only minor trimming and fitup necessary. There is also a material savings as everything is cut using a "nested"
    layout, making the most efficient use of the steel plate. Shoot me your email if you want more info, or references for naval architects and steel suppliers.

    Regards,
    Peter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peter,

      Thanks for the info. We're considering a build of a 46-55ft DD and also feel that computer modeling and nesting saves $$ in the end. I'd love references! I can be reached at rjasonadams (at) gmail.com.

      Thanks,
      R. Jason Adams

      Delete
    2. Hello Pete, can you send me the NA contact info. I am building a DD38 at the moment doing all the construction permits and buying some of the equipment . I got a lot of ideasfrom your blog.
      Thanks .
      John Meritt
      Thanls

      Delete
    3. Hi John Meritt.
      Guess I'm about six months late replying to your inquiry. If you still need some referrals, shoot me another message.

      Delete
  3. R Jason,

    We started with the basic paper plans from buehler. When we started planning the steel order, it made a lot more sense for us to have the parts precut from wheel abraded and pre-primed steel. We worked with a naval architect friend from a local commercial shipyard to get the modelling done. This allowed us to incorporate a number of custom design features like the fwd wheelhouse windows and the custom stern and swimstep. In the end this saved us a bunch of labor as the parts arrived ready to assemble with only minor trimming and fitup necessary. There is also a material savings as everything is cut using a "nested"
    layout, making the most efficient use of the steel plate. Shoot me your email if you want more info, or references for naval architects and steel suppliers.

    Regards,
    Peter

    ReplyDelete