an infrequent repository of mostly new stuff
Brazing brass with silver solder. Red hot, the melting point of silver alloy.
Had a very interesting weekend. Once again, a few screw-ups, but ultimately it turned out well, and a lot of very useful stuff was learned in the process. If you want a Quick Tips list, skip to the bottom of this post where there’s also a video.
Continue reading “Hardware the Hard Way Part 3 – Brazing Brass”
Aeons’ Rudder propped in place
Though I know of people who’ve done it, casting bronze is beyond my skill and determination; but brass is relatively easy to find and work with hand tools, and perfectly suitable for boats that sleep on trailers when not in use, instead of in the water (it breaks down in salt water if submerged constantly).
Hardware plans
This is where I get myself in trouble.
To be honest, it’s very difficult to find traditional hardware for old style boats anymore. Most of what you find is stainless steel parts for production fiberglass or racing boats, which look terribly out of place on an old boat. There are a few specialized sources left – some restoration craftsmen who custom cast bronze, or a handful of places that sell reproductions of notable parts, usually for high end or collectable designs, for which people will pay top dollar to restore an original, or commission a reproduction. There are more sources for the most common parts, such as cleats, fairleads, etc., but even here we’re talking perhaps a dozen at most. Options are limited.
Gray Treefrogs are nearly invisible, but you find them everywhere. They look like lichen-covered tree bark, and during the day hide silent as stones under tools in the yard, upturned buckets, the siding on the house, etc..
If you pick one up, and open your hand to look, it will leap onto the nearest treelike object, which is usually your wife or daughter, or perhaps the gentleman at the door endeavoring to interest you in the salvation of your soul. Indeed, they do. They cling with a wet thwack, like a soggy noodle, to roughly the same place you’d stick a lapel pin, or boutonnière.
At night, after a summer storm, they get out of hand in other ways, in which they make the loud noises, instead of their startled landing sites.
The show before the show.
Off the tip of Windmill Point and Stingray Point in the Chesapeake Bay, at the mouth of the Rappahannock River, is Wolftrap Lighthouse. It’s a well-known landmark, or rather seamark, for watermen and boaters in the area. I’ve passed it many times, myself. It was decommissioned and auctioned off by the Coast Guard back in the ’70’s, and moved into private hands. It’s up for sale again. For $288,000 you get the lighthouse and a piece of marshland on shore a mile away where you can launch a boat to get to it.
Now this is my idea of a dream home.
Doug helped me flip the boats while he was here so he could see them right side up. That gave me access to all the parts that still needed a last coat of varnish (this year).
The Decks and Coamings now have three coats, the Rails have two. I also got two coats on the Tillers and, finally, two coats on the Hatch Covers. Now they match the Decks, and for the first time you can see how the finished topsides will look with all matching woods and colors. Very nice, I think.
Working strenuously on the hardware now. More on that soon.