Mini-Lathe Tuning, Modifications, Upgrades, and Tooling

2-1-2025

2-7-2025 I revised this a week later to list some second layers stuff that isn't primary but that is hard to accomplish much without. Simpler than writing a second post and then expecting the reader to fit them together.

 Nearly a month into playing with my Vevor MX-S716G 8"x16" lathe I've learned a few things and stepped up both my skills and the machine's capabilities several notches. As I said, I had operated a home-built lathe 50 years ago, and I inherited a small assortment of machinist's tools from my great uncle (worked at the US Navy Yard during WWII), reducing the pain of buying tooling. The first cutter I tried was one I ground, under my father's watchful eye, when I was 14. 

 Why the Vevor 8x16? I could say I did some "research," but I just read reviews like you.  It seemed to meet my needs for a price I didn't mind (about $700). So far, so good.

This is a small lathe with limited power and rigidity. It will turn plastics and soft metals easily, but for steel take very light cuts. It will do it well and accurately, but you need to keep the tool pressure low. What reduces tool pressure?

• Sharp tools.
• Light cuts. If you feel resistance, maybe lighten up. Practice.
  
• Slow feed. 
• Higher RPM, because the cut is shallower for a given removal rate. Also, higher speeds can de-couple the natural frequency of the light3weight lathe from the chatter frequency, resulting in a better finish. However, the trade off is heat. Carbide can stand more, high speed steel next, carbon steel least. As a starting point, 1/2-inch aluminum and brass can run as high as 2000 rpm and steel at 1000 rpm with light cuts (you can run slower, of course, though the speed can be unstable below 400 rpm because of reduced hp and momentum. The larger the diameter, the lower the speed (you are trying to keep the surface speed constant. When facing a large part you will want to adjust the rpm as you across the face. Obviously, if the part is unbalanced, either fix the balance or slow way down and feed very slow.
  
• Very small tool tip radius. You want to be cutting a very narrow chip on steel. This also means slow feed, because you are by definition cutting  spiral, and the smaller the radius the more obvious (use a sharp point and you are cutting threads!). So feed slow.
• Lubricant. Motor oil works well. There are many cutting products. Water-based (dilutatble in most cases) products provide better cooling, but you use more to get this effect. A drip-bottle is handy, but so is a pump oil can and a small spray bottle. IT depends on how much you need and where you have to reach.
  

Set-Up. They come assembled but adjusted loose. Expect to clean everything, adjust the gibs, oil all of the ways, and grease the gears. Take your time, expecting to spend several hours on tuning.

Just the same, there were some fixes that needed tended to early on.

•  Metric tools. It comes with OK Allen wrenches (long T-handled ones are better) and crappy wrenches, but not all of the sizes you need (7 mm for the gibs lock nuts).
  
• Bolt it down. Sturdy bench. The more rigid the better.I added a plank if 1-inch marine ply to the benchtop and 3-inch backing plates on the underside. Overkill, but shake is bad.
  
• Work light. You can't have enough.
• Mount it with several feet of clearance to the left of the headstock end so you can have stuff hang out. The tailstock can be within 10 inches of an obstruction (you will slide the tailstock off ocationally). 
• Mount it close to the front edge of the bench. You don't want stuff there anyway.  Most people build a rack for stuff behind it, sometimes hanging off the chip guard on the right side. But wait until you see what works.
  
• Tailstock ways ground and filed. The casting was just bad. Even locked down it wobbled. The bed, cross slide, and compound  ways were all ground well, just the tailstock was bad. 20 minutes with a file set it right. It is helpful to have a tailstock chuck and put something long it, so you can make sure the tailstock is straight.
  
• Align the tailstock with the headstock. up/down, fore/back, and also angle. BTW, the tailstock can be adjusted to the side for turning shallow tapers (like Morse), but this feature is mostly used only for alignment.
  
• Tailstock keyway was missing, I suspect the result of casting finishing error. The tailstock chuck would spin when not locked down. The key is a thick washer with a flat side, installed down a drilled hole, and the hole was not properly drilled to allow the washer to sit flat. As a result, the installer just left it out.This was actually a little tricky, in part because it is hard to see and you've got no drawing to work from. It required the turning of a new washer, grinding the flat to fit, and finishing of the hole. But it turned out fine.
• Re-fit all the handles. They were sloppy feeling, and this can affect accuracy. Some required shimming of the axle diameter, some required washers. The compound handle was too small and the handle was not designed to pin, so I made a new one from scratch, turning the handle and using some 3/8-inch square bar for the cross piece.
• Cross slide lock. Yes, you need one. Otherwise, the cross slide can move away from the work while facing or using a boring bar. Many videos on-line.Most show milling a T-shaped block, but I just welded some 1/2 x 1 flat bar to some 1/4 x 1 1/2 flat bar and ground it to fit. Very smooth. A recessed Allen cap screw locks it. 
• Ways chip guard. An accordion-shaped bit of rubberized cloth that you can get on Amazon for $6. Attach to the headstock and cross slide with magnetic tape. Chips are not so damaging, but if you use a grinder or sand paper, the grit will cause wear.
• Polyethylene washer (or stainless/brass) under tool rest center bolt. This allows the clamp to turn more easily, resulting in less movement and easier clamping. So easy. 
• Debur tool rest center hole, top and bottom. Was causing some very minor rocking. Check for flatness too.
  

Tooling. Stuff you need. I'm going to assume standard hand tools and a grinder. A lot of other things help, like a drill press, Port-a-Band, welding machine, and well, a full shop. I will just point out the vital and lathe-specific.

• Lathe tools (chisels). A set of indexable carbide-tipped tools ($25) are good if you have never ground tools before. I had and I inherited a stack. But they are still very nice and stay sharp a long time. Their Achilles heel is that they are brittle and don't like discontinuous cutting, such as rounding square stock. High speed steel is tougher and less likely to break (I've chipped some inserts, but not HSS).
• Shims, many thickness in 1/32-inch increments. The lathe tools must be shimmed to the exact level of the lathe spindle. Even tools holders from the same kit vary. Cut from scrap, about 3/32 wider than the slot so they are easier to position. I like aluminum and brass to protect the tool rest.
  
• Blank tool stock. The easiest way to turn a pulley (you're a sailor?) is to grind a tool to the profile of the groove. I have one specific to 1/4-inch Amsteel, of course. I'm sure I will make more.
  
• Tailstock chuck. You can't drill without one. $25.
• Center drills. Because they are short they are just better at starting a centered hole than a regular drill. And for centers, of course.
  
• Taps and dies to about 1/2-inch, holders, and a drill set from 1/16- to 1/2-inch by 64ths. Can be either metric or inch, since you don't need to match up. You can thread on the lathe (metric or US), but you won't want to, since changing the gears is a PITA and there is no thread dial. And many builds have need for tapped holes other places, like the cross slide handle I made. Also a center punch.
• Files. All kinds. for knocking off corners and cleaning things up. And for fixing up the lathe. A big mill file is a start, but add smaller ones and  rat tail files. Fit small handles (you can make these).
  
• Drill guide. I already had this, but get one. By far the handiest way to drill 90 degree holes in shafts for set screws, a very common task. Not technically a lather tool, but used in conjunction.
  
• Deburing tools. I have a 1916 scraper, plus a 3-edge scraper I made from a rusty triangular file and two more for holes made from a broken drill and an old counter bore. Something.
  
• Soft blow hammer. Use this to set tapers in the tailstock.
  
• Center marking gauge. Some things you hold in the chuck, but many are better stabilized with a center in the tailstock.  The old school 90 degree T-type works fine (you can make this).
  
• Measuring tools. A digital caliper is the workhorse, but you'll add more. A separate, compact depth gauge is very handy. Make it from 5 inches of 1/8-inch steel 1-inch of rod, 1/2-inch brass rod, and a small thumb screw tapped in the side.
  
• Scribe. A pencil is not good enough. For better visibility, cover it with Sharpie and then scratch through that.
• Bump center. This is an alignment tool. It took me a few weeks to figure out that I needed one, and boy can it be handy. Make you own with 1/2-inch square bar and some in-line skate bearings.
• Face plates. 
• Chuck spider (for chucking short things--Google it). I welded up my own from 1/4-inch stock and ground/filed it flat. Get the simplest one you can, with legs no more than about 0.35-inch wide (to chuck 1/2-inch work). Plastic is OK, the load is not the great. 
• Thin aluminum jaw guards. For protection soft items. Today I turned a tiny brass lamp finial adapter, just 3/8-inch long. I used the spider, plus a nut and washer to locate the surface just above the jaws.
  

Milling. And then there is the milling stuff. Yup, it will do light duty milling on brass and aluminum, but I expect it to struggle with steel. It is also no substitute for a separate drill press. Tip: set your gibs tighter than you would for turning and take light cuts. Lots of lube, and don't hurry.

The cross slide on mine is about 0.006-inch out of 90 degrees to the headstock. You won't notice it turning, but you will when feeding across the bed. You can compensate by placing a  thin spacer behind the work, once you know the angle.

• Milling 90 degree plate. You can buy this for $50 or you can make one--I welded one up and then ground it flat. Lots of holes on a grid. I tapped mine so that I can just use studs and drilled bars. It bolts in place of the tool rest.
• More shims. Mostly aluminum or brass to protect the work.
  
• Marking/bolting 90 degree plates and squares. Can be bought or made from angle iron and filed square.
• Assorted small clamps. Get them as you need them. Used with the 90 degree milling plate.
  
• Milling vice. Get the simplest one you can, with vertical travel. Simpler means more rigid. Bolts onto the cross slide. Like the lathe, mine required some rework (handle, gibs, and mounting bolts, spacers and bushings [that's what a lathe is for!]). $50
• End mills (a set). I'll probably get a slitting saw (turn the arbor?) and some woodruff-style cutters soon.  Maybe a round end mill set. I need to see what projects I have. 
• Files. Machinists were making accurate parts with files long before milling machines were invented. vital for final touches that make the difference between OKish or poor, and very good.
  
• Small V-blocks. Very handy for drilling or milling small shafts. I made a 1/2-inch x 2.5-inch block from 1/2-inch rod (flat on the back side) and will make more.I doubt the standard sizes would be of much use.
  

Hand Turning. Wood can be turned, of course (I have a wood lathe, but a small lathe has advantages too). Metal can also be turned, with small chisel and care.

• Tool rest. You can use a piece of 1/2-inch square stock in the tool holder, but it is limited. I welded up a nice stiff one from 1/2x1 strip and 1/4x1 1/2 strip about 6 inches long that bolts in place of the tool holder. 
• Hand tools. Some folks use graver's chisels. I made adapters that pressed into 1/2-inch ID tubing that hold 1/4x1/4 lathe bits with 2 set screws. The tips are ground differently from standard bits, typically like a V-wood turning tool, but with less rake. Then I slipped wood handles over the end of the tubing, making them close to the length of a wood turning chisel, because that is what I am used to. Mostly handy for turning rounded ends.
• Expect to use it for wood as well. Tool handles, for example. You can do it free hand or using the slides for precise work (fitting handle ferules, for example).  

Tool Storage. There are a lot of bits and pieces. I have a tray on the chip guard for keys, Allen wrenches, and scribes. Trays to my right hold lathe bits, center drills, jigs for holding pulleys and similar, face plates, and shims for lathe bits. Another tray holds all of the milling stuff. A shallow drawer to one side holds measuring and layout tools. A rack on the back of the chip guard holds commonly used items, such as keys, Allen wrenches, scribe, depth gauge, and dead center. Lubes are on the table to the left. A chip brush lives on the chip tray to towards the tailstock

Scraps. You will need lots and lots of aluminum, brass, plastic, and wood scrap. Rods, tubing, and plates. Hole saws are darn handy for turning thick plates into thinnish round blanks for pulleys and the like.

If I added  up the cost of all the tooling I'm pretty sure it is more than the lathe, but I had a lot of it and made a lot of it. I've only spent ~ $75, but that's a cheat number.

Mini-Lathe

rev. 1-12-2025, rev. 1-17-2025

I'm kind of a shop junky. I use my tools a lot, but yes, by normal standards I'm not the average credit card sailor.

I built a metal lathe in junior high school from washing machine parts, a few things I cast, and a few things from the hardware store. It vaguely resembled a Uni-mat, and it turned out some bicycle and skateboard parts. A few things for work. However, it was non-standard and wore out 30 years ago. I've been wanting to replace it, but they're expensive. I learned a lot of good drill press and hole saw hacks to get around it when making the odd bushing. But I just wanted one, and now I'm retired, basically, so why not?

 

I settled on an 8x16 lathe from Vevor. The reviews were mixed, some saying that it could do some good work after some adjustments, tuning, and slight modifications. Others said it was a boat anchor that couldn't do shit. After about four hours of adjusting, tweaking, tiny changes, and testing, I'm firmly in camp one. I think it is going to be just swell.

 

 

 Normally I hate unboxing photos. So typical of You Tube. But hauling it around to the basement entrance in the snow and then opening the plywood crate really reminded me of the "special award" scene in "A Christmas Story." I kept saying in my head "Careful! It's fragilee."

 

They ship them loosely assembled. If you can't adjust and tune a lathe, you are going to be disappointed. Since I built my last one from washing machine parts, and have some practice on real machines, tuning it up was just a few hours of plesant tinkering. The only real "fix" was re-grinding the tailstock slide, which was botched at the factory, but that took only minutes and not it is tight. I added a few spacers and washers here and there, and a few shims where they were needed. Now it seems to turn plastic, aluminum, and steel to a pretty good finish and precision, with minimal fuss. Another problem some people have, judging from the you tube videos, is that they don't use cutting fluid. Well, that's just a mistake on a lathe or mill unless you are working plastic. Technically, you don't need it, but you get a better finish and precision with it. I use a water/oil emulsion type by Anchor Lubes. A spray bottle is all you need. Flood systems are for mills and for CNC production environments (the flush helps move the chips to a collection point).

My Scan wall unit base is perhaps not the sturdiest, so I mounted it on a 1-inch marine ply sub-base and used backing plates inside. I weighs about 85 pounds, I think. Not too hard to pick up.

 

There is a wood lathe I use on the bench to the left, (hanging on the wall in storage at the moment), so I have a handy switched outlet (curiously, the wood lath does not have a switch).

 

 I got a set of carbide insert tools to go with it. They seem good, with enough shapes for most things. Several boring bars and parting tool was included, as well as right and left cut tools, several radiuses, and threading tips. They work well. I have some HSS tool stock, so I can grind a few custom tools for thimbles and pulleys. I had to make a set of shims to go under the tools, of course, to get them to the correct height. Just a standard thing that perhaps some of the buyers didn't anticipate. I remember some complaining that they should have come with and they they didn't have shim stock. Whiners. 

I've heard complaints about the slide gibbs on the Vevor machines, but they were actually pretty good. Perhaps eventually I will make a new set from brass, but that's down the road. Meanwhile, they adjust up nice and snug with no wobble. A little more friction than I like, but we'll see how the bed in.

The run out on the chuck is about 0.005. I'm not going to work over it. The spindle bearings came snug with no meaningful runout. I'll have to check the lube and adjustment after a few hundred hours.

At one point I was experimenting on a stub of thick walled aluminum tubing, and it finally just folded up. It seems I had turned the wall thickness down to 0.010 inches, which was OK, but 0.005 inches was too little. But that is pretty impressive, to me. That's thin.

The cross slide angle adjustment is under the slide, which makes it slightly annoying to adjust (you have to back the slide far to the right). But it's not something you use that frequently, and once you get the gibs set right and replace the handle it spins out quickly.  

 

Which reminds me. I did have to alight the tailstock alignment. There is a mechanism, but it is clunky, and I will probably pull it apart and clean it up when I need it.

I got a set of carbide insert tools to go with it. They seem good, with enough shapes for most things. Boring bars too, which seem to work well. I have some HSS tool stock, so I can grind a few custom tools for thimbles and pulleys. I had to make a set of shims to go under the tools, to get them at the correct height. Just a standard thing that perhaps some of the buyers didn't anticipate. I remember some complaining that they should have come with and they they didn't have shim stock. Whiners.

I did some test drilling from the tailstock. No problems. I did purchase a chuck for that (Morse #2 taper).

 

I turned aluminum, steel, and plastic. All good. The surface finish kept improving as I learned what each material liked with these tools. No chattering and nice long chips, often many feet long, even with steel.

The motor and speed controls seem good. Enough power, and I didn't notice bothersome bogging down with any depth of cut that made sense. The power feed works fine. I did not play with threading yet. I'm sure I'll mostly used taps and dies. But it does come with change gears.

I've got a few small boat projects in mind. I'll knock those out after it gets warm enough to go sailing (the snow needs to melt). After that ... no idea.Did I really need this? No. Do you? Probably not. But it's a bit of fun.

---

Later, after dinner, making a quick test jig, and grinding a cutter for 1/4-inch radius grooves....

One of my first projects is to be some wheel thimbles for my shroud tensioners. The Dyneema line is secured around a pin through two sharp-edged stainless plates. Chafe has been an issue, and the small radius of the pin is a concern. I could use a conventional thimble, but it would not center the line on the pin and thimbles can cut the rope. A wheel thimble solves both problems. I hacked this out of a bit of cutting board, so it is crude, but it proved the jig and the groove cutter. The cutter, BTW, was one I ground when I was 13, a full 50 years ago. It was still razor sharp and just right. I think it was originally for a bearing groove.

The grooves are intentionally deeper than a pulley, to keep the rope in place and to protect from chafe. The width is wrong--this was just a quick test. This is probably the correct width for the pin on the boat, but I need to measure.

It's working! It was so easy. I could make 10 of these in 30 minutes, each identical. The breaking load tested to be 700 pounds, and the WLL is probably about 200 pounds.

The once I ended up using on the boat (shroud tensioner tackle) are a little larger and have a WLL of about 250 pounds. Since the maximum load on this tackle is about 200 pounds, plastic works.  But for any high load application, I would use aluminum, which should match the WLL of the Dyneema.

 

 A metal lathe makes these easy, but you could make them with a drill press and a few files, or with a drill press-to-lathe conversion kit. The trick is to make a chisel that matches the groove bottom curve.

 

 

 

The final product:

• Centers the load (rope) on the pin.
• Protects the rope from both side chafe and pin chafe.
• Increases the pin radius. The D/d is increased from 1:1 to 3:1.

Much better than a thimble. Why there is no US distribution I can't guess. They are available for very heavy lifting applications.

 

 

 

  

Deadeyes Vs. Lashings

Rev. 1-18-2025

I recently got a new metal lathe. My last metal lathe crashed about 20 years ago and I;ve been bodging by with a wood lathe and drill press tricks. I have a few small projects in mind, and in addition to those, deadeyes caught my eye. Not the lignum verta sort of square riggers, but something small for Dyneema.

 

 

 

 

 

A halyard applied the tension and a single leg was tied off above the top block.

 

Aluminum should be the trick, or even Nylon for light load applications.

or what about Low friction rings or even big thimbles? Even high-end boats use these.

 

 

A turnbuckle on the Lagoon, vs. the thimble lashing on an Outremer 51.

But what I can't get my arms around, if Outremer and other high-end makers are OK with lashings, is what is the advantage of bespoke deadeyes? My gut is that they are a little easier to tension, but is that even true, if the lines all run the same way? Some mini-deadeyes would be cool and trick, but is there no point?

Some years ago I tested lashing efficiency for PS, comparing Colligo eyes with LFRs.  I couldn't measure enough difference to publish.

---

So I made some up on the lathe to investigate the strength of materials. HDPE is about as weak as you can get. I basically copied the Colligo dimensions and pull tested them first to 2200 pounds and then to failure at nearly 5000 pounds (the HDPE began to creep--no dramatic failure).

 

Easy enough to make on a lathe, but you will need a jig to hold them on an arbor using the deadeye holes. I can see why Colligo went with the teardrop shape; it reduces rotation when tightening the lashing.  Not a problem with a little more care, or if I had made the eye a little tighter (it was just a test stub of line with a preexisting eye, not one made up for this test).

 

If made from nylon they would be stronger than the Dyneema line. If I wanted to go from lashing to pin, without the encircling Dyneema eye, then aluminum would be required for the pin stress.

 

I may make some for some rigging mods down the line. Although I am sure nylon would work, I'll probably use 1/2-inch aluminum plate.  A little slower to turn, but not bad and permanent.

 

 

WAGO and pull out strength

 A little while ago the loss of control of a ship and destruction of the Key Bridge in Baltimore implicated a WAGO connector. It is not clear whether the connector failed or whether it was an installation error, which is actually far more likely (we all make mistakes). However, I do get questions about the suitability of Wago connectors for yachts. I tested them, along with several other types, and they answer is yes and maybe. They are good for some things, but not for small wires and not as good as some other things. Strain relief is is still vital.

I use Wagos for some things. I also solder very small wires, use crimps, and use pressure plate- and eye-type terminal strips. It all depends. And contrary to popular belief, USCG does permit wire nuts inside weatherproof enclosures. In fact, it is always a good idea to use an enclosure if ...

• There is any chance of loose gear coming in contact with the confections.
• If splashes are possible.
• To provide strain relic and vibration damaging.

Over Jammer

12-19-2024, rev. 12-20-2024

My PDQ had 6 winches; there were jammers, but also enough winches so that redirrecting lines was minimized and there were multiple options for many tasks.

 

 Everything except the traveler is on one winch when on port tack. 

 

A single A single turning block faces off with seven clutches. There is a second winch just below, but it has five clutches of its own to deal with.  You don't put sheets in clutches on a performance multihull (Dragonfly).

 

True, I can't trim the jib with the loop over the winch, but the halyard trims easily. I could run the jib sheet through a clutch, but I really don't like jib sheets in clutches, and locating the clutch would be tricky. 

 

If I were to run the halyard through the groove instead I can avoid threading the tail. Lay a loop sling over the winch, place the rope over the sling, thread the LFR onto the end of the sling, slide the rope into the groove, and drop the other end of the sling over the winch. The only downside is that the rope could fall out of the groove if there is not tension, but that is not really likely.

 

Another option would be to cut a groove in the LFR and run the loop sling in the groove, bonded in place. A bit like this, below.

Antal Open Low Friction Ring

 

 

My challenge is trivial by comparison, and is sort of solved with a low friction ring on a loop. But I am considering a turning block so that I don't have to thread it. But they are $300! I may have to machine one.

 

 

I could put a turning block here, or maybe an inch farther aft.

 

Not all Winterizing Products are the Same

3-2014

As part of an up-coming Practical Sailor article I tested the anti-corrosion properties of a number of leading winterizing agents:

The test rig...

 

Ethanol Based                                  Glycol Based

The coupons after 2 months...

The left hand column, all ethanol-based.

1. Water
2. Vodka
3. I won't tell... just avoid ethanol.
4. I won't tell... just avoid ethanol.

 The right hand products I like, all propylene glycol-based. I forget the order, but they were all perfect.

1. Starbrite
2. Camco
3. Pure Oceans
4. Sudbury Marine
5. Southwind/Dow Frost

The clear point is not to be a cheapskate. Stay with something reputable, and stay with glycol.

The best chafe sleeve, and why a cover is NOT a chafe sleeve.

After a little more time spent with the chafe machine, a champion emerges. as well as the observation that weave is as important as the material.

What? Being Spectra is not enough? A it turns out, there is an enormous difference between braided covers and tightly woven tubing. In fact, our lowly nylon tubular webbing typically out-wears Dyneema and Kevlar rope covers. No wonder we have been so happy with our experience using nylon webbing as a chafe cover for docklines.

Top to bottom:

New England Rope ARC. 10 minutes against grindstone.

New England Rope Dyneema Chafe Sleeve. 10 minutes against grindstone.

For reference:

New England Rope Regatta Braid. 1 minute against grindstone.

New England Ropes StaSet (not pictured). About the same as Regatta Braid.

9/6-inch 7x19 rigging wire parted in 13 minutes.

But I hadn't tested nylon webbing in the same run, or plain Amsteel...

Top. ARC, as before.

Center. Plain Amsteel, Dyneema Sleeve, 9/16" nylon tubular webbing, all for 10 minutes.

Lower. Regatta braid, 1 minute, as before.

Notice that the nylon webbing outwore the high-tech cover by a mile (it's still running, at just over 30 minutes, and not through)! Notice that plain Amsteel is 30% through the first yarns, worse than the webbing.

Which is not to take anything away from this Dyneema webbing sleeve that wears like iron. Wow.

Before we question why New England Ropes even make the cover material, realize they serve a different purpose. ARC makes a nice cover, holding in jammers, minimizing core slip, and not stiffening the line. The Spectra sleeve and tubular nylon does none of these things. All it does is wear hard.

----

But this was all tested dry. What about the effect of water? We retested the same materials, and ...

I've never really thought too much about nylon chafe when wet, since it didn't apply to my experience; my mooring lines are well-protected, my anchor rode is chain, and my bridle rigged from cleats with good chafe protection (I suspect this is generally less of a problem for cats--we must always use bridles, but they are easier to rig chafe-free).

Wet vs. Dry Chafe
(2 reps each, only a few minutes variation)

Material                                    Wet vs Dry      Time to Chafe Through
Nylon webbing                          Dry                   45 min.
Nylon webbing                          Wet                   14 min.
NER Dyneema chafe sleeve      Dry                    50 min.
NER Dyneema Chafe Sleeve     Wet                   40 min.

I expected a difference, but 3x caught me by surprise. It is more than a simple change in strength, probably beyond simple analysis. I need to see how much difference Maxijacket makes; there are applications like chain-to-rope splices where Dyneema's not an option. I'll also expand this to include ropes and polyester.

The nylon webbing still makes sense many places, where availability in large sizes and price matter. For comparison, the cover on a typical line fails in 1-3 minutes.

Bare Feet or Shoes?

 I'm firmly in the shoes camp. I've stubbed to many toes and even on my beach cat, years ago, I prefered wet suit boots if the wind was up at all. Better grip. But iron sailor in past went barefoot in the rigging around the Horn (leather soles were more dangerous than cold toes--I bet they would have scooped up rubber-soled trainers in a heartbeat) and the debate continues in some circles.

I wonder if this has ever been systematically tested.

• I'd bet dinner that the correct sole will out grip skin on every surface. I doubt it even merits serious discussion.
• I've heard of studio dancing, but always with the caveat that the feet can't be sweaty. Boats get rain and seawater on them, so forget that.
• Surfing feels better with bare feet, but the reason is nerve endings. You can feel the board better. I've surfed with wet suit boots, and the traction was the same or better, but the feel was less. But I was also not cringing with fear every step, wondering if I was going to cream something. If you slide on a board you just fall, so toe protection, pain, and fear don't enter in. Also, the deck of a surfboard is optimized (soft wax) for bare feet. I doubt anyone spreads surf wax on the their side decks. Without a good coating of surf wax, a board is slicker than eel shit.
• I've heard you can "feel" more with bare feet. I sailed a beach cat for a decade, winter and summer, and I can honestly say I never felt bare feet were better. If there was serious wind, boots for 100% certain. Better traction. The only reason for bare feet was casual days of beach bumming or incinerator heat and light winds.
• I've known of a rock rock climbing problems that are done bare foot, but only because a toe needs to fit in a very specific hole. Weird stuff, climbers consider it very, very fringe. 99.999% of the time shoes are better.
• Deck shoes should be thin-soled for feel and so that they conform over and around ropes. Not the best for tennis or miles of walking, but that is what true performance deck shoes are. "Boat shoes," as distinct from deck shoes, never appealed to me. I'm not into style. Multi-court shoes and trainers can certainly work on decks, but the soles are thicker than optimum to allow padding for running and jumping. I don't run or jump on a boat, at least not the the point where additional padding is required. I do wear orthodics for flat feet. I have multiple pairs, some for higher impact sports, including hiking, and some thin for sailing, cycling, and skating/skiing.
• There is always the matter of skin cancer and covering up. Some are deniers. I admit to wearing multi-strap sandals on some of the hottest days ... with thick sunscreen.
  

December is just a few days away, so I'm not going to be testing any of that anytime soon.

Stove Top Heater

 Every fall someone re-posts the idea of heating the cabin with a flower pot on the stove. I was smart enough to test this at home, where the pot shattered, throwing hot bits around the kitchen. It is an unsafe idea that might wok sort of and might get you burned or your boat damaged. Just no.

 As long as the link stays live, here is the article I wrote for Good Old Boat about an improved stove top heater. This was written about 5 years ago, and I would not change a thing. It works. Stove Top Cabin Heater

 

The concept was simplicity itself:

• We already have an engineered heat source with fuel supply, regulation, and a safe base.
• The Dickenson Cozy Cabin Heater was/is nothing more than a burner, heat transfer space, and a properly sized flue.
• A stainless stew pot serves for the heat transfer space, though perhaps not quite on the stoves highest setting.
  
• A 1-inch flue is a good match for a typical burner, though perhaps not on the highest setting. 
• All of the exhaust will go up the flue. If the flue is the correct length, it will be no more than 100C where it penetrates the deck. No problem. Test and insulate as needed. The highest setting might allow some exhaust to go under the pot and out into the cabin. You can feel this with your fingers near the edge. Adjust.
  
• You can still cook, though more slowly, on the top of the inverted pot. The aluminum skirt conserves heat, for the pot, helps heat the room (more surface) and keeps the cooking pot safe. 
• A very low fan (I use one made to run off the USB port of a PC) helps distribute the heat. it will cook my F-24 in 20 minutes after which I turn it down. This is at about 35-40F.
  

I would turn it off before leaving or sleeping. But if the cabin furniture is warm, the cabin will stay warm for a while. Getting the furniture warm is important.

• The interior volume is about 300 ft^3, or about twenty pounds of air. The cabin furnishings weigh several hundred pounds. It is the furnishings that absorb the heat and keep the cabin warm. Kind of obvious, even though common sense tells us that the air is what we must heat.
   

Deck Level Wind Indicators

Rev. 11-27-2024

Eagles have landed on my boat and eaten three Windexes. They play with them, like a cat.For now, I'm done giving them toys.

 

 

 

So I've started testing deck-level flies. I've been using pulpit flies for years on all of my boats (beach cat, Stiletto, PDQ, and F-24) and like them. The location has to be careful chosen and I used something different on each boat.

Now I'm looking at shroud ribbons and flies. I didn't like them on other boats, but they seem to suit my F-24. 

 

 

Two DIY versions, top, then Nautos and Davis Wind-Tel.

We after a few sails we trimmed the long ribbon to about 10 inches, more like the others. The excess length just made it flutter more and harder to read.

In fact, I'm liking all of them at first blush. I imagine I will stay with the one that holds-up best.

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The top DIY is on with Velcro. It does not spin, so it can wrap, but it always unwinds when the wind drops in a jibe. The second uses a DIY polyethylene spool (10 minute lathe project for the pair) for easier rotation, making it slightly more sensitive than the Nautos ribbon, but maybe not enough to matter. 

 

The Davis Wind-Tel ($65 per pair) is out of production, but there is lots of old stock around.  The Nautos Tell Tails are cheap ($10 for two sets) and though potentially fragile, work pretty darn well. Being able to spin vs. tied on really does help.

 

Any ideas? I'll test anything.