Crap... My thread was pushed back all the way to page 3! I guess I'll have to fix that... So I have been away from boat work for almost a month, I spent 4 days in Switzerland and then another 2 weeks in South Africa. Now that I'm over the jet lag and the cold I caught just on the way home I am getting back to boat related projects. Here is a quick on I managed to pull off this weekend;
Copied from another thread I started about the winch used in this picture:
Finally put the subject bronze winch into service; Pictured below is my "Rigger's Bench" or "Belay Bench" (haven't decided what name I like better... Anyway, I needed a place to do my splicing and rope work so I found this butcher block countertop on CL, but you can also buy them new from LumberLiquidators for around $150. I added some adjustable length chrome legs I got from Ikea that screw on the bottom... I have a bunch of steel uni-strut that I was going to use to build a much more robust and bomb-proof frame but I have too many projects going on at once. These legs are a good temporary solution and I need to get my rigging done for the boat.
Some features;
- The winch is used to for a number of rigging tasks where heavy pulling is required, like setting a spliced eye. Also, I'll be using it to pre-stretch dyneema standing rigging with a load cell to measure tension. The line on the winch is a 15 ft length of 3/8 Amsteel 2 with a dyneema chafe cover to do the work.
- The orange blocks you see at each end of the table are rock-climbing rescue pulleys rated for 20 KN each. When I have long lines to pull I can string up to about 50 ft through these and tension with the winch. I will make a set of Belay Pins from 1/2" stainless round bar with hardwood handles epoxied onto them. A series of 1/2" holes will be drilled at the ends of the table allowing me to drop in a belay pin where ever I need to set a pulley or just need a hard attachment point. I can pretty much drill a 1/2" hole anywhere on the table where I want to be able to set a Belay Pin.
- the butcher block knife holder I got off Amazon and filled most of the slots with epoxy. I left the bottom two small knife slots for ceramic knives and the scissors slot for my kevlar shears. In the filled slots I drill the appropriate sized holes for my splicing fids. I've only done the small sizes, still need to drill the top row for the big sizes.
- The clamp on swing-arm lamp is temporary, robbed from my computer desk... I'm on the hunt for the same type lamp that has the big magnifying glass in it.
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