The Many Stages of Keel Bracket Assembly (a photo retrospective) Part 1,2 and 3

[pclarksurf]

We took a deep dive on Keel -- but for those contemplating replacing and manipulating your keel hanger brackets/ pin and surrounding surfaces: I've outlined my progress migrating from the old style assembly (1973) to the new (CD purchased).

Step 1) Evaluate your existing circumstances. This is literally day 1 of S/V Mary Anne's retrofit-- first thing I did after bringing her home was to take a look at the keel.

Don't let the 35 foot test fool you! Yes-- it looks pretty darn good from just a few feet away, but get in there and really look-- It's rusted through and through and the classic "hole hogging" has begun / continues.

An even closer examination of the Eye Bolt is more disturbing (never-mind the compromised keel cable head) :

You can see that the keel is literally rusting from the inside out-- everything under whatever the blue paint may have been is nothing more than a rust placebo-- it made someone feel better while the metal continues to degrade.

Step 1A) Evaluate wear points on the bracket assembly. This was taken the same day once the keel was down-- early style square hangers with classic (but not overly horrific) pin wear (shiny area).

Replete with spider webs and sycamore fluff-- weldments are intact and thankfully were not seized and the bolts cleared without issue. Note the depth of the housing-- significantly different than that of the new style hangers and what you can purchase through CD.

Step 2) New brackets in hand-- dry fit dry fit dry fit. The new brackets will be too wide by design-- the pin over length so you can measure and cut to fit. Blue Painters tape has been applied around the assembly prior to the epoxy application.

It looks decent at first glance, but again closer inspection will reveal that this is the beginning of a conundrum-- so much for the easy button.

Step 3) I start measuring for width-- the keel is about 1.5 inches wide, I need to cut both hangers symmetrically--the thought of symmetry and the keel being square relative to the trunk exposes the mess.

A longer perspective shows that the fit of the new hanger in the pocket is loose at best (technical term: acute gaposis) but even more concerning:

No Bueno indeed-- I drew these lay lines by hand on the image-- but you can see the green represents the keel trunk and the red represents the face of the hanger brackets. Over the course of the full keel-- the differential isn't just sloppy, it is a disaster in the making. At this point I'm nothing short of befuddled, you should be able to bring two square faces into parallel..... now what???

Standby for part 2

 

[Grotto]

I suspect the care and precision you are using with the refit is more than what was put in when originally built.

 

[pclarksurf]

With everything dry-fit and with a clear moment of "WTH?!!!??" I learned why I take all the pictures. Nothing seemed to fit and nothing had mechanically changed-- why was the new hanger seemingly so poorly aligned? Off the pile of photos I've been taking since day 1:

Port hanger above with the keel at the top of the picture-- This picture was taken just before I removed the keel on day 1 and sure enough--- serious gaposis.

Another close up -- it's not even close and never was. I have two choices: do something odd like cut the hangers back at something less than parallel to the keel to make up the difference or get mechanically creative. I chose the latter:

Another trip to the machine shop for a center bore-- not something I had the tools for at home, but really came out nicely. The bored slot gives me just enough room to square up the faces and tighten the fit.

Another dry-fit post center bore and you can see the improvement, I'm happy with this and it's time to move on to cutting them to fit the keel. I have some early sharpie lines depicting what I think the gap should be:

My cheapie calipers shown in this photo-- I used my digital / more accurate versions, but they both said the same thing-- 1.5 inches for Keel:

Step 4) Cut to fit. I'm no machinist, and I was worried about the ability to cut down a block of Brass cleanly-- but I was determined to do it myself with the metal chop saw. Slow and steady was the key-- patience is not my strong suit, but you can't rush the spinning wheel of death.

One early learning was that with a relative thin slice to take off-- too much pressure on the saw handle tended to bend the blade slightly. I went with a much lighter (slower) touch and the problem self healed.

Final configuration and much approved alignment-- I did create a secondary issue that will rear its head later... but such is the nature of invention, more on that in part 3. The Pin has also been cut to fit, and as usual I started a smidge long and trimmed to the exact overall length. I wanted the pin sandwiched fairly snug -- eliminating all side to side wear if at all possible.

Again, the long perspective confirms that the keel will hang relatively parallel to the pocket now, and I can move on with the final fitting

Stay tuned for the Part 3-- as we defy gravity and convince (plead with) epoxy to not drip on my head.

 

[Will Gilmore]

Fantastic!

I want to rebuild the CB pivot cradle in Dragonfly, someday. I don't think there's anything going on with it except I'd like it fully enclosed in the trunk, no thru-pin at all, and top accessed.
It would require completely rebuilding the trunk around a set of metal pinways that cradled the CB pin.
Your project is inspiring.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[pclarksurf]

**Full Disclosure** there is no right way to make Epoxy stick in the air! But now that we have aligned hardware its time to take the serious gap between the bracket and the hull out of play. Of course pre-lube the bracket with wax so it attempts to come off clean (it won't but close is good enough), mix up the 407 as heavy as you can and bolt the bracket up into your blob. It's going to be ugly-- but it will improve with extra coats.

I'll leave you with the series-- you can see the voids, imperfections and all the not quite right slowly blending as I move (just like the keel) from build up to fairing epoxy blends

A lot of manual test fitting/ sanding and more sanding later... the real test is put the keel in hole and see what it looks like. All thread method worked well for me single handed. Transmission Jack is a huge plus--

All the way home-- my only self criticism is the hangers are just a wee bit proud, but I could think of no reason to care.

Gap be gone! and here lies my next problem-- stay tuned for part 4 as I've maxed the photo limit once again One interesting note-- look close and you can see the delrin spacer. Tolerances are tight!