S6E8 Mast Refit Part 3//Installing backing plates inside a mast//pop rivet and tap selection//

[@dreamtimesv]

Fantastic detail, very useful future reference, thanks for the effort in recording these activities in such detail.

[@FarReachVoyages]

@@dreamtimesv Thanks for the comment and support.

[@shop-skyyi]

Miss you Please take more rest in the hot summer. I have developed a large area of ​​eczema due to the heat. I prefer traditional masts, such as gaff rig and junk rig, to aluminum masts. The 24-26 foot plywood sailboat I plan to sail will cost about $10,000 (excluding other equipment) and a second-hand aluminum mast will cost $10,000-20,000. Traditional gaff rig and junk rig can greatly reduce costs, but the speed of the boat will be much lower. Persist in my sailing dream. And look forward to meeting you on the sea one day. (I will stick to this plan even if it takes 5 or 10 years)

[@FarReachVoyages]

@@shop-skyyi Thanks for being a loyal subscriber and commenter. I am careful in the heat. Very hot here now. We will both be careful, yes? You have a good plan. Gaff and junk rigged boats are a marvel of simplicity and cost effectiveness. They have many benefits over the Bermuda/Marconi rigged boats. I have read quite a bit about them over the years. Under different circumstances I would be very happy to build and voyage on either. I wish you the best of luck in your boat build. Be determined and keep your eye on the prize and you will be successful.

[@WillN2Go1]

Terrific video. Smart, clear. And by sharing, your nightmare is eliminated for anyone watching. There's also a tool/temporary rivet place holder called a Cleco. You can see them in WWII airplane factory images - they're the things sticking up out of the rivet holes on the skins of the planes. I guess every time you drill a hole you insert a cleco and then all of your rivets will be perfectly aligned. Your string method is really smart and makes them unnecessary. Just something to know about (I've never been able to find an excuse to buy and use them.) I just bought a borescope (endoscope same thing) for $30 has its own monitor, 50' cable. Good enough. I tried one of these about 8 years ago and it was terrible, everything blurry. The ones these days are much better. I do get the feeling that like car traffic cams there are only a couple of actual units but sold by different companies with different 'features.' I wanted a 50' one with an articulating tip, but Amazon's listings are a complete morass. If anyone is drilling something like this and concerned about keeping the drill perpendicular, just find something box shaped with good sides and line up along a vertical corner. (I'm really good with keeping things straight, but there are situations where something like the curved mast can throw anyone off. Photographing paintings, if my seamless paper taped to the wall is not plumb it always throws me off.) And I've ordered pop rivets on Amazon, was sent the wrong size. More and more often small things on Amazon have completely wrong measurements. There seems to be zero knowledge or outright fraud. I've ordered 1" webbing clips. They were close to 1" on the outside, the slots where the 1" webbing goes were much smaller. Two days is great, but not when they sent crap you can't use. Amazon has no standards.

[@FarReachVoyages]

@@WillN2Go1 I order pop-rivets and many specialty items from McMaster Carr. They almost always include schematic diagrams of the product. When I have had a doubt I call them and they will often go and double check the measurements for me. So I recommend you try them. I am familiar with Clecos through my friend who builds airplanes. I have never used them though. The application I have seen them used in is to temporarily hold aluminum sheets together in proper alignment and stability so they can be riveted in place. They might work in this application. But you still need the string to pull the part into position on the inside of the spar. For me, that's the trick part. There is, however, plenty of room for experimentation. Thanks for the kind words and support.

[@MichaelCilenti]

Great info as always. I'm curious if there's a way to use the tapped screw holes in the backing plates with the string to get it lined up so you don't have to drill more holes in the mast for the rivets. The engineer in me sees each of those extra holes as a weak point (and stress riser) in the mast. I'm probably just being paranoid. Also- I LOVE the tee extrusion idea to hold the wire conduit in the mast. I'll remember that for the re-rig of our BCC in the next several years.

[@FarReachVoyages]

@@MichaelCilenti Michael, good question. I am not an engineer but I am familiar with stress risers. What I was taught are holes (a minimal number of course) along the longitudinal axis are not the danger that a series of holes would be transversally (is that a word?) around the mast. I have seen spar manufacturers put many more holes in a spar to install winch bases for example. Some of the backing plates you can probably install pulling a string through the tapped holes. But what is going to happen when you want to remove the hardware? I want the backing plates to remain in position. Thus, the rivets.

[@MichaelCilenti]

@@FarReachVoyages That does make sense, thanks John!

[@Happ465]

Ever use Blue Locktite on the screws?

[@FarReachVoyages]

@@Happ465 Good question. Are you referring to a specific screw on the rig? In general I would probably choose blue locktite if loosening through vibration is more of a concern than galvanic corrosion. Thanks for the comment.