… and there was light

April 6, 2013April 6, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

New switch panel installed in the boat (below the starboard settee)

Okay, so my labors in repairing the sailboat are nothing compared to that of creation. Nor is the labor close to that of slaying the Nemean Lion However, it is one of my longest unfinished projects, so finishing any of the tasks to get the boat into the water is a big accomplishment for me.

Then again, a 40 year old boat is probably never a finished project.

Today I created light. Well, at least I hooked up lights. I installed the new switch panel and battery. I had run new wires to the bow light and the interior cabin lights. I tied in the old wiring to the stern light and the masthead light. I turned on the switch, and there was light.

All the lights have either LED bulbs or are low draw bulbs (such as the masthead light). The battery I have is a 35Ah AGM battery. It isn’t nearly as big as most boat batteries, but I figure we won’t be using that much power. And there is room to put another battery the same size next to the current one.

The battery sits on a wood (plywood) platform on wooden supports that I fiberglassed onto the hull. I have a strap holding the battery down to the platform.

rear of switch panel (installed). The battery is on the left side of the picture

The switch panel was made from sapele and has 6 circuits, each with independent fuse holders under the switches.

I used round panel mount switches and panel mount fuse holders. A couple of lessons learned:

Use good components. I got cheap fuse holders, and I hate them. The good ones I picked up from Defender were well worth the couple of bucks I spent on them.
I couldn’t find a good source of high quality switches, so I ordered them off of eBay. Get spares. The quality isn’t always the best – I found one of my switches arrived broken, and don’t have a spare.
I’ll probably add a dedicated USB charger one of these days (before any long days out).
The wood panel is much thicker than the panel mount hardware is able to handle. I needed to drill out a recess behind the fuse holders so I could thread the nut to hold them in. I should have drilled recesses behind every hole prior to drilling the holes. The switches would have snapped in better if I had a recess behind their holes. As it is, I had to use a drop of epoxy to keep the switches from rotating and popping out.
I used all 16ga wire. I probably could have gotten by with using 18ga wire for all the lights, but it wouldn’t have saved much money anyway.
I think I would try to put the negative bus bar and the terminal block strip on the same side of the panel. Right now the positive connection for each circuit is at the forward end of the panel, and the negative bus on the aft end. That makes the cabling a little messier.

The switch panel is relatively simple. The to cables from the battery go to a double bus bar. All the negatives return directly to the negative bus. All the switched circuits go from the positive bus to the fuse holder, and then to the switch. From each switch I ran a wire to a terminal block strip. That allows me to build the entire switch panel in the workshop, and just connect each load to the appropriate terminal block (and negative bus on the other side of the panel).

Since the switches are lighted, I also needed a negative from each switch to the negative of the battery. The negative terminals for each switch are connected in a daisy chain back to the negative bus.

Currently the only electrical connections in the boat are the navigation lights, a pair of interior dome lights and a single 12V outlet.

In addition to making light, I was able to make progress on some other boat projects. Susanna helped me install two more toe rails (I have one left to complete). The boys and I made a run to the Defender warehouse to pick up some more hardware (a couple of shackles and padeyes) as well as pick up Ben a short sleeve wetsuit. Both boys saved their allowances and purchased sit-on-top kayaks (I won’t complain, it is better than spending it on electronics, and we were able to find them for a steal online). The kayaks should show up in two weeks, so I figured getting some warmer water clothes may be good for this spring.

I am also making a plan on how to step the mast without killing myself. I ordered two parts from Nautos to help make the supports I need, a pair of nylon gudgeons:

Nylon gudgeons to be used in making a mast support/raising system.

More on that project when I finish it…. Hopefully tomorrow.

O’Day 22 Renovations – Masthead Light (and some progress)

March 25, 2013March 25, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

The boat in it's new "temporary" home — The boat in it’s new “temporary” home

I’m finally making some progress on the sailboat. The weather had been too cold over the past couple of weeks for me to want to work on the boat – but the goal is to get the boat in the water by the boys’ spring break in mid-April, so I needed to get some work done.

Saturday morning Will and I went to Defender Marine Outfitters for their annual warehouse sale. It was completely packed, but Will did very well walking around with me (and waiting line a little longer than we wanted when all the credit card processing went down (luckily I had a check book, so we were able to check out while the line kept getting longer and longer). We picked up some of the supplies we needed for the season. Will go a wetsuit for himself, and I picked up flares, a small inflatable boat, a new masthead light, and a first aid kit.

Sunday I decided to move the boat from where it had been sitting between the house and the garage. The boat got almost no sun on it all day and stayed cold. I moved it to a place near the workshop. Closer to the tools and (hopefully) a bit warmer in the sun.

I also took time to start getting the mast untangled from all of the rigging. The mast spent the past couple of years sitting behind the barn. Last year, Susanna, the boys, and I pulled the mast off and cleaned it up. But I never spent the time to inspect and organize the rigging.

At Defender, I purchased a Davis Mega-Light masthead light. I had to enlarge the hole on the front of the mast head (it looked like it had, in a previous live, been used as an VHF antenna). The masthead light required a 1/2″ hole. The leads to the light need to be soldered to the wires that are running up (inside) the mast. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any solder (though I did find the soldering iron) – so the final connection will have to wait until another day.

I also removed the stainless plate that was attached to the back part of the mast. I’m not sure what it was used for previously (I think there was an old, cheap, masthead light). I will probably attach a topping lift to the plate. Or just leave it off.

I ordered some additional stainless fasteners. I needed #8 x 1″ screws to reattach the teak toe rails. I also needed some more machine screws to reattach the deck hardware. I have had good luck with BoltDepot.com.

I also placed an order for the needed trailer winch (the old one was lost years ago) and trailer lights. Hopefully I’ll have all the parts needed to put the boat in the water. Now I just need to spend a day or two attaching the deck hardware.

Webhosting Server Migration

March 19, 2013March 19, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Over the past couple of evenings I have been looking at a new hosting company for hosting this blog (as well as a few other websites). I decided to move to a Digital Ocean SSD server. The beauty is that you can resize the server as needed to support more hosting (or reduce it if the larger plan isn’t needed).

This blog runs WordPress. Previously I had run a CentOS server with an Apache web server. I decided to switch to Nginx from Apache based on some reports of better performance on Nginx. I ran a load test on the site before migrating to the new server and one after moving to a new server. the Nginx server handles a higher load without slowing down. Not that this site ever gets that much traffic, but it may allow for a smaller (cheaper) server to handle the website.

The website load test before moving. The green is the load, and the blue is the response time.

Note that the response time on the post-migration server stays flat for the entire load. The time scale on the left is different from the scale in the first graph.

Website after migrating to the new hosting server (Nginx instead of apache)

So far the migration was reasonably straight forward. I need to work on the Nginx script to allow better permalinks for WordPress. That will be my project one of these evenings.

Another Sunday Project

March 17, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Will helping show off the new dog pen door. — Will helping show off the new dog pen gate.

The boys are here today – we were able to enjoy a full week together this week – so it wasn’t a day I could totally dedicate to home projects. But it was a quiet day for the boys, and they spent most of the day playing together, or hanging out helping work on projects.

During the colder months of the year, the dogs spend the days on the three season porch off of the kitchen. However, it gets too hot in the summer for them, so I fenced off the last bay of the garage to make a dog pen. I had taken down the fencing that had blocked the main door earlier in the year so we could paint the trim. I had always hated having the doorway entirely fenced off, and the quick fencing job I had done earlier looked terrible.

There is a side door to get into the bay, but a full gate would allow easier access to the space. This morning while at Home Depot, the boys and I picked up hinges and a latch to build a gate. After lunch I spent some time working on building a gate to the bay. I milled some of the rough lumber that I had picked up a couple of weeks ago. I initially pulled out some oak to build the gate, but decided to go with soft maple (the maple is lighter). Neither are good outside woods, but the gate will eventually be painted.

The gate isn’t completely finished. I think I need to add a diagonal cross brace to keep the gate from sagging (though I don’t expect to use the gate too frequently, so I may hold off on adding that). I will also add a bottom latch/lock so the dogs can’t push their way out from the bottom corner. I also need to put some bricks/stones under the gate so Tucker won’t dig his way out.

The gate was on my original (proposed) list of projects to finish on a furlough day. It is nice to move projects off the to do list.

And yes, I was finally able to get some quiet time in the evening before dinner to sit by the fire pit and enjoy a beer.

A bucket load of s**t (rather a trailer full of manure compost) and a long day

March 16, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Raised garden beds with a fresh load of manure compost and hay

I’m tired tonight. More than just tired. I’ll probably head to bed when the kids go to bed.

We started this morning at 5:30 when Will and his friend, Shane, woke up. Sleep overs are fun, except at 5:30 in the morning.

Will and Ben had a great morning spent mostly fighting with each other – got to love brothers. At least by the afternoon they were finally playing nicely together. I’m sure it didn’t help that everyone was up early and didn’t get enough sleep. But that is okay, they will go to bed early tonight, and hopefully sleep in. I told them tomorrow is house cleaning morning, unless they sleep in too late to clean the house – I’ll see if that works. If not, at least we will have a clean house early in the morning.

I took the boys over to Rob and Anna Sawyer’s farm to pick up fresh eggs and a trailer load of horse manure compost. I spent the afternoon spreading compost and getting the garden ready for the spring. It wasn’t as warm out today as I had hoped, but it wasn’t too cold to get some yard work done. I could at least get some chores done while watching the boys run around the yard and the woods behind the house.

I didn’t get any time in the shop, except to build swords for the boys. But that is okay, maybe I’ll get in the workshop tomorrow. Tomorrow should be a nice quiet day – no friends over.

Planning for the furlough

March 9, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

I haven’t gotten the official notification yet, but it is coming soon. It looks like I will be furloughed one day a week starting in late-April. It will last up to 22 weeks (22 unpaid days off). It is a big cut in pay for six months – which adds stress. But on the good side, it is during the summer, and if I’m going to get extra time off, I would rather it be in the summer.

I’m working on a plan. I’m thinking that I should take the opportunity to get things done around the house. I had initially thought about making a list of 22 projects that I could do in one day (and that don’t cost much money). I think 22 projects would be too many. On the summer days that the boys are here, I want to be able to spend time with them, and not be a slave to house projects. Also, I would like to spend time with Susanna’s family when they come for the wedding.

I could also just spend the time working on whatever house project is in progress. But I’m thinking that it is a good chance to do some smaller projects that might otherwise be put off until a later year. I’m leaning towards making a list of 11 projects to finish on furlough days. I’m also discussing doing group projects with some of my co-workers if they are furloughed on the same day – that may allow bigger projects at each person’s house, taking turns at each house.

So here is my list so far (in no particular order). I’ll sit down over the next couple of weeks and prioritize them with Susanna. There are more than 11 projects below, so I’ll have to pick the ones I want, or maybe just have a long list and see if I can get 11 of the projects finished.

Replace the fence next to the workshop
Paint the ceiling in the front hallway
Rewire the back porch light (and move the switch inside)
Add two electrical outlets to the study.
Add an electrical outlet to the bedroom and a switch for the light
Spend a day cleaning the basement
Build a bridge/walkway across the stream into the field next door (request by the boys)
Add outlets and timed light to the garage
Build a proper lumber rack in the garage
Repair the windows in the kitchen
Build a gate for the dog pen in the garage
Yard cleanup
Rebuild rain collection drain system next to the front porch (south side)
Repair trim on the workshop

Taking a slow Sunday morning

February 24, 2013February 24, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Breakfast is done; the boys are packed and ready to go to their mother’s house. Time to snuggle the dogs on the couch and play games on iPods and tablets.

Back into the workshop

February 20, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

After a cold start to the long weekend, I was able to get back into the shop on Monday. The rain came on Monday, and with the rain came temperatures in the 40s. That isn’t too cold to heat up the shop to a comfortable working temperature.

Kitchen Island base glued up with a piece of hickory that will wind up in the top

I did the assembly and glue-up of the kitchen island base on Monday, and spent time Tuesday night cleaning up the base. Of course, I can see all the flaws in the piece. I’ll have to be more careful with the joinery on the next project. I’ll have to live with the less than perfect joints.

I had also planned on doing a bottom shelf, but forgot to cut the rabbets for the shelf on the bottom stretchers. I’m sure I could add a bottom shelf later if it is desired. I’ll have to see how it fits in the kitchen (and defer to what Susanna wants for the project).

The next steps are to take the base into the basement and spray finish it. I also have to finish milling the hickory for the top and glue up the top. I haven’t decided if I’m going to do a breadboard end for the top or just leave it plain.

Breadboard joinery (picture from finewoodworking.com)

Sprouts, Sprouts, Sprouts and getting ready for spring

February 18, 2013February 18, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ Leave a comment

Easy Sprouter and harvest with seeds from sprouthouse.com in front

I figured it would be appropriate to follow a post on renovating the house with ADHD with a post on a completely unrelated (new) project.

Sprouting. Luckily this project doesn’t take much time.

We had periodically purchased sprouts at the store and used them in place of lettuce on sandwiches and for snacks. However, they are expensive, and the quality at the store greatly varies. So, I bought some seeds and tried sprouting in a mason jar. It was amazingly simple.

This time of year, getting greens is difficult. The lettuce at the store is bland. Most of the vegetables have been shipped from the southern hemisphere. Sprouts are a good way to get some variation with little work.

I purchased two Easy Sprout Sprouters from the The Sprout House. They came with a pound of valentines day sprouting seeds each. The process is pretty easy:

Take a 1/8-1/4 cup of seeds and soak in a weak bleach solution (1 tsp bleach/1 cup of water) for 15 minutes.
Rinse thoroughly.
Fill the sprouter with water, covering the seeds. Soak for 8-12 hours and drain.
Rinse and drain two to three times a day.
After 3-5 days, the sprouts are ready to harvest. I rinse them and spin them out in a salad spinner and let dry on the counter for a couple of hours before putting in the refrigerator.

Two Easy Sprout Sprouters gives us more sprouts than the two of us can eat. I have decided to wait a day between harvesting a batch and starting a new batch. The home-grown sprouts are much better tasting than the ones you get from the store, and there are lots of choices for sprout seed mixes.

In a (mostly) unrelated topic (only related somewhere in my mind), I started seedlings for the garden this spring. I started the pepper plants this weekend. I’ll start the tomato plants in a month or so. I’m trying to get a few more plants growing in the garden than I did last year, but not making any more garden space. I’m planning on building trellises this spring and growing the plants up. More about that as the spring gets closer.

Tucker trying to find warmth and sun next to the (soon to be) pepper seedlings

And, to not leave Targa out... enjoying the sun and warmth on the sun porch. — And, to not leave Targa out… enjoying the sun and warmth on the sun porch.

Old Family Photographs (memories from the 70s)

February 17, 2013 ~ Chuck ~ 1 Comment

I am enjoying a quiet evening listening to Susanna play the piano. It is cold and windy out, perfect for looking through old pictures. Here are some from when I was (much) younger.

My grandfather (Papa) and my brother Bill

Playing on the rocket ship at the park Webster Groves with Bill

My mom sliding down from the rocket ship at the park in Webster Groves