Homebuilt anchor and other things

[chris95040]

I agree almost entirely with Delancey, but I still think my advice to a stranger would be to buy an anchor.

I've successfully jumped in headfirst to a number of unfamiliar domains to make stuff rather than buy it. Complicated things, with technologies that were totally new to me. Designing, engineering, tinkering, fun stuff! Super duper satisfying. I agree with what you are saying: Don't be afraid to try.

In all those cases I refered to, it was easy for me to *evaluate* my thingamajig, and tweak it to improve it.

Evaluating an anchor design seems like a long process. Lots of different situations it needs to perform in. All anchors can fail, their goodness or badness is really a statistical thing. With a known design, even if whats-his-face is an ER nurse or whatever, the evaluation has been crowd sourced. The problems will emerge. Lots of examples of this process informing us of scenarios where certain anchors are likely to do poorly.

Could someone with experience anchoring and experience making stuff come out the gate with a decent enough anchor? Probably. But a total bonehead could probably make some real dangerous garbage. I remember reading someone's claim that their spade became useless when they replaced the lead with zinc after galvanizing. Seemed like a little tweak to them (and to me, frankly), but... So its a tech not without it's subtleties.

So unless I got the sense they were taking it seriously enough to do a lot of relevant trials, with safety gear like an anchor I'd say buy a tried and true one.

[jeepbluetj]

Originally Posted by jimbunyard

You are aware that the Atomic 4 comes with a points and condenser ignition system? (Though I'd be surprised if an electronic upgrade wasn't available by now.) If you don't think there're lots of stray currents flying around with one of those old distributors, like I said, take a look at one on a dark night... (with the engine running, of course.) Why do you think they have so many safeguards to keep the fuel and fuel vapor inside the engine?

As for 'To have a gas explosion on a boat you would need a fuel leak, an errand(t) spark... and no ventilation in the engine compartment' well maybe. But a fire can be just as catastrophic, and believe me, especially with a carbureted engine, all you need for that is a flooded engine and a backfire. Which is of course why they have spark and flame arrestors.


Maintenance of course is the key to avoiding problems with any of these old school engines, and when well maintained they have several advantages over more modern ones, al least to my way of thinking...

Just some info about the A4 if anybody is interested:

There is a replacement Pertronix distributor for the A4 that is electronic ignition and is ignition protected. (I have one)

There's also an electronic module for the original Delco distributor that gets rid of the points and condenser and it's reasonably priced too.

Any distributor on a boat, points or not, should be ignition protected with a screw-down cap with a gasket.

All boats should have a CO detector, as CO can gather in the hull. Mine's gone off once - there was a boat idling across the fairway from my boat, and I guess enough CO filled my boat to set it off.

[first wind]

Originally Posted by Panope

The designers of the best anchors have spent years or sometimes decades perfecting thier work (art?). They make and test an endless number of prototypes.

A "cut and weld up anchor in an afternoon" effort would have a near zero chance of performing in the same league as the top performers.

If one were to painstakingly COPY an existing design (with the exact same metals), I suspect a proper job will take a bit longer than an afternoon, and cost nearly as much as the real thing.

no. not really. i fabricated my own chopper. i literally made 85% of all parts from raw materials. the thing that would be time consuming is research to get the right design. you can do that at night while you are chilling after dinner. once you have the design and the materials, actually cutting the metal, forming anything that needs formed, and welding it up would take an afternoon. if you don't weld or work metal, that might seem impossible. but, it's not.

if you are a proficient welder/metal worker, something as simple as an anchor doesn't take long. my siisybar is far far more complex than any anchor i have ever seen. after i drew up the design and gathered the stainless steel, it only took me and afternoon to actually form the steel (using an oxygen acetylene torch) and then weld it all together. now, polishing it to a mirror finish, by hand....that was time consuming.

i had actually considered making my own anchor but, someone gave me a nice anchor with rode....chain and line. so, i went with that. free is free

[topmast]

Back when men were men making copied plow anchors was fairly common .For the blades ,make a cardboard template, find the right curve on a big pipe or boiler at the scrap metal shop. Cut away what doesn't look like a CQR .Weld up better, stronger copy,send out for galvi .Fill point with lead . Bob's yer

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by topmast

Back when men were men making copied plow anchors was fairly common .For the blades ,make a cardboard template, find the right curve on a big pipe or boiler at the scrap metal shop. Cut away what doesn't look like a CQR .Weld up better, stronger copy,send out for galvi .Fill point with lead . Bob's yer

You can buy a secondhand CQR for less than the cost of having a home built copy galvanized, but why would you ?

[yalnud]

Because back when men where men. You could not buy a second hand cqr for less. But today, i can build a rocna for less then second hand. Put that in your pipe and smoke it hahaha

[topmast]

Maybe a matter of scale here. If you are a dingy sailor you wouldn't be making or looking for a 100 lb or bigger anchor. About the same effort to make big or small 35 lb r. but value of bigger .?? Used or new.

[first wind]

Originally Posted by topmast

Back when men were men making copied plow anchors was fairly common .For the blades ,make a cardboard template, find the right curve on a big pipe or boiler at the scrap metal shop. Cut away what doesn't look like a CQR .Weld up better, stronger copy,send out for galvi .Fill point with lead . Bob's yer

ahh so true. very few real ones left. and the younger generations....

[Fence Man]

I get building it instead of buying it. I get asked "Why?" all the time. The answer is always the same.....Because I can. LOL