'Hagane' Rebuild Update 01/10/2011

[rustypirate]

Well it has been quite a while since I posted my progress on the rebuild of my Bruce Roberts Offshore 38 “HAGANE”.
I have been busy, although not as much progress has been made as I would have liked. This summer was brutal with high temps and humidity which forced me to work on small projects in my garage workshop.
Fuel System:
The fuel system is pretty much wrapped up with twin Racor filters and electric transfer pump to either polish the fuel in the main tank, or filter it before pushing it to the day tank.

I have acquired a 50 gallon aluminum fuel tank for the main tank and cleaned it up. The tank is barrel shaped, so I fabricated saddle brackets to hold it and modified some stainless steel straps for commercial truck fuel tanks to hold it in place.



I molded some polyethylene blocks to fit the curve of the tank and provide some galvanic isolation between the stainless, steel, and aluminum. They will not absorb moisture and should give a good hold.

I already had a 20 gallon day tank so now all I need to do is figure out where to put everything and plumb it up.
Workshop:
I got sick and tired of working on the floor of the garage and put together some scraps of steel with a 4’X3’ sheet of 1/8” to build a work table. This allows me to have better control and more comfort for my projects.
Outboard:
I purchased a second-hand 15hp Tohatsu 2-cycle outboard for when I finally get a dinghy from a friend of mine that had been sitting in storage for a few years. With minimal standard maintenance I got it up and running like new.
Cockpit:
I have been playing around with designs for the cockpit. I wanted at least 6’ of length in the seats to allow me to sleep there in warm climates. Comfort and ergonomics were a must, but safety was the primary concern.
The final dimensions were:
Well – 54”L X 24”W X 18”D.
Seats – 18”W with a 5° slope downwards at the rear. The seat backs are 16”T with a 10° slope to the back.

I welded some scraps to my work table to form a jig, then cut the pieces for frames and welded up each side. I made 3 sets, two for each side, and a pair for the rear seat
Coamings – The comings are 8” wide at the sides and stand 3” higher than the deck. They taper down to 4” wide at the rear and will be welded to the 4” wide rear to forma one continuous coaming. These are made from 3/16” thickness rectangular box beams to have comfortable rounded corners all around.

I marked out the cutouts to taper the coaming sides at the front and rear, then cut them with my plasma cutter to remove the extra metal. After cleaning up the cuts and clamping, the welding could commence.





Clean-up with the grinder and one side is ready to move into place. I will cut and weld the opposite side then mock up the frames and all upside down with tack welds to verify that all is dimensionally correct. I will then break it down to have it blasted along with the saddle brackets for the main fuel tank and a few other odds and ends. I will primer paint everything before moving it to the boat for final placement and assembly.
More photos to follow as I progress....

[James S]

Thanks ...I just love these photo updates...I am having some trouble getting them all to down load.
You've sure got a nice place to work and seem to have the skills to make it proud...I'm impressed.

[Patient]

Wow!
That is some fantastic fabrication work! Thanks for sharing.

Love the polishing setup. Did you bend that line yourself?
How did you make such neat curves?

I like the visualization that you did. What software are you using?

Lastly, do you have a blog or website that shows your entire process.
I would subscribe to it in a heartbeat.

-P

[quitfishing]

thats, cool thanks....now the big question...is it snowing there...LOL

[rustypirate]

Thanks to everyone for the comments. Really I try to come up with a plan of action before committing to metal, but sometimes I just make it up as I go along.

Originally Posted by Patient

Wow!
Love the polishing setup. Did you bend that line yourself?
How did you make such neat curves?

I used a tubing bender for the lines. It took several attempts to get it all right and also to fit inside of the cabinet with the door closed.

Originally Posted by Patient

I like the visualization that you did. What software are you using?

I am embarresed to say that I used the standard Paint program that comes with Windows for those drawings. I have also used Visio for some of my diagrams.

Originally Posted by Patient

Lastly, do you have a blog or website that shows your entire process.
I would subscribe to it in a heartbeat.

I don't have one blog or website, however I have several photo albums loaded here and available in my profile.

You can also search on this forum for "hagane" to see my previous rebuild posts.

[rustypirate]

Originally Posted by quitfishing

thats, cool thanks....now the big question...is it snowing there...LOL

Mid-Florida rarely ever gets snow, so no, it is not snowing in Tampa.

[rustypirate]

I have some more photos of the progress with the cockpit coamings.

Here is a link to a slideshow of the photos so far:
ImageShack Album - 19 images


This was the overall plan for cutting and forming the box beams.


Here is one side with all the welds cleaned up. the only thing left is closing up the aft end and notching for the rear coming.


A close up of the front bend and welds after cleaning with the grinder.


All smooth rounded edges and corners especially at the corners on the back ends. This was a lot of extra work, but it will all be worth it once it is all done.


Here you can see how I notched the sides and rear coamings so that the rounded corners transitioned on the inside of the corner.


This picture gives some idea of the overall size. the bucket is roughly where the steering pedestal will be in relation to the coamings.

I still have to split some 2 inch steel pipe into quarter sections for the rounded corners of the seat edges and floor corners. Then I will tack weld everything togeather including the frames for the seats, sides and well floor to make sure it is all as I expect it to be, before I break it down and get everything sandblasted and primed.

Next will be cutting out the existing cabin trunk and deck where the new location will be.

These pieces are too heavy to weld up off-site then try and get it on deck in one shot, so it will be loaded onto the boat in parts then assembled in place.

[SabreKai]

Nice work Rusty! That coaming is sweet. I like the use of standard tube for this. Simpler to do and just as fine looking. Mine is all made up of sheet steel with curves n whoopies built in.

Mine is finally paid off. As soon as it gets a mite warmer I'm going to start the refit. It appears the first thing will be to expand the main hatch and then remove the Volvo that's living in there. I'm planning on gutting the engine room, and completely redoing everything, bearers, fuel tank, all the through hulls, steering, rudder etc. I'm debating on modifying the cockpit coming so it goes all the way to the transom and is higher in the center so the space under the aft deck becomes usable.

Still time to wait, Right now its covered in a foot of snow and -5C inside. I'm going to try to string power to it today and get some heaters inside.


Sabre

[rustypirate]

I am planning on making some lightneing cut-outs in the underside of the coaming tubes to bring the weight down under 100 lbs each and to give access for winch mount nuts.

I split the pipe into quarters today and finished up the frames. tomorrow I will start tacking it all togeather if I can find a space big enough in the garage.

I did a preliminary mock up and things are looking better and better.

[rustypirate]

OK here are the photos of the framework all mocked up. I had to do it upside down, so I left off the quarter round pieces:


My dog "XO" did not seem too impressed, but I was happy with how it came togeather.


From the front. The forward bulkhead will be right where the edge of the plywood is here.


A better idea of how it looks.


this is a close up of how the seat back supports were tapered into the coamings to provide a smooth transition.

The next step is to take everything to the sandblaster in preparation for epoxy primer. I was thinking of using a weld-through primer but on further research I found out that those do not have very adheasion, so I will just stick with the epoxy.

Then I will start cutting out the cain trunk to clear the area for mounting the pieces on deck.

[rustypirate]

I decided to make the lightening cuts before sandblasting, so here is one side all marked up for cutting:

The shaded area will be removed frm the bottom side of the coaming. This will reduce the weight and give access for things like winch bolts, etc.

[rustypirate]

One side done:

[SteveA]

Awesome work - I too have a BR OS 38 and like another CF member, wish I had gutted her when I bought her. Now in the process of trying to achieve "livability" whilst still using the boat. Really looking forward to your next update !

[SteveA]

PS, mine built for the Antarctic as well. as far as I know she never went. Round port holes and increased framing forward presumably for protection against the ice are the main givaways of her purpose. original insulation is 3" thick polystyrene blocks - which really needs to come out - amongst a host of other items. Good luck.

[rustypirate]

Thanks for the kind words SteveA. One of these days I will have pictures of water flowing by the sides instead of steel in the garage......