Well, while I have been in stasis with the
deck construction, I have not been idle.
I wanted to have a
single point of inlet for all of my
raw water, and lucky for me, the previous owner had the same idea. Unfortunately he also wanted to use the
raw water intake as a drain for the
cockpit, but that is another story.
In order to properly distribute the
water to what needs it,
Engine,
Head, and Washdown
pump I would need some sort of manifold. I toyed with using pipe with tee sections and nipples all connected togeather, but frankly the possibility of leakage was too much. In the end I cast out to the wonderous
Internet Genie to grant my wish.....
I received quotes from as much as $250 to $100 to make a manifold that I wanted. The specs were quite simple...
316
Stainless Steel construction.
One 1-1/2" npt threaded inlet port.
Four 3/4" npt threaded outlet
ports. (Engine,
Head, Washdown, Spare)
Mounting tabs
In the end I was nearly at the point of
buying material and fabricating the thing myself when the
Internet Genie came through!
I found a company called "Affordable Custom Manifolds"
Home - Affordable Custom Manifolds (no affiliation whatsoever), who advertised
stainless steel manifolds for $10 per outlet port. I double-checked the advertisement again to find the fine print, but it still read $10 per outlet port.
I figured that I had nothing to loose, so I filled out their on-line form, and requested a quote. The next business day I received an
email from Affordable Custom Manifolds with an attached drawing and written quote for $40. The drawing was not exactly what I wanted, but one quick
phone call to them and we straightened out the design. The quote and design were resent in minutes, and I confirmed that it was as I desired. We settled on
shipping and handling, (an extra $15 for UPS service), and I sent them off a USPS
Money Order for $55. Two days later I received an
email confirming that they had received the payment, and my manifold should be ready to ship in 5 business days.
So far this was all going WAY too smooth.
In the menatime I have been procuring all of the bits that will be attached to said manifold.....
I already had a 1-1/2"
bronze seacock coutersey of eBay, and I put the internet marketplace to
work again...
3/4" 316 SS ball valves...
3/4" 316 SS nipple fittings...
3/4" 316 SS hose barbs...
1-1/2" 316 SS hose barb...
All I have left is the
water strainer which will fit between the seacock and the manifold, and also the hoses.
The manifold shipped on the 7th day after placing the order, and I received it today, 3 business days later via UPS.
The
ports are spaced on 2-1/2" centers.
Everything is stainless except for the mounting tabs which are mild
steel but that is not a problem as the whole thing will be painted and bolted to a
steel frame anyway. The finish is blasted, all the better for painting.
I mounted the valves at a slight angle so that the handles would not interfere with each other. The valves also have staggered lenght nipple fittings so that they get more clearance.
Here is the completed assembly ready for mounting and hoses, it is difficult to see in this
photo, but I stamped an "E", "W", and "H" over the left three ports to designate
Engine, Washdown, and Head. I will drill and tap one of the manifold ends so that I can install a zinc anode
plug like those used in engines to prevent any electrolosis between the stainless fittings and any
bronze or steel engine fittings.
All in all I am very happy with how it came out, now I can control all of the raw water flow from one source and strain it all as soon as it comes in the
boat. Of course I will have finer strainers protecting the engine and washdown pumps. I am also toying with the idea of installing a 3-way valve before the strainer to allow all of the raw water devices to act as backup
bilge pumps, but that may come later.
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