Recycling a Makita as a Boat Drill: Part 3

Here's the completed drill. Works great.I can plug it into a recptacle aboard the boat and never worry for lack of power. Its also lighter , not having the battery in the handle, which is advantageous sometimes, like when I use it to give the interior of my Regulator a mid-season wax. I even use it in the shop: I have a 12-volt power supply plugged in at my bench (this powers a VHF radio I use to chat with my fishing buddies when I cant get out on the bay) so I just use it as a corded drill. It took about a half hour to make--a lot less time than it took to post the process to the blog. Click Here for Part 1 Click Here for Part 2

Recycling a Makita as a Boat Drill: Part 2

To wire the Sealink plug described in Part 1, you'll need a small Phillips and a small slot screwdriver. First, remove the center screw holding the assembly together. Next, spin off the threaded tip, which conceals the fuse, and remove the fuse. Third, slip the slot screwdriver under the O-ring so you can grasp it and gently pull it off. Now separate the two halves. Step five is to remove the pair of Phillips screws holding the hold-down bracket and strain-relief boot. Remove both. After stripping your wires, loosen the screws for the wire clamps, slip the boot over your cable; Now insert the wires into the clamps paying attention to polarity. You can see where the positive and negative goes in the picture--or read the directions. Tighten down, pull to test the integrity, re-seat the boot and reassemble the works. Click Here for Part 1 Click Here for Part 3

Recycling a Makita as a Boat Drill: Part 1

A cordless drill is a must tool for the boatowner. No shorepower cord needed. I fit them with paint mixers, use them for making repairs, installing accessories, attach sanding disks, polishing pads....it's my most used power tool. But my while my trusty 14-year old 12-volt Makita still works like a champ, batteries for this veteran are now hard to come by. Sure I can get them on EBAY, or I could repack the cells. But since I have a couple other drills, I decided to make a boat-specific drill instead. Since this model is 12-volts, all I had to do was make a wiring harness to connect to my boats DC power supply. Here's how I did it, in about an hour, using scavenged parts from the nooks and crannies of my shop. Step 1: I stripped both ends of a 12-foot length of ANCOR MARINE 16-gauge duplex boat cable. Duplex has both the (+) and (-) tin-plated conductors already wrapped in a jacket. Its my preffered wire for any boat work because of the tin-plated corrosion resistance-- and its rated fire-resistant to 105 F. I crimped -on spade connectors that mated to the battery contact plates inside the drill on one end of the cable; on the other end, I wired a Marinco SeaLink 12-v plug. I like these Sea Link plugs as they are locking, have an LED on indicator, and are O-ring sealed. I have used them for over a decade and they work great--in fact this one here is scavenged from an old spotlight on which I replaced the cheapo factory plug. The light finally died after 8 years of use. It lived on three boats, but the Sea Link plug is still like new. So I cut it off, chucked in a coffee can of spare parts about a year ago, where it resided( preserved in sawdust) and re-used it here. In Part 2, I'll show you how to wire this plug. Click Here for PART 2

Building the Marissa: Last Class

Building the Marissa: Last Class What a great boatbuilding blog!

Eric Sorensen on Hull Design: Grady-White 230

Here's my good friend, marine consultant, journalist, and boating expert, describing the "why" behind the shape of the keel aboard a Grady-White 230.Eric's website and book are HERE.

Build a Dinghy: Part 17

So I deviated from the original plans, deciding to cut a rabbet in my rubrails in order to cover the exposed end-grain of the plywood at the sheerline. But...DOH...I didn't adjust the transom height accordingly. Now, I'll have to install a caprail to make up the height. Can't decide whether to laminate it from several thin strips, or simply bend one stick across the crowned transom and call it a day. Hmmmmm.......