Click here to contribute a quote for the Ship’s Wheel
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LIVE! One cup at a time
Curtis Parsons with his Big Red Mug
Thank you to everybody who has found a place in their cupboard for an SV Seeker Big Red Mug! We use ours every day and just seeing the message LIVE! gives us the push to make the most out of each and every moment. We understand from viewers, that it also has passed the Keurig test, the teabag test and the chicken noodle soup test! Woohoo!
Proceeds from the sales in our Junk Shop, go towards materials and equipment. Be sure and take a look at our official apparel and other items and see if there’s something you might like.
Once more we will state… our junk is way overpriced and you can easily pick up a coffee cup for less at your corner store. With that in mind, please don’t feel obligated, and if you need your money for other things, then don’t you worry about us as we will keep on going one way or another… it might just take us longer to reach the water. The greatest thing about being involved with The Boat the Internet Built, is that your contributions can come in many ways. Money, labor, materials, ideas and just a plain old “atta boy” now and then is greatly appreciated.
The Cox boys with their Thermal Mugs
We have a new shirt coming in April and other designs and items in the works. As for shipping, we try to make a quick turnaround and so far, things have gone really well with the help of the U.S. Postal Service. We’ve sent items all over the world and so far, it’s been a positive experience.
If you have a great idea for a product, feel free to let us know your ideas. Thank you again for your support, we feel honored to call you our friend.
LIVE!
Rainy Day and Building Anyway
Started off nice but then the rain moved in. Our plans for rain paid off. While Paul was here, he and I build a rain cover for the temporary burnout kiln and its doing it’s job now. Hopefully we will get a break in the rain tomorrow afternoon and pour our second bronze anchor winch capstan. Tom and Coen have done an awesome job pouring lead this week and tomorrow we will complete the last 10 tons of lead ballast being added to the keels. Coen and I welded and ground on the first capstan and it is definitely a usable piece. And Tom made parts for mounting the wheel. Far away in Virginia, David Collins put the final touches on a 1/4 scale model of a dragon that will be part of ornamentation of the boat’s wheel. If you have not suggested a quote to be engraved in the wheel please do so here: Ship’s Wheel. So screw the rain. We had an awesome day!
David’s dragon for the wheel with the final touches.
Filling the voids in the first capstan with silicon bronze MIG wire.
Burning out the next capstan mold.
Wheel Gear Box Parts
Tom making a mount for the wheel’s gear box.
Tom and Coen working on the first capstan.
Molten Lead Mirror
Boat Dreams and Lead Ballast
Coen Van Wyk and his beautiful wife Shahnaz are in from South Africa and Tom Carroll from Chicago. I spend the day at the office, but they spent the day moving thousands of pounds of lead for the keels. Coen and Shahnaz are also building a boat and keeping a blog: To dream of the ocean
Shahnaz Van Wyk
Coen Van Wyk, Pretoria, South Africa
Tom Collins, Chicago Illinois
Another 2500 pounds of lead in the keel.
Ship’s Wheel
There are some amazingly talented people in this world and SV Seeker is fortunate to reach so many who want to share their skills. We often have folks sketch of a design for a part and then we adapt the design and go to work building it. So when I saw a design for a 
ships wheel offered up by David Collins, my thoughts where, that’s really cool, but that’s a lot of work. And then I learned that David was not offering the design; he was offing to create the complex pieces as well.
So I got busy working on the mount and David went to work sculpting the dragons.
Now we need your help. The wood ring provides a location for an inscription, and we are looking for suggestions. The inscription must reflect the boat. Inspirational, positive, adventurous, and sense of the community that has come together for this project. Please use the comments section below for your suggestions. THANKS! We have 7 we really like. You can vote for them here: We have picked 7 quotes! Vote for your favorite here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/svseeker/ And still add new ones.
David has created a 1/4 scale wheel and once the dragon is completed to his satisfaction he will create a 3D scan, enlarge the scan and cut the final piece on a CNC.
Completed 1/4 scale dragon.
Anchor Winch Rebuild – Part 10 – Plaster Block Mold Bronze Casting – Got One!
“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
It’s Like Me. Certainly Not Perfect, But Useful. :)
The top rim has some bad voids, but nothing that can not be fixed with welding. The next one will get two risers attached to the top rim. Many thanks to Paul Walter who has been a great crew member to have around these last couple of weeks. We learned a lot of good lessons.
Place Your Bets
A fantastic improvement was the addition of a PID that held the temperature of the burnout kiln at 1000F plus or minus 20 degrees.
The PID triggers a Solid State Relay and the powers a solenoid valve that simply added more gas to the burner as needed.
With only one small crack in the mold we bought our 70 pounds of NiBrAl to pouring temperature.
The kiln was removed. A metal barrel placed around the mold and sand added to keep any breaks in the mold from escaping.
There was almost no off gassing when the 2600F NiBrAl was poured into the mold, meaning that after 32 hours of burnout the wax was completely gone.
With the part so well insulated, the breakout will have to wait till tomorrow, but I’ll bet you that a usable part is inside.
Happier than a puppy with two peters. 🙂
Anchor Winch Rebuild – Part 9 – Plaster Block Mold Bronze Casting Failures
It’s unfortunate that we give the word Failure such a negative context. Because if you are not failing at something you are either doing nothing or you are only copying the steps that someone else created. Willingness to fail is key to creativity and innovation and successful life. LIVE Celebrate Life. All of it. –Doug
Casting the Capstans or Try try again.
When a toddler stumbles and falls for the fourth time. No body says, “Just give up. You’re a failure”. But by the time we get to high school it’s common. Failure is synonymous with looser, flunkies, stupid, retard. The whole idea of failing at anything is abhorrent. So most of us rightfully avoid failure, and in doing so avoid trying new things altogether. The jock, stays a jock, and may never tries to play an instrument or sculpt. And we carry it on into adulthood. We seek for “the way” something is done rather than “our way” by exploring, investigating, or using our creative ability.
CNC cutting an EPS foam pattern
I have the pleasure of working again with Seeker crew member Paul Walter from Rochester New York. Paul is a software developer that also has a goal of not just sculpting but also casting his sculptures in metal. My goal is to develop casting processes that can easily be replicated almost any harbor in the world by using commonly available materials where ever possible. Together we are building on more than a dozen casting failures with foam, candle wax and plaster. We now have built and tested a temporary burn out furnace, built another pattern and invested it inside of 180 pounds of sand and plaster. Tomorrow we get a night off, and then on thursday we start the 36 hour burn out process that leads up to pouring 70 pounds of bronze on Saturday.
It may not work. It may fail. But the greater failure would not be trying. It makes me wonder how many potential Nikola Tesla’s, Thomas Edison’s, Mark Twain’s and Wright Brothers’s there are out they that we will never see succeed because we taught them to never fail.
So don’t be afraid to fail. –LIVE.
Dipping the foam pattern in wax to smooth the surface.
Investing the pattern in Hydrocal and silica sand.
Testing the burn out furnace with a failed investment piece.