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 … Read More
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 … Read More
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
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, … Read More
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 … Read More
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 … Read More
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 … Read More
Chinese Junk Sailboat – Catwalks and Keels and Engine
We say goodbye to Marc Hofmann our new crew member from Vienna Austria who is continuing his tour of the USA. He wisely picked Fort Lauderdale, Florida as his next port of call. I love this project because I get to meet and be inspired by people like Marc. I wish more young people had Marc’s insight into the world, … Read More