<< Conning Tower
The trim tanks are loosely held in place and starting to get an idea of what the finished result should look like.
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| 15/06/2014 |
One of the four trim tank valve systems to manage the water in and out of the tank. There are two solenoid valves, one for the inlet and the other for the outlet and a manual ball valve (blue handle) in case the power fails. For some reason the solenoid valves can only be used one way, I think it has something to do with the water flow past the diaphragm but I'm not sure. Between each of the solenoid valves and the ball valve I added four barrel unions, that way when things either wear out or get damaged they can be replaced without going crazy with a hacksaw and having to re-glue everything. It can just be unscrewed!
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| 27/06/2014 |
Here is the trim tank valves joined to the right of the main ballast tank valves (one inch pipe on the left).
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| 28/06/2014 |
Time to cut out all the connections for the tanks. This was took a lot of planning as all the pipes had to fit within a small space behind the main ballast tanks. If I didn't get it right the first time I'd have to repurchase all the pipes again! Below the connections for one of the tanks are ready to glue in place.
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| 03/01/2015 |
Since the skin of the pipe was only about three millimeters thick I had to add a flange to it, which was cut from another pipe of the same size, so that the threaded fitting would have twice the area to glue to - and yes the desk is rather messy.
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| 03/01/2015 |
Finally I get to glue on the end caps and tidy everything up!
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| 03/01/2015 |
Here I'm starting to wire together the water level sensor. The hard part is getting both the wires completely sealed off from the water, not only will the saltwater conduct, but it'll also corrode them. Simple electrical tape or heat shrink tubing won't cut it, so I'm thinking the best way to do this is to mold a sealant like sikaflex or sikabond around it.
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| 07/01/2015 |
Same shot from a different angle.
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| 07/01/2015 |
Here the connections have been taped separately then I've molded sikabond around them. The sikabond may not cure hard enough yet, time will tell. The plan is to then push some heat shrink tube over the sikabond and really seal it up.
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| 07/01/2015 |
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