I’m juggling about five different mini-projects now to get the V-berth head (AKA the Throne Room) ready for fiberglass and paint. The first thing I’m dealing with is replacing temporary 2×4 wooden floor supports in the galley with proper metal ones.
A local “professional welder” did these floor supports a year or two ago
These galley floor supports are 1-1/2″ 6061 aluminum angle that I had welded up a while back. Looking at the weld quality–penetration looks good, but not exactly a stack of dimes–I think I’m doing at least comparable work to what the local “pros” do with my new AlphaTIG on both stainless fuel inlet tubing and aluminum fuel tanks. I’m sure they’ll hold up, they’re just not pretty…same as mine! 😉 Anyway, I’ll leave the aluminum bare, but need to protect it where it contacts the wood. Condensation in crevasses will quickly eat the metal, so sealing it up is essential.
I used 1/8″ expanded PVC scrap for the isolators
Cut a bunch of strips and clean it and the aluminum with acetone
Sikaflex 291LOT will seal the aluminum to the PVC
Good squeeze out = good seal
and another
and another
I have eight of these to install.
Temporary wooden support vs new aluminum
Two screws per side and two from underneath should keep it secure
Sikaflex on each screw will keep water out of the screw hole so I don’t get crevasse corrosion where stainless meets aluminum.
Next!
Access is blocked by the water tank, so I’m bolting these in rather than welding them to the original framing. Poor planning on my part, but hey…I’m an amateur doing this stuff on weekends, and I had the water tank out eight years ago. Who knew how this was going to turn out way back then??? 🙂
Wood’s gone
and another
After installing two more supports on either side of the water tank, I had to slide the 65-gallon holding tank back into position. The holding tank is that big white box in the background in the pic above. But before I did that, I had to cut a hole for the pump out plumbing.
1-1/2″ hole saw opens up the opening for a Uni-Seal
This was an off-the-shelf tank, and the inlet and outlet ports were in the wrong places. The standard 1-1/2″ pumpout ports are mounted on the side, near the bottom of the tank. The problem with a side discharge is that, when the tank is being pumped out, as soon as the contents of the tank drop to the top of the discharge pipe, air gets in and stops the suction. On this tank, I’d end up losing ~10% of the tank capacity from the fluid that could never be pumped out. So it’s best to orient the pumpout port from the top and have the pipe inlet down on the bottom of the tank.
New-old stock Uni-Seal has been sitting collecting dust since 2008!
Uni-Seal installed
Cut the pickup pipe at an angle so it doesn’t seal itself to the bottom of the tank.
Using this approach gets all but a gallon or so out of the tank.
Dish soap lubes up the pipe
“This is gonna pinch a little”
Elbow installed
I can finish up the rest of the plumbing for the pumpout any time. Getting the pipe installed with the elbow had to happen before the galley floors go back in. And don’t forget…I’m putting in the pumpout fittings because I need to get the portholes installed so I can splash the boat later this year and take it around to my home port!
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fuel Tank tabs And Insulation
1969chriscraftroamer46 
Yep…we use both styles, and found sealant to be a cheap date.
You do fantastic work, but I do have a small suggestion, and that is to put a bit more of an angle on the bottom of that pickup tube. If you have the tip very near the bottom of the tank, it looks to me that a fairly small amount of paper or other “stuff” could seal around the end. A steeper cut might make this less likely. Just something upon which to ruminate.
Thanks for the suggestion, Captain! If I used Vacuflush heads, I’d be very concerned about solids clogging the pumpout pickup. But we use more traditional grinder-type heads that essentially liquify everything. If somebody puts something in the head that the grinder can’t liquify, like a tampon, it’s been my [most unfortunate] experience that the material gets hung up in the grinder. That said, the pipe isn’t rigidly held in place. I can grab the elbow and temporarily reposition the pickup tube location (thereby opening or closing up the gap at the bottom) pretty easily. Hopefully, I’ll never have to do that.
Cheers,
Q
Put a generous amount of sealant in the grommet groove prior to pushing the pipe through. I’ve been using these grommets on septic tanks for 20 years, and they do need sealant in the groove.
I think about you ever time I see a Roamer blowing by my slow boat. Looking good.
Conall
Hi Conall.
Uniseals don’t have grooves like grommets do. They’re slightly oversized for the tank hole, and the pipe hole is undersized, so when you push the pipe in, it pushes out on the rubber and completes the seal. You do have to make sure the tank hole is clean and smooth, but I’ve used these on five tanks and never had a leak…and I haven’t used sealant. If this one leaks, I’m gonna blame you for jinksing me! lol
Cheers,
Q