28' riverboat Cindy Lou

Discussion in 'Wooden Boat Building and Restoration' started by troy2000, Dec 30, 2012.

  1. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    That's definitely a thought. I need to find out from the Coast Guard exactly what rules on the Colorado River lakes are for discharge of grey water and urine, though. I want to make sure they would consider such a set-up actually legal...

    I'm on my "long change" this week: seven days in a row off. I planned on spending it getting the workshop done. Instead, I'm busy replacing the clutch on my Nissan Pickup. It gave out after only 204,000 miles, can you imagine?:(

    Friday afternoon I have to drive to Valencia, up on the Grapevine, for a union executive board meeting Saturday morning. from there I'm driving straight to work, because I'm taking overtime shifts Saturday and Sunday nights. Tuesday I'll be back on my regular shifts.

    At this rate, it's going to be a slow build.....
     
  2. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    This build thread is going backwards.... so far, it's seven pages of not building.:(

    When I pulled the transmission so I could get to the clutch on my pickup, its oil was full of metal. Which means the vibration I've been feeling lately at speed was not from unbalanced tires or a worn U-joint on the driveshaft....

    Got the bad news yesterday. There's a broken keyway, and the gears have been happily chewing each other up. Replacement parts alone would cost more than the price of a factory-rebuilt transmission, and I see no point in sticking a used tranny in the pickup; I plan on driving the little bugger another 200,000 miles if I can.

    So I'll be picking up and installing a rebuilt transmission this weekend, instead of closing in my workspace.
     
  3. afteryou
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    afteryou Junior Member

    I'm sorry, it always seem to work out like that when there is something you really want to get going on. Looking forward to when you do though. In the mean time I have enjoyed this thread. Thanks troy2000.
     
  4. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    I finally have some baby steps forward to report on the boat project, for a change. My pickup's back on the road, and I got a little done on enclosing the workspace where I'm going to build Cindy Lou's hull. It's a 12'x42' area, about 4' narrower than I'd like. But since the boat's maximum beam is only going to be 7' 6", I can live with it.

    The existing wall at the far end is very heavy-duty sheet metal, and I have an extra piece I can use to finish closing it off. There will also be a standard 3' 0" door in the side at that end, past the windows. The windows are small, but I didn't want anything big enough to encourage thieves... and I may add plywood shutters anyway. Fortunately, we don't have hardcore professional thieves around here as a rule; just sticky-fingered, lazy teenagers.

    The near end still has to be closed in. It will probably become one big door, with a wheel on it so I can swing it open, and maybe with a smaller door in the middle of it. That's still up in the air.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    edit: the new wall is 5/8" T-111 plywood siding.... and I realize the space is pretty junked up at the moment. No one has lived in the mobile for several years, since my parents died and my nephew moved out.
     
  5. PAR
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    Location: Eustis, FL

    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

  6. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    It just looks that way because you can't see what's hiding behind the sawhorses...:p

    The s*** hit the fan tonight, by the way. I was talking to the wife on the phone, and gave her an update on the shop space among other things. The conversation went like this:

    'So where are you getting the money to pay for all that?'

    -It's coming out of what I borrowed to start building the boat.

    'You borrowed money to build a boat?!?'

    -Well, yes. I told you I was going to, when you shot down the refi....

    'Yes, you did.'

    -Followed by dead silence, that I talked to for a while before realizing I was talking to myself. Apparently she didn't bother to hang up; she just set the phone down and walked away.

    Background: when Cindy's mother left us her house, her lawyer sister contested the will. Eventually we took out a $100,000 mortgage on it, and paid sis to go away. A few months ago I negotiated a refi on the house that would've given me $12,000 towards building the boat -- while still lowering our monthly payments, because of the lower interest rate. It also would've reset the clock to thirty years instead of twenty eight, but what do I care.... I'll be 64 years old in a couple of months; what's a couple more years on a mortgage?

    Cindy had a fit, and refused to even consider it. "If we borrow money, it's not going to be so you can build a [bleeping] boat." Since both our names are on the title, that ended that.... so I got a signature loan a couple of months ago instead, that didn't need her signature because I'm the only wage earner in the family.
     
  7. pdwiley
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    pdwiley Senior Member

    I'd put the smaller door in. That's what I did in the east wall of my barn - made 2 of 4' x 8' doors (8' x 8' opening) with a normal sized personal access door framed into one of the bigger doors. I rarely open the bigger doors, only when I want to get something big in from that side, but use the smaller door many times a day. The south end has 2 of 7' x 14' doors so I can eventually get the boat out.

    PDW
     
  8. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    I found the same thing when I made some big sliding doors (16'). I put a man door in one of them and used it nearly exclusively. Though occasionally, the big doors made moving something a lot easier.
     
  9. Steve W
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    Steve W Senior Member

    It sure is nice to be able to slide open some big doors when the weather is nice though.
     
  10. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    I thought about installing a pair of swinging doors, but decided I'd be better served by one big door. The slab extends all the way to the end of the mobile, so if I hinge the door to the new wall I'll have another 15 feet or so of work space available, with the mobile on one side and the door on the other. If I do it that way, I'll sink a post at the edge of the slab to latch the open door to... I can even rig up an awning, to stretch overhead between the door and mobile while I'm working.

    But yes, having a normal-sized door in the bigger door would be very convenient when the big door's closed. It would also give me an easy-to-use fire exit at each end of the shop -- a necessity in my opinion, since the windows are so small.
     
  11. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    If I ever transfer the shop, I'll install big swing up doors on the pole barn. This way I can extend the work space, but close down the front of the barn in cold weather or when it's time to lock up. With the doors in the up position, I can work in shade under them and the whole front of the barn is open to the light and breeze. Naturally a man door in one when closed.
     
  12. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    Should be an update on the shop in a few days... I'm taking more vacation time to finish it. Meanwhile, here's an update on the composting toilet installation in my motor home, as a trial run for installing it in the boat.

    Over the last few weeks, I started smelling the toilet regularly. Not a strong or bad smell; it was like having an open bag of peat moss in the motor home. But if I want people to accept a composting toilet, I think it should have no more odor than a normal flushing toilet.

    So I tied a flexible vent line (supplied with the toilet, along with various fittings) into the existing vent stack for the motor home's holding tank.

    While I was at it, I used some chromed door hinges to fasten the toilet down to the floor. I installed through bolts with big washers on the toilet half of the hinges, but just used the supplied wood screws to tie them down to the floor. If this were a boat instead of an RV, I'd use through bolts on the deck also.

    The hinges aren't the most elegant solution, but they were a quick and easy one. To unfasten the toilet if necessary, all I have to do is pull the hinge pins.

    The only remaining task is to back up the toilet lid. There's a chase for plumbing and electrical at floor level in the bathroom -- which means the toilet is five or six inches away from the wall, and the lid and seat are unsupported when open. Sooner or later, someone will lean against something and over-torque the hinges....

    I think the solution is to add a narrow shelf or shallow compartment to the back wall, at about the right height. It'll be a stop for the lid, and there's no such thing as too much storage space.

    [​IMG]

    And yes, venting the toilet seems to have totally eliminated any odor in the toilet stall.
     
  13. Steve W
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    Steve W Senior Member

    Looks like it fits in there nicely Troy,curious why you used the hinges to mount it, did it not come with hold downs? Did you use a fan in the vent line? How is it to live with? Have you needed to empty it yet? I am going to buy a composting toilet within the next 2 months and like a lot of the features of the C head such as the non propriety pee container etc and of course, the price, the clean lines and i dont think its as tall as the others either. My only reservation is the empty weight, it looks like the housing is made of starboard which would make it uneccesarily heavy. What are your thoughts, this may seem a little silly to some but i agonize over the weight of everything that goes into my boats.

    Steve.
     
  14. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    Get a used tranny from a rear-end wreck with low mileage.
    Save big bucks. :)
     

  15. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    No, the C-Head doesn't come with a hold-down system, although the owner's manual makes several suggestions. It does come with 12 feet of ventilation hose, connectors for joining together cut sections, and enough fittings to daisy-chain the toilet, the disposal bin and a vent stack. Since I'm not at sea or in a marina, I just stashed the disposal bin outside instead.

    I didn't install any sort of fan. But I did install a rotating head on the vent stack that turns to face away from a breeze, which helps pull the air out. It works well, unless the air outside is dead still. And even when I can smell the toilet, it isn't a bad odor. It basically smells like peat moss, or leaves composting under bushes.

    When I do the installation on my boat, I may add a small solar-powered fan to the vent stack. I wasn't that ambitious in the motor home, since I'm the only person who's ever in it.

    I've emptied the unit one time. No big deal... I just lifted up the lid, grabbed the collection container by its handle, carried it outside, poured the contents into the disposal bucket, and snapped the vented lid back on the disposal bucket. Not like the Nature's Head or Air Head -- where they tell you to slip a trash bag over the collection bin, then turn it upside down to empty it. That sounds to me like an accident waiting to happen... and then you're stuck doing something with that trash bag of crud.

    The C-Head is strong and sturdy, but surprisingly light; I can lift it easily with one hand. The top is white HDPE (high density polyethylene), the stuff kitchen cutting boards are made of. The body is some of sort of plastic composite, white on the outside and black on the inside, and about 5/16" thick.

    I get along fine with the C-Head, and I think it's great for one or two people. If you have a crowd though, you're going to be emptying or replacing that pee jug several times a day -- especially if the crowd is drinking booze. Of course that's no big deal. You just pull out the jug, screw a lid on it, and slap an empty one in its place.

    If you're interested in buying one, I highly recommend you read the C-Head owner's manual online:

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/98098440/C-Head-Manual-2012
     
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