Paul B's thread

[Abrooks12376]

No.. all joking aside. I'm kind of in the middle of this horse dung revolution. I grew up in the dirt. Swamps were better , I liked catching bull frogs. Eyeball deep to sneak up on the big ones! Now everywhere has hand sanitizer. I won't touch the stuff. If Johnson and Johnson thinks their weak sauce is going to out smart evolution than I've been betting on the wrong horse..

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[Paul B]

My neighbor won't leave the house without hand sanitizer and when we go to dinner with them, she has it on the table. She is always sick. I wonder why?

 

[Paul B]

Some Happy Fish

 

[Abrooks12376]

Those dragonetes man... so cool

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[Paul B]

I think my male Bangai cardinal is finally going to die of old age. I really thought he would die six months ago with his mate but he is still looking great. But he stopped eating and that is the first sign of dying of old age.
I will see how long he hangs on. I am thinking a week but I did say that before and he rallied and kept on living.

 

[Abrooks12376]

How old is he?

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[Chris A.]

At least it lived a happy life

 

[Paul B]

I think he is 4 or 5. He could be 6 but I don't remember. They have one of the shortest lifespans of all the fish we keep.
He still looks great but stopped eating. He did this once before so maybe he is on Jenny Craig.

 

[Paul B]

I went down to my boat yesterday to install a pair of hatch lifts so I could lift the engine hatch cover without breaking my back. It needs to be opened a lot because the table is stored down there as well as the vacuum, some oil and spare food in case a Supermodel drops by. But that doesn't take up hardly any room. So I bring the linear actuators, wires, switch, tools, Gater aid, beer etc.
I had to design my own brackets out of 1 1/4" thick acrylic because they needed to be mounted on a vertical part of the bilge. I got the two of them mounted and wanted to try them out with a temporary wire to make sure they were aligned correctly because they automatically stop at the end of the travel and it was a little difficult to get them properly installed due to all the stuff in the way down there.

So I get into the engine compartment and take a pair of wires with alligator clips on them and clip them to the battery, Then I crouch down and connect the other end of the wires to the actuators so the hatch would close. Being I am not a Jiboni, I first got one of the guys who works in the marina to stand there next to the boat because if this doesn't work, I will be stuck down there and there is barely enough room for me to fit. You can't lift the hatch by hand with the actuators installed.

I didn't mention that a few days ago I had this back procedure done where they stuck 6 ice picks, I mean needles in my back, guided by an X ray so he didn't go through my lung, spinal cord or ear lobe.
Anyway, I slowly crouch down as the lid closes and all is well.

I get as low as I can and the thing closes and boy is it dark. Yes, I did bring a flashlight, not being a Jiboni thing again. I can see it goes down perfectly. The only thing I failed to remember is that to open the thing, I need to reverse the connections on the battery. That is an easy thing. It's easy if the battery is in front of you. But the batteries are behind me and I can barely take a breath much less turn around.
I can scream through the cover at the guy next to the boat but all he can do is call 911 so the fire department will come with the "jaws of life" to rip my boat apart and I didn't think that would be prudent at this juncture. I also discovered that the sound deadening material that they have attached to the hatch cover so you can't hear the engines also prevents people hearing the "Jiboni" down there screaming.
Oh I forgot to mention, yesterday it was 93 degrees.

So I think fast. I can't turn around to reverse the connections on the battery, but I can pull the pins out on the actuators so they disconnect from the hatch. If I only brought down my needle nose pliers.
I search around in the bilge, but my neck is bent against the hatch so I have limited sight. I find a piece of wire. Using the light, I carefully push the wire into the hole where the clevis pin is and push out the pin. The actuator falls free. Great. But there is still the other one, behind me.
Oh great, I still have to turn around, and if I could turn around, I could just reverse the wires, oh, what to do.
I managed to bend my leg under one of the engines which would have been so much easier if my leg had an extra knee in my shin. Then I stuck my head against the gas tank and twisted my other leg under the other engine. Now I am thinking, if this doesn't work, the "Jaws of Life" would even be useless and they would have to bury me in the boat and that would be very expensive for my wife. Sweat is dripping off me so fast that the bilge pumps started.
I bend my leg out from under the engine and twist it around so I can stick it under the other engine. Now I am in a real awkward position but one arm is able to reach the batteries.
I remove one alligator clip and am very careful because if the two alligator clips touch, there will be an explosion and the wire would melt possibly causing a fire and with my head against the gas tank, that was not the outcome I was looking for.
I manage to get the alligator clip connected to the battery and the hatch starts to lift. I take a breath of air and see the guy standing there who says. I was starting to get worried.
I said, are you kidding, that was a piece of cake.

The thicker "rod" is one of the actuators I installed.



When the hatch closes, it hits the top of the air cleaners on the engines so it is a little tight.

 

[Chris A.]

Your story's are exciting and daredevilish all the time lol
Keep on being you buddy

 

[s_kelley]

Awesome! And your shirt in the pic sums it all up haha

 

[Abrooks12376]

Glad you made it out of there!! Talk about about a tight fit.. heh..
Either I'm a jibroni or should wait to crack the beer until after project is complete and functional. I've literally stood with my finger plugged, holding back water and scanned the room for a solution, luckily I have mastered the art of retrieving most anything under a pound, that's not circular, with the end of my tape measure..

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[Paul B]

So I went to my boat today and the first thing I notice is that the grass shrimp are swarming all over the place. That's great but I don't have time to collect shrimp. I open the engine hatch and spend a few minutes trying to figure how to bend myself down there in a position where I can remove the bad alternator without changing position too many times. For all you youngsters, this used to be a five minute job that 20 years ago I could have done with one eye closed, one hand tied behind my back while shucking a raw oyster with the other hand. As long as I had one foot free with no shoe on so my toes could wiggle it was a piece of cake.

Now with my almost pushing 70 year old bones that were in two helicopter crashes then spent 40 years doing industrial/commercial construction work and after 16 Manly operations for fixing broken things that I broke or tore doing Manly work and not texting or pushing papers, lifting paper clips or tickling computer keys, it is a little more difficult, but never impossible.

So I take the new alternator down there with me to make sure it is the right one. And it is. So I go to remove the largest wire. and what do you know. The wire comes right out of the "Sta Kon". (ring terminal)
Could this be the problem?
"Of course" it is the problem you Jiboni.
I probably broke this terminal while I was stuck down there installing those lifts, but I won't mention that.
So I spent 2 hours in traffic and spent $275.00 for an alternator that I don't need. All I need is a 22 cent ring terminal.
But this is a good thing.
I get a terminal out of my tool box, strip the wire and smear on some Anti corrosion schmutz. In the trade we call it "Penetrox". (Actually that's what it is called on the can) We use it to keep aluminum conduits from "Galling". (Grabbing when you are trying to screw two large aluminum conduits together) but it is also used as an anti corrosion coating and if you use it, the connection will last longer than the pyramids. Actually I think that's what the Egyptians used to build those things which is why they lasted so long. If the boat builder used that stuff on this connection, I would not be in the bilge putzing around with it. I would be home watching "As the World Turns".


On my way home, I went back to the south shore to return the alternator which happing to bring me near my favorite LFS. I now had all this money to burn so I bough t a purple gorgonian and this garden eel. I am sure this is the last time I will see this eel as the last one I added I didn't see for 5 seconds. He may be 3' long, happily living under my under gravel filter or dried up under my bed. I may never know.

 

[s_kelley]

Always good when things go better than we expect! Garden eel is awesome, don't see the, around here at all. Been thinking of getting a pair of pipefish like yours but no one has them locally. I hate buying online

 

[luu78]

Paul_B, its all by design my friend! I always say "the carmakers spend most of their time figuring out how to make parts fail precisely at a certain time frame. The money is in selling the parts and service for replacing these "bound to fail" or "guaranteed to fail" parts and not in selling the new cars due to high competition and vast model availability/selection. Back to the real fun stuff, don't the garden eels need a deep deep sand bed? Its common to see them at the LFS in Houston.


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[Paul B]

The garden eels do need a deep sand bed and I can tell by his expression he is not happy about that. He will have to get over it. I doubt I will have him for long as the last one I saw for about 5 seconds and never saw him again. I have seen thousands of them in the sea in droves picking plankton out of the water column. If he forgets he is not in a DSB he may live. Other wise he may have to get a job fixing alternators.
Luu78, about designing things stupidly, I spend most nights awake figuring out how to re-design things because it seems engineers that design these things are either really stupid, or really smart.
I must have mentioned it on this thread someplace but especially in my boat I get nightmares thinking about the way some things are built. For instance the hydraulic pumps on my boat that lift the outdrives are located in back of the engines in a place where Houdini could not get to even if he melted 6 lbs of butter and had a Supermodel apply that to him with a paint roller. To add oil to it I had to remove the water heater (2 hours) remove 2 batteries, 60lbs each connected to a bizallion wires) one alternator and a power steering pump. Then tie a rope to my feet so someone can pull me out after I add oil.
I called the manufacturer and asked how I am supposed to add oil or God Forbid change the thing if it broke. They told me to cut a one foot hole in the fiberglass floor of my boat to get to it. Really! I think I told him something like, What if I cut a one foot hole in the engineers head who designed the thing.

Of course I re-designed it after I removed all that stuff to get to it. The bracket that the pump was so rusted that I removed it with a vacuum. The bracket was completely gone and the pump and associated wiring and relays were just sitting in the sea water in the bilge.
Now if you were designing something that is going to live in a dark compartment filled with seawater what is the one thing you would "not" build it out of? Yes, Iron. But that's what it was.

I removed it with my shop vac and made a new bracket out of 1/2" thick acrylic which will last longer than the pyramids. The I extended the hydraulic lines and wires and mounted the both pumps in a place where any human being can easily access them. Like, is it me!.
Everything seems to be designed by Jiboni's. This stuff is not that hard.

The water heater also didn't work and when I called the boat manufacturer I was told they are only designed to last about 3 years. They cost about $450.00 Again, is it me! I never use the hot water heater for a few reasons. First of all the water tank is in the bilge right next to the engines so the water is always warm. Remember its a boat so I don't use it in the snow. Besides that this is a 28' boat, not the Plaza Hotel so I am not going to live on it so who needs a hot water heater?
But besides that, how hard is it to build a heater. I designed a new one on a napkin in about 5 minutes that will last, again, like the pyramids. I never built it because it is stupid.

 

[luu78]

LMAO! The modern company business approach is to get their products together and up into the market ASAP so they typically use readily available components that are COMPATIBLE OR " It FIT THE BILL" kinda deal and deal with the headache later. This way they spend less time and money on engineering the parts and more time on tinkering with how to profit when these so called compatible parts fail. Better yet let the end consumers deal with the headaches later and make the money from them. Sadly that is how the industry is.

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[Paul B]

That is how the industry may be, but I am not that stupid and always re design things when I get them so a Human Being can repair them. My entire home is a plethora of re-designed things. I built the top floor and most of the first floor. (my house is stone and brick) I also built the two kitchens and 3 bathrooms as well as a lot of the furniture. I just don't like the way things are built, it drives me nuts. So far no one has ever touched my house, cars or boats and I never called anyone for anything except dentists and if I could see in there, and stand my screaming, I would do that as I am not crazy about how some of that stuff is done.

 

[Paul B]

I just had to do it today. I had to glue some corals back. I had 5 large pieces of montipora laying on the gravel and every hour, a crab or fish would turn them over so they were in the dark. For a couple of weeks I would just turn them over so they had light but I got tired of that and I had a few minutes so I glued them all back on. Now I have to look for a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from the clownfish tearing pieces of flesh off of my arm.

 

[s_kelley]

Haha clownfish are mean! Always used to startle me when I wasn't paying attention and they nipped me