Captain’s log
Dateline: 14.03.2023

Titanium for Lewmar ocean mainsail track car

Originally stainless, four button head screws:

  • 2 × M8-1.25mm, about 23mm long, fully-threaded
  • 2 × M6-1.00mm, about 23mm long, fully-threaded

One of the M8’s is already a victim to galvanic corrosion — the head broke off when I tried to turn it. Yours truly will have to drill it out (very carefully).

And of course, I’m going with titanium, grade 5. The length is a bit weird, unless I’m really bad at measuring things. To be safe, I’ll go with 25mm length, not 20mm. If I have to cut them, I will — can always make them shorter, never longer.

Replacements:

  • M6-1 × 25mm Button Head Socket Screw
  • M8-1.25 × 25mm Button-Head Socket Screw

Shopping spree

While we’re at it, I’d like to also get new screws to replace brand-new stainless steel ones that just came with the official end cap kit for that track car.

Originally stainless, they are four flat head screws:

  • 2 × M6-1.00mm, fully-threaded 20mm shaft

What I don’t like is the fact that they don’t use any washers with that — neither locking, nor flat. The danger here is if two of those screws got loose on either side of the car, the Torlon balls would just fall out, and then my boom could easily get either stuck, or the whole car would simply fly off the track, releasing my boom free, letting it hit one of my backstays, essentially taking down the standing rigging, dismasting Curious Cat. That’s the worst case scenario.

The tricky part here seems to be that the original screws “stick out” — they’re what touches the rubber buffers at both ends of the track. That means I can add extra height to the bolts, they just have to be flat.

The replacement will be:

  • M6-1 Pitch × 40mm Socket Head Cap Screw, Grade 5 (already have them, will need to cut and shorten, but seem to be perfect for this)

A 1.85mm outer diameter washer barely fits in there, and nothing can be over 10mm in diameter, Decided not to go with washers for now, can’t go above 10mm anyway, and don’t want to drill M5 washers to fit M6 bolts, that’d be silly. A bit weird that Lewmar went with a flat head slotted drive screw here, it has sharp edges on both sides, could chafe the line. I’ll drill the heads later to pull a safety wire through all four bolts, this way I won’t lose my precious Torlon balls if they become loose.

Been told that titanium sparks are white, can’t wait to see them.

Captain’s log
Dateline: 22.05.2023

3D Scanner

Bought a very old (but supposedly very good) 3D scanner on eBay. Creaform HandyScan 3D — REVscan. 2008 or so, but it has lasers and not those useless LEDs. FireWire, hence had to buy 3 (!) adapters just to connect it to USB-C. Also bought a used Windows laptop, since the software that Creaform provides only runs on Windows. There's also a power supply that hooks up to a very strange cable — didn't want it to fry any of my good laptops if anything goes wrong.

The software (VxScan 3.1.2) required a CD Key. Creaform were very and very friendly and gave it to me in no time. What I have is a discontinued model, so I really appreciate their help.

One of the big hiccups was getting the sensors connected to the PC. That scanner device features two CMOS sensors, Dragonfly by Point Grey Research — what a name! Point Grey seems to now be owned by Teledyne FLIR. Here's where to get Windows drivers for those cameras: FlyCapture SDK.

FlyCap2 2.13.3.61 is detecting my dual cameras as a single device (probably due to the hub), the model name is "Dragonfly". The sensor is Sony ICX204AL, driver FirePRO (PGR1394.sys) — 2.7.3.161. The best news? — I'm able to see the image! The picture seems to be coming only from one of the sensors though, black and white. 7.5 FPS on average. Updated to 15 FPS in settings, now it's much smoother.

One of the camera's board appears to be dead. No way to flash the firmware. Flir.com's tech support is beyond amazing, even though I never bought the product directly though them, they seem to care about this old-ass camera more than I do.

Went ahead and bought an OEM edition of Creaform's scanner off eBay for $500 — Omega Willowwood. Lucky me, when it arrived, had almost exactly the same hardware inside, and the boards were Dragonfly v1.8 HIBW. Swapped the boards, now my HandyScan has both cameras working!

The hard part now is to make the software use the new camera, since the siral number is different. But it's just software trickery at this point, the hardware is working.

Captain’s log
Dateline: 29.06.2023

Couplings

Currently I have two rusty couplings to connect my electric motors to propeller shafts, one side is 3cm (prop) and the other side is 35mm (motor).

It should be good enough, however they're not rigid, they rust like crazy, weigh at ton, and most importantly, I don't like them.

My current choices:

  • R & D flexible
  • HexaFlex
  • Vetus Type 6
  • Vetus Combiflex
  • Sigmadrive by Bruntons Propellers
  • Keep E-Tech's (if they perform well)
  • Repurpose stainless steel couplings that were used with hydraulic motors
  • Manufacture new ones (possibly magnetic)

I'm leaning towards either Type 6 or Combiflex by Vetus, they seem to be very customizable, dampen vibration (noise) well, allow up to 2º of error, and be of high production quality.

Scott from Vetus has helped me tremendously by patiently telling everything one needs to know about their products. Now it's my job to analyze and measure everything and order the right couplings for my motors. Here's their catalog: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/527443106/85/

Right now I have no time to deal with all this, so I'll use what came with the motors and hope it works.

Vinyl

Now that I have a CNC with laser cutting capabilities, I can cut decals right on my boat.

The first thing I'll cut out will be two giant QR codes that lead to this very website. I'll slap them on both sides of the vessel, to avoid excessive questions and self-invitations.

My current options:

  • https://www.vinylfrog.com/products/matte-metallic-pearl-black-vinyl-wrap
  • https://teckwrap.com/products/ultimate-black-cg01-hd-vinyl-wrap?variant=40994148253807
  • https://metrorestyling.com/products/3m-2080-gloss-black-vinyl-wrap-g12?variant=35944189362328
  • https://www.carlawrap.com/products/black-gloss-candy-wrap?variant=31849394667566

No idea which one is best to get, still trying to pick the right one. By best, I mean something that wouldn't peel and hold color well.