Tef-Gel anti seize paste for metal

Some products arrive with us by recomendation,one such product
being Tef-Gel,a paste given to us in a tube applicator,by one of the owners of the two Didi mini transats we were building at the time,this was about five years back? The customer is a proffesional ships captain,he had sourced the anti seize paste in the USA and requested that all of his boats deck fittings were installed
using Tef-Gel,which we duly did.

The packaging says 'Ultra Tef-Gel',the corrosion eliminator and anti-seize lubricant,great but does it work? time as ever will tell on this one,well thats five years back and since then I have used some of what was left of the Tef-Gel on fittings on my own boats mast,thats a 16mtr alloy mast, which will weigh about 180 kgs stripped bare of all its fittings.

The fittings on the mast are either similar alloys or 316 stainless steel,either attatched with monel rivets (good) or stainless steel machine screws or self tappers,which may be made from 304 grade steel? (not so good) as disimilar metals do not get on at all well,the more 'noble' basically eats the less noble up!

Five years back I installed a new Lewmar 46 self tailing halyard winch on the same mast,that was fitted to a 316 stainless metal winch pad,fabricated to fit the shape of the alloy section,it was fastened on with 6mm stainless machine screws,around the same time, a full length spinnaker pole mast track too,all screw fastners were installed using the Tef-Gel paste,as much in hope as anything else,who knows if this stuff will work,thought I at the time.

Now that same mast is in the factory for a complete strip down and twin pack repaint,so all fittings we had to remove,it was very noticable that those fastened with an application of Tef-Gel were really easy to remove and no sign of corrosion was to be found,this was a test that was not pre planed,it just worked out this way.

The refit of the same mast will happen in the next week or so,new stocks of Tef-Gel have been ordered from the suppliers and each and every fastening will be replaced using Tef-Gel,the cost of which is tiny,when you consider a mast may be valued at R200,000 or about U$2600 or so?

New Fastners? I would say this mast
has 120 x 4mm and 50 x 6mm fastner holes in it,this time no stainless fastners will be used at all,only monel rivets,the spaces between all stainless to alloy surfaces will be coated with Tef-Gel and if we can find suitable very thin 1mm flexible plastic sheet,that will be used as an insulator too.

You can also use Tef-Gel as I have,on auto engine rebuilds,noticably my alloy engines from circa 1963 Hillman Imps,spark plugs are very easy to remove and
the Tef-Gel paste becomes a good sealer,cylinder head bolts,which are mild steel in the alloy block,which is not a good mix of metals,have been found to be easy to remove,with no sign of any damage to either the alloy block or the head bolts.

Tef-Gel stock should soon be in our Cape Town store,various size packs will be aavailable,contact me for your requirements.

Roy

Spurs propellor shaft rope cutters

We all take out insurance on our boats and expect the payout to cover the damage should this happen,we also carry a spare wheel in our cars,which is sort of an insurance policy of course.Ropes around a propeller shaft need an insurance all of itself,one such policy is made by Spurs in the USA,a top quality and once off purchase of one of their shaft rope cutters will cover you.They are easy to install,normally at such time as you haul your boat for a bottom paint job,otherwise on a travel lift or even between tides against a wall or drying poles.They are servicable too,a simple instruction guide shows you when to replace thrust bearings.Sizes vary depending on the boats shaft diameter,contact me for information and prices.

Roy

PSS Shaft Dripless Seals

We try and introduce and stock products we know something about,either as we have used it ourselves or know of others who have done so,this then forms a part of what can be offered,especialy on our larger boat kits when we supply the boats fittings,sails and engine.The PPS dripless shaft seal is our new offering,we have an order to fill on the Didi 38 full boat kit shipped out recently,having used a similar type shaft seal on my own boat for eight years,I can assure you the idea works,mine has not dripped a drop since its installation,gone are those days of repacking the old type stuffing box,which needs a drip or two for lubrication anyway.

Floating About (time)

This tender,its a local GSM 'Duckling' glass reinforced design and is hanging on the back of a Dix 43 made from wood/epoxy,the yacht is now eight years old but the tender will be heading for twenty five years now?The addition of the 135mm diameter inflated tubes means the tender is very much more stable,it is also nice when you come along side yours or anothers boat,as its built in fender.The tubes on this boat are inflated by a single end fitting,you just pump the tubes up with an inflator every so often. We can offer the same type float tubes,alloy bolt rope track,fasteners and fender washers as a kit.All we need from you is the length of each side of the tender and a template of the bow shape,prices will depend on the size of your dinghy of course,the tubes can be in white,grey and red also,we can ship world wide.

Roy

Rudders and Foils CNC shaped

The first two Didi mini transats we built http://www.dixdesign.com/ had one pair of rudders and an aft foil each,the second of the two also had a forward foil due to the boats cant keel arrangement,this was the first ever Cant Keel Yacht launched in South Africa.We made the first rudders and foil in an old method style,shapes taken as templates from the designers drawings,this saw some three and a half days hard work to have the three blades shaped,even then they prooved to be less than perfect and we actually replaced the rudders at our own cost later on for a set we had CNC shaped.After the CNC shaping takes place,it takes one man just three and a half hours to free them off with a power planer and belt sander,time saved,is money saved of course and more to the point,they are correct! We now offer the CNC shape work,roughed out or as finished units,as part of our Didi Mini transat kits extras.Other similar work is always considered.

Conservation Stuff and Bio-Magic

We hear the word conservation on a daily basis now,at this time the main theme seems to be targeted at Global Warming and why its happening,if indeed it is happening,keeping an open mind on the matter seems the best choice right now? From a company stance,we try to use products that are from renewable sources,surely this makes sense for us all,its one thing to use a product for your personal gain but totaly another if we remove the species from the face of the earth?

To try and meet this factor,we are pleased to advise that our Superform bending plys and our Ockume marine plys are from renewable sources,it was Dudley Dix of http://www.dixdesign.com/ who told me about the Ockume species being regrown,the suppliers of our Superform bending plywood was enforced by the country they produce in,to proove that all species used in ply manufacture in their factory, were from a renewable source,so strict was the government,that they actually stopped production in the factory for two weeks while the truth was prooven! The end result was a CE certification to the fact that all materials,glues included,are none harmfull,either to the workers in the factory or the end users in some other part of the world.

CKD Boats cc took up another option,at first this seems to little to do with boats but as time goes by,it may factor in to some ideas regarding marine sanitation,especially pump outs of raw sewage into our waters.Enter Bio-Magic! http://www.biomagic.co.za/ this came to our notice around four years back when a very good friend Alex (notty) Notman (we did two ocean crossings together) took on the Bio-Magic agency for Great Britain and Ireland http://www.biomagicuk.com/ Notty thought a market existed and soon found he was correct,he in turn had been told about the product by Clive Breed,a mutual sailing buddy who now resides in Auckland,New Zealand http://www.biomagic.co.nz/ .Bio-Magic is becoming global,try www.biomagic.com.au for Australia and www.biomagic.com for the USA.

Bio-Magic has many uses,Notty has targeted the sanitation side,RV homes,Canal Narrow Boats,Campers and of course Power and Sail Boats,in fact anything that has a toilet.Bio-Magic is fully bio degradable,this means you can discharge it and the related waste into a municipal drain and if you do pump it into the ocean,no poisons exist to do nature any harm.So you will find two signs outside our factory,one is CKD Boats cc and the other is Bio-Magic SA.Check out or web sites or contact me direct for detailed information.

Green Boating Products,say:

Biomagic sewage holding tank treatment
This product is pitched towards those who have sewage holding tanks or cassette loos. One of the main reasons for smelly holding tanks, or the failure of the sewage to break down, is the lack of oxygen. Biomagic is a Formaldehyde-free treatment for holding tanks which is rich with oxygen, thus breaking down the waste and eliminating the odours (not simply masking them), environmentally and economically.



What is BioMagic?
BioMagic is an oxygen rich liquid that is manufactured from water, oxygen and nitrogen. There are no dyes, poisons or harmful chemicals in it, so it is safe to humans, animals, plants and the environment. A perfume is added for identification purposes only.



What does BioMagic do?
It controls and eliminates unpleasant odours and assists the breakdown of human waste faster and naturally, without the use of poisonous toxic chemicals. It even breaks down normal toilet paper into liquid. Soon, this type of product will replace all the poisonous odour control agents presently being used.



So, how does it work?
BioMagic is a natural bio-stimulant, enhancing Nature's ability to break down waste products. Unpleasant odours are produced by waste when natural bacteria, already present, do not have sufficient oxygen to complete the breakdown process. Oxygen-rich BioMagic assists natural bacteria to work more efficiently. Treating waste with BioMagic produces a harmless and odourless liquid residue that can be flushed away without causing harm to the environment.

So What’s the advantage of using BioMagic?



BioMagic does not poison the environment but works with nature. It does not kill the essential bacteria that help nature to break down waste products and it does not stain your skin or harm your equipment. It is cost effective as well, so there is no reason to continue using the old poisonous chemicals to treat your waste. BioMagic-the-Future is here now. It has an indefinite shelf life and is not affected by sunlight. It will be accepted by all environmental agencies and will not result in damage to sewage systems, wastewater treatment plants, the water table or the environment. In some states in the USA, poisonous chemicals have been outlawed by City Councils because they are causing millions of dollars of damage to wastewater treatment plants. It will not be long before legislation will be introduced in the UK and RSA to prevent the poisoning of the environment. Then, BioMagic may be the only treatment accepted.



Where can it be used?
It has an indefinite shelf life and is unaffected by sunlight. It can be used anywhere there is an organic waste and odour problem including, chemical toilets, sewage holding tanks and grey water holding tanks in boats, narrow boats, and deep-sea power or sailing boats




Roy

Cape Town Technikon

About ten years ago,yes back in the last century,we started getting visitors from the local technikon college department of interior design, http://www.ctech.ac.za/ normally first year students and just starting out.We supplied then,as we do now,as much help and information of using our Superform ply and Flexiveneer ,as the student requires. Last year we had a visit from a student called Inga,she wanted to enter a competition for design that was to be hosted by the fashion magazine ELLE http://www.ellemagazine.co.za/ Inga had a suitable wall storage unit she had thought up,simply put,it looked like a four leaf clover and was to be displayed on a wall. Inga had nice drawings and even a sample made from cardboard but could she make it from our Superform bending plywood?

We discussed the various options,changed a few dimensions,she then went off to speak to Janet and Nigel at Digicut cnc cutting,for none boat related works, contact Nigel on 021 785 5892 on the phone/fax.

http://www.digicut.co.za/ who do all our CNC works,they in turn cut the demo unit out and assembled,it looked just great,so much so that Inga took second prize that year,so well done!

How do I bend wood and plywood

This question 'How do I bend wood and plywood' is one that used to come up quite often,its a marine trade thing from my side but also a furniture thing,from my many years as a proffesional shopfitter.The bending of ply woods became easy once we started importing the specially made Superform bendable plys,available from 3mm to 16mm thicknesses but we just stock the 3mm,5mm and 8mm ones, as they can be added together to make most combinations and either grain direction.The days of reading a boat builders descripition of Tortured Plywood Construction are now long gone and when you use Superform Bendable Ply,at least your certain of it being water proof and not just simply moisture proof.

Bending wood is a different matter,not all species are happy to be bent,Mahogany and Teak come to mind but Ash,Oak and Beech seem to revel in the treatment.Steaming is the normal route to those doing a traditional method boat building construction and Oak is always going to be the species of choice,all you need is a metal pipe or tube closed one end,as long as the wood stock you have and a little more,you then need a slow fire at one end,enough water in the tube to boil it and with the tube set up on an angle,20 degrees will be good,you just cook the wood untill its soft enough to shape to your required form? Green steamed Oak,can be shaped to the most amazing profiles while it is hot,once fastened,then dried out,which will mean cured and seasoned,it will be as hard as nails and quite unable to move,perfect for frames on boats of course,we have the bronze fasteners and copper roves,should you need them.

What many will not tell you is the wood should be 'green' this is a term used in the trade for wood which is 'wet off saw' or close enough,wood is full of sap when the tree is felled, it is normally sawn in this condition,it will then be taken to dry out,pin stacked,either air dry which is slow,or Kiln Dried,which is many times faster and can be taken to a given moisture content,around 12% to 14% is normal.

Compress Wood, this is another method I have followed with great interest,we have had many samples,such as the one in the picture,that sample is real wood,its not a plastic copy,it has been twisted into shape and allowed to dry,which then leaves it as you see, I have never seen it in use in South Africa but I suspect its well known in Europe where it was invented and then developed. Compress Wood,the name says it all but you would never actually guess what it means? Stock of timbers as mentioned before are selected for quality of grain and no knots,sawn wet to a stock size,it is then steamed in an enclave,then removed and placed in a hydraulic press,simple stuff really,its a ram one end of the support bed which compresses the wood from one end,the takes it 20% under its original length,some of which will spring back when the pressure is removed. The wood has now reached a point when it can be bent,the reason being it has had all its internal tubes smashed,those tubes normally carry the trees water or sap,they are also responsable for the strength of the species.If the Compress Wood is to be used right away,it can be taken to the shaping jig and moulded,if it will be put into stock,it will be vacume packed and made ready for use later,sold in regular sizes,its and easy task to make the most complicated shapes!

Roy

Resolution is sailing for the very first time

Mentioned recently was the news that Charlie had launched his John Welsford design,the Sundowner,the news now he has been out sailing,check out what he has posted on his blog:

Sea trials I
John Welsford and I took Resolution out for the weekend to put her through some paces to see how she did. The wind had blown upwads to 35 knots during the day, but had settled down to about 20 as we left Tauranga Bridge Marina about 5 in the evening. Resolution's tiny Bukh engine muttered along without a hitch, taking us through the Tauranga harbor channel and out into the South Pacific east of Mt. Maunganui. The low pressure area that had come across the Tasman into New Zealand had created a Southeast swell and the winds of the day had kicked up a chop that was running at cross purposes with the swell to make the seas confused, to say the least. The swell reached two meters at times and the choppy waves running across them were often four to five feet. Resolution bucked and rolled, but never felt to be in any danger. With the wind off our stern quarter, we elected to raise the jib and the staysail and boom along toward Mayor Island at 3-4 knots. We sailed all night, reaching the island just after midnight and sailing around it in the wind shadow for the next five hours. On the other side, we reached back out, looking for an angle that would take us back to Maunganui. As we wore ship to head back to the harbor, a forward stay turnbuckle popped (I'd not set the lock nuts -- lesson in that) and I had to jury rig it while the deck bucked on the confused seas. We decided to motor back, and the Bukh pushed us along at just over 6 knots for the next six hours. Oh, along the way, we hove to, and Resolution sat quietly with her staysail aback and the tiller hard alee. She may have forereached a little and drifted downwind a bit, but she was so quiet you'd wonder about those confused seas and whistling winds. Docked at about 4 pm and prepared a long list of to-dos that we learned from the trials. The major one? Move the aft chain plates 250mm further aft. Rig running backstays. And more. Talk to you later.
John came over from Hamilton. We rigged the main horse and sheet, fired up the little Bukh, and headed out of Tauranga Bridge Marina with my little 2.2-meter inflatable in tow. Winds were very light, but Resolution ghosted well, making 1.2 knots in what seemed like a dead calm with a few breaths of air. John climbed into the dinghy and took off to shoot photos while I tacked back and forth across the bay next to Mt. Maunganui. It felt like we were moving at a snail's pace, but when John tried to catch up in the dinghy with its 2HP Suzuki, the boat was going faster than it looked to be.
Wonderful day. Nice sail. Monday will see the electrics finished up. Tony the sailmaker will come down to have a look at the main. I've got a few details to fix up. Then, HAWAII HERE WE COME.

Flexible Veneer sheets

This was a product that came just after the bending plywoods became available,with some eighty (80) species on offer,its easy to find what your looking for.We stock Beech,Maple,Oak,Teak,Cherry,Walnut,Ash as the basic stock line,we fly in most orders,so supply is not an issue.Each sheet is hand matched,series matching on request,the basic sheet is 1.6mm thick and will bend or flex with ease around a pencil,with no grain fractures,a sheet is 1220mm x 2440mm in size,special sizes can be made to suit your needs.

Epoxy for boat building

Epoxy has in many ways changed the face of wooden boat construction,probably those most known persons to have actually raised the level of epoxies being really well understood,would be the Gougeon Brothers from Canada,who made their own epoxy brand,the West System (wood saturated epoxy treatment) a prooven world leader brand since the mid seventies,their book on the subject Wood and West System Materials (1979) is well worth finding,most informations you will require are to be found in that publication.

We sell our own brands,its an issue of us buying bulk and using what we know about ourselves,it was Dudley Dix,when building his Didi 38 design for himself,that introduced me to an epoxy brand he had tested prior to building,that saw me first use the same epoxy system on my own boat Flying Cloud ten years back,which is Dix 43 made from wood/epoxy rather than the normal steel.

Shell Chemicals made an epoxy called Epikure 816,this is the base for many re branded systems you will find world wide,we have left it just as Epoxy 816 for simplicity and when Shell Chemicals sold out to Resolution,we renamed it as Resolution 816 epoxy.The epoxy is no use without a hardener,we supply and use CV 140 cure agent and 205 cure agent.Both are mixed in a ratio of 100 grams of epoxy to 65 grams of cure agent,either the 140 or 205.

Use the thicker 140 cure agent (amber) for construction and back filling of joints and epoxy fillets,then the 205 cure agent (clear) for wetting out and applying glass tapes or cloth,the 205 being thinner than the 140 makes such opperations a lot simpler.

Saturation? this is probably not a correct term,we say 'envelope' which probably is closer to what we do when we apply thin epoxies to a wood structure,the 'envelope' of epoxy is all that is needed to stop the ingress of moisture to the wood and ply.We once had a visit from a technical guy,he brought a piece of wood he had vacume saturated with thin epoxy,which made the wood so solid it was turned into a hard plastic lump ,it would have sunk in water for sure!

roy

Bending Plywood by Superform

We have sold Bending Plywood for around two decades now,as the first importers (commercial lumber) ever into South Africa of this wonderfull product,made and distributed under the brand name of Superform,which is made to the strictest production criteria and meets CE levels,it is also from a renewable source.The glue line is a phenolic resin and is fully waterproof,prooven over many years in the various boats we have seen it used in.

Superform bending plywood is sold in three thicknesses,3mm 5mm and 8mm and with the grain direction going in either long or short ways,so use it either for making columns with the long grain,or curved counter fronts with the short grain? Fixing instructions and use ideas may be found on our web site,one end use is architectural,either as concrete moulds or external roof soffits, for this application,we would recomend that the ply is first treated by a vacume process first,either PCP (clear) sprit based or TT (green) water based solutions,depending on the end use,technical data sheets are available on request,we can arrange treating for customers.

Retail Distributors in South Africa and some other countries are invited to contact me.

Roy

North Sails Cape Town

When we cost our sail boat designs as a kit,we invariably ask our local North Sails loft to quote on a set of sails too,they will normally come up with a quote in 24 hours,with production based on the size of the order and their own work load but a few weeks normally sees our sails order made and collected.We can only sell North Sails to those who buy our kits,its a licence thing,we can also supply you after you have recieved and built your boat kit,this can save on cash flow but will add on to the shipping charges,so worth thinking about. North Sails,Cape Town, are super cost effective,we know this having shopped around for other alternatives,either from other lofts and even as pre cut kits,the bottom line just keeps coming down to the fact that its no more costly to place your order through CKD to order your sails.Any sails made by our local North Sails loft carries their global 12 month warrenty,so service by their other lofts is assured.

Roy

Toylander kit for kids

Toylander logo

Build your child his or her own toy Land Rover,its a 12 volt electric driven car and can carry two children,two adults at a push!

This was mentioned on the blog some weeks back,just a picture really,it was one we cut from a set of plans a customer bought from the designer.We looked at the plans,then made some adjustments in assembly to speed things up,really we just took a process we thought of when building the Didi Mini Transat race boat Running With Scissors, where instead of using small angular support cleats,we use more simple 'Finger Joints',this means we do away with the wood cleats (epoxy fillets instead) which saves both weight,time and money, we think the ease of assembly is so much better this way too,plywood kits are available from us,while plans for the S1 design,are 35 pounds and direct from the designers in England at http://www.realifetoys.com/ one item we can make really easy for you to make faster, is for us to include some Superform bending plys in our kit,this makes the top of the two front wings and the bonnet curves really easy to shape!

Roy

Paper Jet can really fly

Staying with a theme of relative simplicity but working with Dudley Dix of Dix Design at http://www.dixdesign.com/ we would be selling the sailing world short if we do not mention his very fast (if you want) Paper Jet,which we offer as plans and a kit,no plans only for this besign,as the sections are not really suitable for home cutting with a jig saw,we also keep the design to a very close build tollerance this way too. The boat that Dudley built for himself,sail number 001 and in the pictures,was constructed from a set of CNC cut panels that CKD Boats supplied.

Dudley thought about this new design for some while,I say new but it went back over ten years,the idea was there but to actually complete it, then build the first one,which of course then means Dudleys top notch 'Builders Guide',which he supplies with all his plans,could be writen up. Dudley is a good boat builder,its this side of the Dix Design name,that ensures that when you buy one of his designs,plans or kit,the boat will be easy to construct and will sail as he intended.

The Paper Jet ,is special in that it is really three boats in one,check out the three sail plans,its easy to see a natural power progression from one to the other,start small,then as you build up your sailing tallents,move on to the next sized rig,of course this means that the boat can be suited to various sailors with different levels of skills and all in the same day,just by changing the boats rig,its that simple!

Roy