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Hello,
My original chainplates are starting to look a little crusty.
I was able to pick up a few Schaefer Marine chain plates at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, the holes don’t line up the same as the old plates.
Would you foresee any problems filling in the old holes with West System Epoxy and the silica filler? I’d be re-drilling fresh glass near the old holes.
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Drilling stainless can be a bitch. If you havenât done much of this, I suggest getting these. Use cutting oil when drilling.
http://www.harborfreight.com/115-pc-cobalt-drill-bit-set-61886.html
The chainplates are just plain stainless stock cut to length and drilled appropriately. If youâre willing to buy the stock, cut and drill, itâs an inexpensive job to replace the chainplates. Since drilling is such a bear, most folks opt to send the job out to a machine shop or get them from a rigging shop. Getting chain plates that are already drilled with the wrong hole pattern kind of defeats the purpose. You have to drill anyway. You might as well just start with virgin stock, no?
Rich
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Awesome, appreciate all of the advice!
I’m slowly replacing all the chain-plates and will eventually do the standing rigging. There’s a great marine parts store around here that carries the Schaefer chain-plates. I’m replacing them one at a time so I don’t have to pull the mast and didn’t want to send off a plate for a template one at a time. The new plates seems a bit beefier. I changed all the bolts to 2 1/2″ long / 1/2″ diameter, added a lock washer to each bolt, and used 316 grade fasteners.
I was surprised how rotten the core was around some of the chain-plate ports and lifeline stanchions. I used a Fein tool to cut out the squares of the life-line stanchions through the deck. I re-bedded using thickened epoxy and backed with two layers of 24oz roven-woving. The original flat-head screws didn’t allow for enough torque to get the nuts off the stanchion bolts!
I also noticed the old plates had an odd bend near the pin — not sure what would have caused them to be out of true.
If you’re in the mood for this project — these are the chain- plates from Schaefer. The marine parts store should be able to get them at half of the listed price. https://hardware.schaefermarine.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=147_125&products_id=3556
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Old-Chainplate.jpg
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Rob, what you are doing seems to be a lot of extra work and structurally compromises the strength of the plate by adding extra holes. The load on a plate can be substantial. When you fill a hole you are potentially creating a void where water may collect and I promise at some point in time water will get between the plate and its mounting surface. Stainless is compromised by water when introduced to an oxygen starved environment. Adding more spots for corrosion to begin is essentially what you are doing. The thing will corrode eventually, they all do. You’ve now got less to corrode.
You can purchase 316 stainless blanks in the proper dimensions and have them drilled using any one of the old ones as a template (they are all them same less the mizzen plates). A competent machine shop can mill the rounded end and machine the holes, they’ll be clean cuts in the metal. A poor cut is another possibility of crevice corrosion.
Have them polished. This will help fight corrosion.If a surveyor were to look at the chainplate he’d wonder what the heck was up with the extra holes. An explanation of why this was done would probably ensure they are condemned.
Chuck
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When I was at the Annapolis boat show buying some parts from Garhauer he asked what boat I had. When I said Pearson424 he thought for a moment and then said “I believe we made the chain plates for them”. May want to check with them.
Dale Longtin
Follow us at http://www.hiflite.blogspot.com -
This link is an example of stock sources. Inexpensive to buy, not much to mill. You can polish them yourself. Best of all they will fit because they were made from your template. Two boats off the same production line are two different boats. Things change as lessons are learned during assembly.
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?id=27&step=2&top_cat=1
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Chuck / Rich,
Appreciate the advice!
Chuck — on your attached image for the mizzen chainplates, are those 1/2″ pins?
Also, wanted to clarify that I’m not drilling the chainplate itself — I’m filling the mounting holes in the fiberglass elbows and re-drilling the fiberglass to match the new chainplate pattern. The new bolts are larger than the previous plates and I’ve ensured the surface has been sanded smooth.
Are you thinking there could be potential voids in the filled sections of the elbow?
Thanks again,
Rob
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Rob, I misunderstood you. Filling the holes in the glass laminate is a fine idea. If your new holes produce wet tailings you’ll have a bit more work on your hands but you’ll have fixed another issue. I’m not sure what’s under the laminate. May be solid glass, possibly plywood, don’t really want to know honestly.
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