Before the boat, we had a project car called Blue Moon Dune. She is an Allison Daytona Beach Dune Buggy on a 1965 VW pan. We sold her back in May 2009, in preparation for our sailing adventure. One piece of equipment that we purchased for working on Blue Moon Dune was a soldering iron. Now that same soldering iron is being utilized on projects for our Gemini 3200. We won't be using it on anything electrical, because the solder is not marine environment friendly. We have however, used it to cut Sunbrella fabric, sail cloth, twine for the lifelines, searing the ends of the lifeline netting, lines, shock cords, and anywhere you would need a hot knife. It has worked great and the nice thing is that it was a piece of equipment that we already had.
We are always looking for multiple ways to utilize existing tools, equipment, and anything that will be put on the boat.
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I love the idea of cutting the Sunbrella fabric!
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally I was reading Jim Trefethen's book "The Cruising Life" last night and he mentioned the importance of having a soldering iron. I already have a small battery powered one that I keep in my tool bag that works great for small projects. In the book Jim mentions using "rosin-core solder" for electrical soldering on his boat. I Don't know enough to have an opinion yet on its marine characteristics. :)
ReplyDeleteI actually thought I could get away without having a soldering iron as I use a ratcheting crimper for making most electrical connections. I just had to tin some wire though so ended up buying a little butane soldering iron.
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