Stuffing Box - Dripless or Flax

[Richard Gelfand]

Need to haul my CD 27 and thought that I would repack stuffing box. Question as to what material to use - conventional flax or dripless material? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Ken Coit]

If you like the sight, sound, and feeling of dripping water slowly filling your bilge and spraying about the engine room, then use conventional stuffing and be sure it drips. Otherwise, the results will be even worse.

If you want a slightly more expensive solution, use some of the green teflon mixture sold at West Marine and others and the teflon impregnated stuffing material behind a round of conventional stuffing lathered with the green goop. The results on Parfait have been outstanding. It runs cool for hours.

One trick I didn't learn until afterwards, is to use a straightened fish hook to pull out the old stuffing. The corkscrew tools are too big and must be reduced in size. This is a pain when you are already straddling the stuffing box, or you are leaning in over a bulkhead cutout.

There are some earlier posts on this subject including info on the more expensive dripless seals. I think the consensus is that anything that has more parts that can fail is probably not a good idea, especially when they are below the water line.

Clean up the shaft so the teflon coated seal has a chance of working and enjoy driplessness! We do.

Ken Coit
S/V Parfait
Raleigh, NC

Need to haul my CD 27 and thought that I would repack stuffing box. Question as to what material to use - conventional flax or dripless material? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

parfait@nc.rr.com

[Larry DeMers]

Ken,
Good Post! We switched over to the teflon goop sandwiched between two flax rings last summer, and it works super for us also. The nice thing is that it's basicly a check it twice a season and forget it type item now.

I would say that if your water is truly flying around the engine room, then the packing gland is not adjusted right. It should be dripping at a 1-2 drips every 10 sec. rate, which isn't objectionable. But this rate will vary in time as wear happens, temperatures change etc. So that dripless goop is a good improvement.

Cheers!
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30

If you like the sight, sound, and feeling of dripping water slowly filling your bilge and spraying about the engine room, then use conventional stuffing and be sure it drips. Otherwise, the results will be even worse.

If you want a slightly more expensive solution, use some of the green teflon mixture sold at West Marine and others and the teflon impregnated stuffing material behind a round of conventional stuffing lathered with the green goop. The results on Parfait have been outstanding. It runs cool for hours.

One trick I didn't learn until afterwards, is to use a straightened fish hook to pull out the old stuffing. The corkscrew tools are too big and must be reduced in size. This is a pain when you are already straddling the stuffing box, or you are leaning in over a bulkhead cutout.

There are some earlier posts on this subject including info on the more expensive dripless seals. I think the consensus is that anything that has more parts that can fail is probably not a good idea, especially when they are below the water line.

Clean up the shaft so the teflon coated seal has a chance of working and enjoy driplessness! We do.

Ken Coit
S/V Parfait
Raleigh, NC

Need to haul my CD 27 and thought that I would repack stuffing box. Question as to what material to use - conventional flax or dripless material? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

demers@sgi.com

[Larry Austin]

I found a good article on the net about stuffing box packing. Talks both about conventional and drip-less packing.
I think I'll change my over to drip-less this weekend!

Larry Austin
CD30MKII
LAYLA

http://www.c34.org/faq-pages/faq-stuffing-box.html



laustin@us.ibm.com

[Ken Coit]

Larry,

Goop! How technical can we get? Thanks for not correcting me, but is there a proper term for that stuff?

Yes, if the water is flying around, there is definitely a problem.

You should have seen us the day the packing nut came loose! Even then, the water spray wasn't too bad, but it did cause me to indicate that we had a "problem." Later I learned that my message was interpreted as "We are sinking." Of course it didn't take long to reset the packing and locking nuts. Could I have failed to do that after we launched? I think so! It spins right off! At least I remembered to check and see how warm things were getting.

I never did get two rounds of flax in. Perhaps you have a special method or a non-stock stuffing box?

Ken

Ken,
Good Post! We switched over to the teflon goop sandwiched between two flax rings last summer, and it works super for us also. The nice thing is that it's basicly a check it twice a season and forget it type item now.

I would say that if your water is truly flying around the engine room, then the packing gland is not adjusted right. It should be dripping at a 1-2 drips every 10 sec. rate, which isn't objectionable. But this rate will vary in time as wear happens, temperatures change etc. So that dripless goop is a good improvement.

Cheers!
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30

If you like the sight, sound, and feeling of dripping water slowly filling your bilge and spraying about the engine room, then use conventional stuffing and be sure it drips. Otherwise, the results will be even worse.

If you want a slightly more expensive solution, use some of the green teflon mixture sold at West Marine and others and the teflon impregnated stuffing material behind a round of conventional stuffing lathered with the green goop. The results on Parfait have been outstanding. It runs cool for hours.

One trick I didn't learn until afterwards, is to use a straightened fish hook to pull out the old stuffing. The corkscrew tools are too big and must be reduced in size. This is a pain when you are already straddling the stuffing box, or you are leaning in over a bulkhead cutout.

There are some earlier posts on this subject including info on the more expensive dripless seals. I think the consensus is that anything that has more parts that can fail is probably not a good idea, especially when they are below the water line.

Clean up the shaft so the teflon coated seal has a chance of working and enjoy driplessness! We do.

Ken Coit
S/V Parfait
Raleigh, NC

Need to haul my CD 27 and thought that I would repack stuffing box. Question as to what material to use - conventional flax or dripless material? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

parfait@nc.rr.com

[Steve Alarcon]

Ken,

I was able to get two rounds in when I launched Tenacity in July, but it was tough going. Thanks for the tip about the fishhook. I used the corkscrew thing and about made myself crazy.

Steve Alarcon
CD36 Tenacity
Seattle



alarcon3@prodigy.net

[Ken Coit]

Steve,

I think it was on the Catalina 34 site mentioned earlier in this thread that it was suggested that a sheet metal or wallboard screw works better than the corkscrew tools to remove the flax. I would think that the wallboard screw might be better, but they both would be easier to remove from the flax than a fish hook.

You have encouraged me to try for the third round once again, but probably not anytime sooner than I need to. There are lots of other self-imposed projects to do.

Ken

Ken,

I was able to get two rounds in when I launched Tenacity in July, but it was tough going. Thanks for the tip about the fishhook. I used the corkscrew thing and about made myself crazy.

Steve Alarcon
CD36 Tenacity
Seattle

parfait@nc.rr.com

[Larry DeMers]

Hey..that's a good descriptive word..can be the stuff eminating from your kids nose during cold season, or that odd mix of rain, snow and sleet..kinda falls and makes a slurry that the car floats on, but will not steer through.. etc. Ugh. Or what the last batch of pancake mix looked like after I tried to get creative with pineapple chunks etc.

It's good to know that the amount of water that can come out is no big deal..these ARE the crazy damn things that my head presents to me while we are night sailing, or crossing Superior, and out of sight of land.. Always the possible disaster or 'unplanned event'. Jeesh, you would think i would kiss the ground when we get to port. But no, I seem to forget these stupid thoughts as soon as they come..thanks neptune!

To get the two courses of flax in, you need to firmly seat the first layer with a 1/8 flat blade screwdriver..lightly tamp the flax into position. It will re-expand after a bit of time..so do the tamping, then scoop in the goop, then take the last ring, offset it's opening from the first courses opening, and slowly work it into the gland. You may have to much goop if the last layer does not want to go on. My stuff came in a toothpaste tube, and you squeeze out as much as you need..just don't confuse it with toothpaste!
With only two courses in, I would worry about the goop getting washed out of the gland. The flax forms kind of a gasket that holds the stuff in place.


Cheers und Beers!

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30

Larry,

Goop! How technical can we get? Thanks for not correcting me, but is there a proper term for that stuff?

Yes, if the water is flying around, there is definitely a problem.

You should have seen us the day the packing nut came loose! Even then, the water spray wasn't too bad, but it did cause me to indicate that we had a "problem." Later I learned that my message was interpreted as "We are sinking." Of course it didn't take long to reset the packing and locking nuts. Could I have failed to do that after we launched? I think so! It spins right off! At least I remembered to check and see how warm things were getting.

I never did get two rounds of flax in. Perhaps you have a special method or a non-stock stuffing box?

Ken

Ken,
Good Post! We switched over to the teflon goop sandwiched between two flax rings last summer, and it works super for us also. The nice thing is that it's basicly a check it twice a season and forget it type item now.

I would say that if your water is truly flying around the engine room, then the packing gland is not adjusted right. It should be dripping at a 1-2 drips every 10 sec. rate, which isn't objectionable. But this rate will vary in time as wear happens, temperatures change etc. So that dripless goop is a good improvement.

Cheers!
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30

If you like the sight, sound, and feeling of dripping water slowly filling your bilge and spraying about the engine room, then use conventional stuffing and be sure it drips. Otherwise, the results will be even worse.

If you want a slightly more expensive solution, use some of the green teflon mixture sold at West Marine and others and the teflon impregnated stuffing material behind a round of conventional stuffing lathered with the green goop. The results on Parfait have been outstanding. It runs cool for hours.

One trick I didn't learn until afterwards, is to use a straightened fish hook to pull out the old stuffing. The corkscrew tools are too big and must be reduced in size. This is a pain when you are already straddling the stuffing box, or you are leaning in over a bulkhead cutout.

There are some earlier posts on this subject including info on the more expensive dripless seals. I think the consensus is that anything that has more parts that can fail is probably not a good idea, especially when they are below the water line.

Clean up the shaft so the teflon coated seal has a chance of working and enjoy driplessness! We do.

Ken Coit
S/V Parfait
Raleigh, NC

demers@sgi.com

[Jim Hojlo]

Need to haul my CD 27 and thought that I would repack stuffing box. Question as to what material to use - conventional flax or dripless material? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

You may want to investigate the new stuffing material being produced by WL Gore as in Goretex, that's now available. It's being used by the Navy and Coast guard with excellent results and I understand is in pleasureboat sizes.I have used the green teflon with very good results in a previous boat but intend to go the goretex route with this one.



jhojlo@ultrablend.com

[TOM]

Need to haul my CD 27 and thought that I would repack stuffing box. Question as to what material to use - conventional flax or dripless material? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Check out www.diy-boat.com/pages-/archives/archf.html There is a full article with pictures!!!! on how to repack stufing box. Good luck TOM



TSHEL11523@aol.com