CD25 Mast support drawing and pictures...

[JimL]

Please go to my website (second page, please) to see what I learned this weekend using a fiberoptic borescope. It turns out the steel plate isn't just a simple plate. Additionally, the only really "tight" spot is above the left rear bulkhead. There is no apparent support from the forward bulkhead or the right bulkhead. I suspect that is why some people have experienced problems.

I plan to build an adjustable brace, that will go through the cabin sole to the keel. There will be a receiver on the keel, maintained in position by a link bolted to the ballast eye bolt. Due to the angle as the verticals pass through the floor, they'll need to have a tie-bar across the floor (under the carpet). The verticals can stay hidden behind the forward side of the rear bulkheads, and will bolt into the lower plate of the maststep support (through the headliner).



leinfam@earthlink.net

[Bob Dugan]

Please go to my website (second page, please) to see what I learned this weekend using a fiberoptic borescope.

I'm curious where I could buy something like this. It would come in handy for all of the re-wiring I'm going to do on Cricket in the fall. Hey... it would probably be great at parties too!

Around how much to they cost?

Thanks!

Bob Dugan
"Cricket"
1983 CD25D #92



dugan@cs.rpi.edu

[JimL]

The unit I'm using is the old 11 millimeter Olympus, from the earlier days of the technology. The package, with video camera, moniter, 3 straight shaft scopes, light source, and Olympus 35mm, plus all adaptors....was about $13,000. About a year ago, I saw the 8 mm fiberoptic (flexible) on sale, in an automotive industrial supplier catalog, for about $600. I'm sure glad I didn't have to buy that original (it's part of my "tools" with the company). It's an awkward thing to use, because it's easy to get the image upside down, or sideways, and become "lost", so to speak. Notice the wasp nests (shown in my website)....they are hanging down from the corner of the cabin top, above the liner, starboard side in the hanging locker area. The picture makes them look sideways.....best I could do after turning the corners!



leinfam@earthlink.net

[Scott MacCready]

Then you can imagine how difficult it is for surgeons that have to snake their way through our bodies with these scopes, not just looking for problems, but then making repairs once they're found. Manipulating the scopes and flexible tools is quite an art.



smaccready@hotmail.com

[Warren Kaplan]

Then you can imagine how difficult it is for surgeons that have to snake their way through our bodies with these scopes, not just looking for problems, but then making repairs once they're found. Manipulating the scopes and flexible tools is quite an art.

Scott,
I've had occasion to use endoscopes in my practice. Like everything else, it takes practice. Once you get the hang of it, its not too bad. Orientation is the big thing. Which way is up...and the like. Once you've conquered that, you're half way home.

Warren Kaplan
Sine Qua Non
CD27
Oyster Bay Harbor, NY



Setsail728@aol.com

[JimL]

It's been down inside a lot of engines, and once it was borrowed for a bad deal. The engineer wanted to see the valves move in an engine, so he snaked it through the spark plug hole and had the tech hit the starter. It would have been bad enough if they'd just cranked the engine around one revolution (he kinda forgot the piston goes up and down), but the engine started up on the other 3 cylinders! That would have been a good point to shut the engine off, but the tech freaked, jumped out of the car and ran (which was banging and clanking while it was sucking more and more of the flexible scope into the cylinder...interesting physics). The engineer was pulling back on the scope as the engine drew more and more into the cylinder. When the piston and connecting rod broke, the engine locked up and the fun was over. It cost $5000 to fix the scope.

We still laugh about that one (he doesn't work here, anymore).



leinfam@earthlink.net