Those Simple Ideas Liveaboards Have to Improve Life

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by newhaul

20 mule team borax will work just as well and its cheaper than powered ajax good in laundry to

It also kills cockroaches.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GrahamHO

I can well imagine you reaching 10 knots in Puget Sound the day we caught the fast catamaran ferry from Victoria to Seattle. Plenty of white caps but not too rough.

The best was I buried the dolphins so to speak. (Had solid water on the side decks toe rail under water at 13 knots on a close reach)

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by GrahamHO

A great idea. You could make it permanent perhaps.

By the way (something I read somewhere and successfully tried) If you have a small area of solid fibreglass where you want to install a sounder or I imagine a fish finder you don't need to make a hole. I wrapped cling film tightly around the underwater part of the transducer and bedded it in epoxy glue on the cleaned solid fibreglass. I made a little mould with a scrap of plastic pipe to set it until the glue went off. When the glue hardened I took the transducer out leaving an impression of its shape. The cling film left a couple of tiny creases which didn't matter. I then re bedded the transducer in that depression ( without the cling film) using clear silicone making sure it was well pressed in. The sounder works perfectly over its whole range.
The original suggestion I read was to simply set the transducer into a bed of glue not using cling film. In fact I haven't needed to remove it so I'm sure glueing would be just as good though more permanent. I used my way in case it didn't work. But it does work.

We did something similar on a previous boat with solid fiberglass hull. But a bit simpler as I just used clear silicone. Squeeze out a cone-shaped pile of it, then push the transducer down on it and let it dry. The cone shape of silicone assures no bubbles remain in the silicone. If you need to replace it in the future, the silicone can be cut away easily.

On my previous boat - a Corsair 28R - the manufacturer put a high-density foam section in where the depth finder was supposed to be fit. I didn't want to make a hole completely thru, so cut a hole in the inner skin, and wallowed out the foam leaving the outer fiberglass layer/skin undisturbed. Backfilled with epoxy and glass. Then the silicone install of the transducer. Worked great.

[GrahamHO]

Originally Posted by haiqu

It also kills cockroaches.

Not as well as hobnail boots though. Those Aussie roaches are tough. Especially up Queensland way.

Seriously now, there was a news item today that the NZ Consumers Institute tested 16 name brand household cleaners and only 1 of them was AS good as baking soda mixed with white vinegar. I don't know other details as it was on radio.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GrahamHO

Not as well as hobnail boots though. Those Aussie roaches are tough. Especially up Queensland way.

Seriously now, there was a news item today that the NZ Consumers Institute tested 16 name brand household cleaners and only 1 of them was AS good as baking soda mixed with white vinegar. I don't know other details as it was on radio.

Here's a site with a list of formulas for cleaning with baking soda some use vinegar
31 Baking Soda Uses - Uses for Baking Soda - ALL YOU

[Cadence]

If you need SS hand holds eg. companion ways. Big box stores carry the ones, as used for the invalids toilets, in varying lengths. Some knurled and some not.


Not sure hand holds for side decks wouldn't be OK.

[Sea Dreaming]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Here's a site with a list of formulas for cleaning with baking soda some use vinegar
31 Baking Soda Uses - Uses for Baking Soda - ALL YOU

This is a good list. I have number 32! (best use ever imo)

Mix a paste of baking soda and vinegar and brush onto a dirty oven. Let it sit over night and your oven comes out as clean as using oven cleaner!

I really had my doubts on that one. But my oven was so dirty that we had a grease fire in it because I HATE HATE HATE oven cleaner.

I heard about using baking soda and vinegar and ...OMG....clean oven! Even all that grease and black crud! Just gone!

I am now a total convert to baking soda / vinegar. I sound like a freaking commercial, its almost embarrassing.

Makes me think of all the stuff we do because we think we "should" or we "have to". How much of this stuff is just illusion? How much is angst marketed to us? "Ovens are SOOO hard to clean! You NEED to use toxic crap to get rid of it and our toxic crap is the best!"


Hahahhaha

[newhaul]

Baking soda and vinegar mixed to a paste painted on bronze wash off when it dries = spotless clean bronze

[Ryan H]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Baking soda and vinegar mixed to a paste painted on bronze wash off when it dries = spotless clean bronze

You can also use ketchup. Wipe on, let sit for a minute, and wipe off. Works like a champ

Sent from my N9130 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[GrahamHO]

Originally Posted by Ryan H

You can also use ketchup. Wipe on, let sit for a minute, and wipe off. Works like a champ

Sent from my N9130 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Would you like fries with that? And a sausage?

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by GrahamHO

Would you like fries with that? And a sausage?

My kids were collecting pennies (before canadian pennies were abolished). For an experiment, they tested many crazy liquids for an easy coin cleaner....the winner...thousand islands salad dressing. Let a rotton old penny sit in it for a while and it comes out shiny as new. Can't remember if we tested ketchup or not.

[GrahamHO]

Originally Posted by hamburking

My kids were collecting pennies (before canadian pennies were abolished). For an experiment, they tested many crazy liquids for an easy coin cleaner....the winner...thousand islands salad dressing. Let a rotton old penny sit in it for a while and it comes out shiny as new. Can't remember if we tested ketchup or not.

Used photographic hypo ( fixer) is even better. A copper penny comes out silver plated and looks like Quarter, depending on your currency size.

Silver in the film emulsion is removed in the hypo, from where it it will deposit back onto a coin. Doesn't need electricity. Film and hypo are pretty scarce now.
Film processing plants recovered the film's silver out of chemicals like the bleach bath. I knew of a film processing plant where $600 worth of silver went missing just before it was due to be cashed in.

[Goosebumps]

I don't know about other members but I am pleasantly surprised with the valuable info we are collecting here. Someone asked me if this thread doesn't simply start another forum. My response is that lots of simple extremely useful ideas do appear in many other threads here on CF but are deeply embedded and here they come to the fore under one thread. I repeat what I mentioned in earlier post that it would be great to create a simple idea databank easy accessible, ie type in SS and many ideas to maintain appear.

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Baking soda and vinegar mixed to a paste painted on bronze wash off when it dries = spotless clean bronze

Wonder if that would clean up my 40yo windlass? Worth a try I suppose.

As for the stove, that required sandblasting and powder coating. 8^]

[haiqu]

Motorcycle cigarette lighter sockets that are made to attach to handlebars are great on the pushpit rails for powering laptops and phone chargers while you're in the cockpit.