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Solar Bimini
- Thread starter Angel D.
- Start date
Nice job on the solar mounts. You had to do some pretty fancy metal-angle-work to cut those deck-camber miters right. Sometimes, rather than complicated metal work, I'll pour an angled mold with thickened epoxy to build a flat mounting surface. You can use PVC pipe as a mold. Cut the PVC to the proper angle/slope with a mitre saw. Seal the bottom with blue painter's tape. Place it on deck (with wax paper below, in case of leaks), pour the epoxy, (you could even insert the leg of the stand into the epoxy if dis-assembly is not required). When the epoxy cures, lift it off the deck, peel the blue tape off the bottom, cut/crack the PVC pipe way. Drill as required for mounting. That's kind of how I did my winch bases.
.....it's just another option.
Nice video Angel, I am looking forward to your next video
Angel D.
Member III
Thank you Kenneth, that is a great approach. I'll take this suggestion for the future ... This definitely the way to go in many cases.
Thank you again for sharing. This will make it easier for me in the future. Learn something new today.
Angel D.
Member III
Hello Mark ... Next video is on the oven. Will be about battery bank installation.
jtsai
Member III
A couple of weeks ago, 75 mph gusts caused this newer Catalina 308 to lose its mast. The rig collapsed forward after the backstay snapped. The failure was caused by solar panels mounted too close to the single backstay; during the storm's violent motion, they chafed through the cable and brought the whole thing down. I did not speak to the owner but from the picture it appears the installation left no space for the backstay.
Angel D.
Member III
Thank you for sharing...
That's a very sad picture to look at , I'm sure the owner is definitely not having a good time.
I did give my panels a good gap to play ,.. but by looking at the details of this picture I see no gap at all between them . Perhaps they were installed in a different manner.
I can only see a small pice of aluminum holding them panels together when zooming in. It's hard to assess the flaw on the design without a few pictures of it before it collapsed.
It's seems to me it was poorly planned and install,but I'm just using that pice as a point of reference.
I do appreciate the picture and the story, is always cheaper to learn for the mistakes of others.
Just in case I'll engineer a preventative solution to this scenario.
Thank you again for your post .
Fair winds !
A. Adames
Cherokee425
New Member
Outstanding, great job
Angel D.
Member III
Hello friends...
On light of the previous colapse picture I have come up with a simple solution. Just in case ... A one half inch PVC water pipe , simple. Just sand it to erase the letters and Viola!
Thank you all your your comments.
A. Adames.
Thank you all for your comments
Looks like a good idea after what happened to that Catalina. FYI, acetone will take the labeling off of PVC pipe. At first it just smears it, but if you keep wiping, and change paper towels, it will get it all off.
Angel D.
Member III
Thank you Kenneth ... Acetone is one of those miracle products, like WD-40.
: )