snuffer ring for mid pole or front of pole

Hi,

I am putting together a snuffer arrangement for my H5.9.
Does anyone know where I can get the snuffer ring (in stainless) at a reasonable price? I've seen something advertised but it ws several hundred dollars, which seemed a little expensive!

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

I think you could reasonabley make it from aluminium tube.

You would have to make up a former that you could wrap the tube around and then get someone to weld the aluminium.

I have made rudder stocks with square tube this way before. The principle is the same just the former would have to be shaped a little differently but it should be do-able.

I will give it a go in a couple of weeks once I am a little closer to finishing my Blade F18 hulls.

Regards,
Phill

Where are you based ? I assume the states as you say Dollars.

I did not know there were any Hurricane 5.9's over there !

I'm based in the Galway, West of Ireland.

Does anyone kwow the suggested internal diameter of a hoop and also dimensions for a sock/snuffer.

Found a price for a hoop on Murrays.com...a few hundred dollars..which is out of budget on this occassion

BTW We buy lots of Harken stiff on ebay...'cos it's cheaper than buying here

Have you talked to Andy Webb ? e-mail is awsailboats (at) rya-online.net

Phill's idea sounds very good, especially if you have a friend at a machine shop with bending equipment (all shipyards have setups for bending tubes). If you can't weld the alu, glue and rivet it, and mould it so the joint becomes integral with the fitting for the bowsprit tube.

Building a snuffer in fiberglass or other composites takes some time, this sounds simpler.

If you wanted a perfectly round ring you could go to the crafts store and get a styrofoam ring the size you want then use glass and epoxy (Not Polyester) resin. with glass tape (4" should do) then wrap the styro with 2 layers of 6 oz. Then you could use just a bit of the same tape to make a ring to attach it to the pole where you want it. To make the ring wrap wax paper around the pole and tape it then wrap the epoxied tape around that. After it is dry you can slide it off the pole and attach the small ring to the large hoop with the same taping method. May be a bit of work but you will get what you want for about $40 of Material.

Later,
Dan

Hi Dan,

I think there will be rather a lot of sanding and fairing to do with that approach. Hard to make cloth lie flat without wrinkles on such shapes. A mould is much to prefer..
You can also get problem with chafe if it's not perfectly smooth.

Yes there will be some seams from the overlapping of the glass. I wrapped it as you might think of wrapping a pole. I took a very course sandpaper (60 Grit) and knocked the fiberglass down to flat then took the resin by itself with pigment and brushed it on. It was very smooth, I used it for a season before I made molds for endpole snuffers for Tigers and Nacra F18s. It was good enough that someone bought it off me on the beach. I knew I was going to make a mold sooner or later, that made it sooner.

I like making things and was pleased with the results. If you want someone else's then you are at their mercy.
check here:
http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/grou...jpg&.src=gr&.view=t&.hires=t

Dan

Rolf,
I have made two snuffer rings from carbon using different methods looking for the best option.

I will be giving the aluminium option a go because I think it will be simpler.
The mould to bend the alunminium tube around would be dead easy to make and once made all your mates could use it to make their own. So you don't need fancy bending gear in a machine shop. I expect once the mould is made, apart from the welding of the ring to pole or sleae, you would spend around 10 mins on each one.
Anyhow I'll let you know as soon as I get a chance to give it a go.

Regards,
Phill

Hi Phill,

I think AHPC sells an alu ring solution?

I ran away with your idea, straight down in the basement and made an alu-hoop. I was not going to say anything about it before it was finished and tested, but..
With some care and a blowtorch it was quite easy. Bending the tube without heating it was at best difficult. I did get some "bends" in the tube when shaping it, but nothing dramatic. Looks a bit rough, but with a bit more patience and skill, it will look just fine.

I used monel rivets to close the hoop, and have bonded some glass around the joint. Plan is to produce a fitting for the pole tonight, and glue the two parts together tomorrow.
Surface was prepared for bonding by grinding away all oxide with a rotating steel brush. This really roughened the surfece. Then used a drill-press to produce small pockets on the surface, to create a strong mechanical joint.

Now I am thinking about how to best attach the bag. Either by loops around the hoop, or a line threaded trough holes drilled in the hoop. Not sure yet..

Looking forward to hearing about your alu-ring experiments when you get the time.

Fill the tube halve full with (beach) sand next time. This should prevent warping og the walls.

Wouter

Thanks Wouter, will try that 'next' time.

Tried the home made alu-ring snuffer today. Worked very well, no issues that have to be fixed, but some fiddling with the bag might be nice. Must also install a retaining line on it, so it doesn't try to rotate the bowsprit quite as hard is it does now.

This was a good idea Phill. I have buildt some fiberglass snuffers earlier, and that was a lot more work than this. Attaching the bag to it, was the part with most work, lots of hand-sewing. I forgot the camera today, but I'll take some photos later on.

Added a photo

how did you determine the length of the tube needed to end up with the desired inside diameter?

length=3.14*diameter (approximately, Pi is still developing, or was the last time I heard)

I used some more, as I wanted to put one end of the pipe inside the other at the joint. First I bent it, cut it to length, and then bent it into the correct lateral plane.

Hi,

I have seen the aluminum snuffering fom AHPC by the round off texel. It looks verry nice and strong.
In the back/bottom off the ring there is a slot to slide the bag in. The bag is made off pentex.
And i fhink it costs about 200 aud

www.ahpc.com.au

Ciao, Edd

What can be done with PVC?

Been there - done that - worked well. Use 2" fiberglass tape (on which the ends are sewn so no unraveling).

http://webpages.charter.net/jakekohl/howto/snuffer_ring.htm

I just bought a Bimare f18HT Javelin 2. The snuffer sock is missing. Anybody know who makes these? Thanks!

David
USA 9

Regarding Dan's suggestion of fiberglass; an old trick from my days of making model aircraft is to get some plastic sheeting, cut it into long strips. Then put a thin coat of resin on the foam. (The resin may melt the foam especially if you put too much resin on. If it does maybe coat it first with a painted on thinned wood glue.) Then wrap the fiberglass tape around the foam tightly. It may work better if you do one section at a time say one half at a time. Then put some more resin on the cloth. Do not put excess resin on, as the resin is only there to smooth out the cloth and hold the cloth in place. Excess resin just makes it heavier. The strength comes from the cloth. Then you take the long strip of polyethylene plastic and wrap it very tightly over top of the fiberglass cloth. This will make it smooth as... glass... oops. Hold this in place with masking tape or whatever. After the glass hardens remove the plastic.

Then to join the ring to the pole get a union as descibed below, and fit it to the ring, either by cutting out part of the ring before you glass it or cutting off part of the union so that you just push it in place and then glass over the join and then finish fiberglassing the second half of the ring.


Then sand off the coating that surfaces from the edge of the cloth after it dries so that it will bond to the coatings for the other half which you do in the same way.

The trick here is that the polyethylene makes the fiberglass smoooth.

If you decide to go for the metal pipe, (I wouldn't) go to any electrician's shop where they have pipe benders of different sizes for bending electrical conduit, or go to a building supply place and get some plastic plumbing "thingies" (or metal) that are used as elbows. They come in different sizes and angles. You just join them together with a union joint (not sure of the name) that would attach to the pole. Also you could use the elbows used in household central vacuum systems that also come in various sizes. Also they have union pieces which would make it possible to join it to the pole. Only problem here is that folks might be tempted to infer that they... "suck".

One other possibility is to go to a Kiddies store.... (Toys Are Us. frinstance) and look around. Probably something there that would do for a ring.

I am speculating that this would work as I have not tried it. My Tiger has a snuffer installed.

Good description of how you cold build a composite ring, but why would you not go for an alu-ring (what con's do you see to an alu ring)?

Mine is an endpole. I did not want any weight to be associated with it so I had to make it light. It weighs in at 0.75 lbs as I remember. I have not seen many rings, that are sturdy, come in at anything under that. The prototype was made with glass wrapped around foam that was covered with mylar tape. This one was made in a mold of plaster.

Later,
Dan