Pouring a Lead Keel (Pt 2) (Tally Ho / EP118)

[OS OK]

Finally...the construction of Tally Ho's Keel...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T99XCJJDGLU

https://i.imgur.com/M3JTN5u.jpg

This is where those lil'Ingots are going...

https://i.imgur.com/iZikm3s.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ySLhDy0.jpg

[Plate plinker]

Oh yes this is the first properly poured keel ever on the YouTube. That old timer knows what he is doing.

[Mal Paso]

Oh yes this is the first properly poured keel ever on the YouTube. That old timer knows what he is doing.

What old timer?

[Winger Ed.]

That old timer

Hey! easy there,,,,, I'm right here.

[GregLaROCHE]

Now waiting for part three. It’s a lot of materials and man hours for a one off mold. This guy must have a lot of good sponsors.

[Wayne Smith]

He's four years into this build and bought the rotten shell of the boat for a dollar. He had to move it to Washington State to begin the build, then move the mostly completed hull to the shipyard where they are now. I started watching when I was watching sawmills and he had the knees cut of live oak in Georgia. Guy there has a huge sawmill that he built. I think the transom and now the keel are the only parts of the original boat still there, and the keel is re-melted.

[Plate plinker]

Yep the transom is 85% original. The keel will be essentially new. The rest of the boat was mostly rotten. Kinda crazy he has essentially built a entirely new boat. I wonder when he will get her I. The water? Maybe by next fall?

[DonHowe]

It is actually a keel weight. The keel itself is timber. The purpose of the weight is to "prdload" the empty boat so she sits right.
In days of wooden sailing ships if sailing empty they used stones for ballast.
Anyway, that was a heck of a pour!

[country gent]

Restoration is one of the better jobs when a shop can get it but this appears to be a somewhat do it yourself by a shop venture. Bringing in the people they need as they need them. Work in the space industry is another as is research and development work.

I would imagine that a sailboat keel is pretty much a one off in being repaired. It is going to be big heavy work and precise. There will be a lot of hand fitting when the casting is done. Im betting it will be 1 pour for strength and accuracy. The sand casting process is an ancient one and is useful for one offs like this. A modernization of it is using Styrofoam or plastic for the pattern instead of wood. There are shops that specialize in tractor castings for restorations these are normally cast iron. The shop makes a pattern of the part in wood Styrofoam or plastic, lay it up in the cope and drag with sand packed tightly around it, remove the pattern reassemble the cope and drag then pour it. Getting the fill, vents and the spots for shrinkage in the right places and size are an art. These can take a couple tries to get a good part. But seeing the couple hundred pounds if iron flow into hat sand mould the sparks and smoke. the snapping and crackling. Seeing the molten steel fill up thru the vents and other openings. is something. I have been lucky to be on hand when a local casting shop poured some hubs for tractor rims. When the castings were done the hub and axle lock were there ready to blast clean up and machine where needed.

Where our skimmers and ladles are teaspoons and such these guys use scoop shovels and bushel baskets.

[DonHowe]

I spent my working years building things and have said for many years that the last bast I one of true carpentry are stairbuilding and
boatbuilding. Most of the rest is cut and paste.