Jointing compound for seacocks

[BartW]

Can you expand of the use of the Fein tool.
By Fein tool, I think you mean the vibrating tool that cuts a groove.

Like this?????

If so, I have a cheap one (that I bought in Lidls) in my shed in Spain.
But I've only used it to cut wood - works fine for that (excuse the pun)
Are there special bits and how do you set about removing an old skin fitting?

yes exactly that,
you can buy a whole set of tools,
with a saw for metals, (similar or bigger as the one in the pic), you can cut between the skin fitting flange and the hull, ...
fein has also bits available made for cutting a caulking groove
and many more grinding and sanding bits,
the fein is our most used tool onboard.
when we are in a yard, (like last year in Naples region) and the guy's see the fein, they all want to borrow it.
fein is the inventor of this type of tool, and its just a little better compared to the many copy's;
soft start, quick lock system for tool changing, feels good in your hands, solidly build, etc..

https://www.onboardwithmarkcorke.com/on_board/2009/01/removing-deck-seam-compound.html

 

[Poignard]

It also produces far less dust than an angle grinder and the debris it does produce iscontained in a small area. You can attach it to a vacuum cleaner using a suitable adaptor.

You can get cheap blades for it from Saxton Blades.

 

[asteven221]

Although i can't post a link, I saw a guy on You Tube use a hole saw to take off a skin fitting. It work perfectly and looked really simple.

Basically he got a wooden bung i.e. the type for plugging emergency holes in a hull. He hammered it into the skin fitting and sawed off the excess sticking out the hole leaving the wooden bung in the skin fitting. He then got a hole saw of the correct size for the skin fitting i.e. the part with the thread that goes through the hull. The centre spot of the bung was used for the guide drill. He then just drilled out the skin fitting, completed with a light tap from a hammer for the outer seawater part to make it fall off. He then went inside and the interior part of the skin fitting and seacock was free to lift off. I thought it was a brilliant idea and appeared to only take a few minutes for each fitting.

 

[plumbob]

Probably true but the potential for a problem is too great imho. Delighted to hear so many of you like the Fein tool. Yes I also use Saxton for blades.

 

[matthewriches]

Removing them professionally, we tend to just grind the whole lot off outside and "pop" it out from the inside. Then if the valve is salvageable then great, otherwise replace it all. Always works out cheaper as labour time spent fannying around is not worth the agro.

When fitting new, we tend to use a polyurethane sealant on the outer flange then a good smear around the threads and wind it on.

 

[MapisM]

Removing them professionally, we tend to just grind the whole lot off outside and "pop" it out from the inside. Then if the valve is salvageable then great, otherwise replace it all. Always works out cheaper as labour time spent fannying around is not worth the agro.

Out of curiosity, is in your experience the need to replace the skin fitting more frequent than the valve?
I suppose that depends also on the quality/material used, but fwiw all the original (bronze) skin fittings in my previous boat of 1996 vintage are still in great conditions, and the same goes for my current 2004 boat. But in both, a few valves (also bronze) had to be replaced.

 

[matthewriches]

Ordinarily, if anything has gone wrong it is 99% of the time is the ball valve especially if they are not exercised regularly. Although a few recently on a boat we had in had lovely DZR valves but they were fitted to brass skin fittings, obviously no good and didn't last long at all. They were cut out and wound out on the bench. We used the old (3 years) valves with new bronze skin fittings.

I think if you was paying someone to do something, it wouldn't be worth trying to save a skin fitting but a valve, maybe depending on size, age and location.

Out of curiosity, is in your experience the need to replace the skin fitting more frequent than the valve?
I suppose that depends also on the quality/material used, but fwiw all the original (bronze) skin fittings in my previous boat of 1996 vintage are still in great conditions, and the same goes for my current 2004 boat. But in both, a few valves (also bronze) had to be replaced.

 

[plumbob]

My Birchwood 1979 vintage with 2 Leyland diesels had gate valves. They are notorious for dropping the gate from the spindle and leaving you with a closed water feed to your engine. Even with heat and large stillsons etcetera the access was so poor that replacing the lot was the only option.
Grinder is a good option but in horrible wet weather the Fein tool was perfect.

 

[MapisM]

Ordinarily, if anything has gone wrong it is 99% of the time is the ball valve especially if they are not exercised regularly. Although a few recently on a boat we had in had lovely DZR valves but they were fitted to brass skin fittings, obviously no good and didn't last long at all. They were cut out and wound out on the bench. We used the old (3 years) valves with new bronze skin fittings.

I think if you was paying someone to do something, it wouldn't be worth trying to save a skin fitting but a valve, maybe depending on size, age and location.

I am not surprised at all to hear that you had to replace the whole lot whenever skin fittings were made in brass, which imho is the sort of stuff that shouldn't even be produced, to start with.
When in my last boat search I came across a few (not many, actually) boats using such components, that alone was enough to rule out the whole boat.
Not for the skin fittings per se, of course - in the context of a boat purchase it wouldn't be such a big deal to replace them all with proper bronze ones - but as an indicator of how "cost saving-driven" the whole construction is... :ambivalence: