Mounting a pump - sense check please

Stemar

Stemar

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I'm fitting a galley pump to Jazzcat. The only practical place for it is on the back of a locker, which is the hull, so drilling holes seems like a bad idea. The alternative is to glue a suitable bit of ply to the hull and screw the pump to that.

It's in a place where it should rarely get any water and never more than the odd splash when cleaning. A good dose of Sticks Like or similar would certainly be the easy way, but I'm unconvinced that it would be strong enough. Am I wrong? Is there a goop that would be strong enough?

Plan B is to slather the back of the ply with thickened epoxy - I have epoxy and microfibres to thicken it - and push it into place then tidy up with a plastic spatula. It's been a few years since I've done any work with epoxy, so have I missed anything?
Edit to add a question - Is there any point in glassing over the ply?
Thanks in advance
 
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Sikaflex and gripfill really do stick to bare interior grp like you know what to a blanket so each of your ideas are sound.
If you were to glass it you would have to grind down the surface first so any suitable stuff in a tube would be so much easier.
 
Stemar said:
I'm fitting a galley pump to Jazzcat. The only practical place for it is on the back of a locker, which is the hull, so drilling holes seems like a bad idea. The alternative is to glue a suitable bit of ply to the hull and screw the pump to that.

It's in a place where it should rarely get any water and never more than the odd splash when cleaning. A good dose of Sticks Like or similar would certainly be the easy way, but I'm unconvinced that it would be strong enough. Am I wrong? Is there a goop that would be strong enough?

Plan B is to slather the back of the ply with thickened epoxy - I have epoxy and microfibres to thicken it - and push it into place then tidy up with a plastic spatula. It's been a few years since I've done any work with epoxy, so have I missed anything?
Edit to add a question - Is there any point in glassing over the ply?
Thanks in advance
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Agree with Rappey. Sticks Like, or equivalent from the diy store will be perfect. Make sure hull is clean, you have a good surface area to bond and shape the ply if there is any curvature to the hull.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
My only comment, do you really want to instal on the hull, rather than on a bulkhead, side of the locker, where access to the pump, to make it easier to plumb in and then clean might be more convenient.

What is a galley pump? Is this an electric pump purely for the galley or a hand pump for seawater or simply a freshwater pump only for the galley. If the latter modern electric pumps, one off, will provide water all round the cat, shower, other sinks. But cannot be a hand pump - impossible to operate if on the hull and manual modern electric pumps will 'lift' water from deep down. Our tanks are below the waterline, under the cabin sole in each hull. The tanks are interconnected and the off take is about 300mm below the water line the pump is 1m above the water line and services two little vanity sinks, the galley and the shower (but not all at once. :) ). The pump is located roughly centrally between the two hulls in the storage space formed by the structure of the sofa.

But Sika is the way to go, it may also reduce the noise of the pump whereas epoxy will simply help transmit the noise.

Exterior windows are commonly affixed to hulls with Sika, or variants - I suspect the windows suffer just that little bit more stress than you pump - stop worrying :)

Jonathan
 
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Is there a risk of causing the hull to spread the noise of the pump throughout the boat? I can imagine that could be unpleasant.
 
It's an electric pump, and the only convenient place to put it is where it's going because that's where power and pipes make it possible. If it's too noisy, it'll get some more rubber to isolate it, but my hope is that the rubber feet on the pump and the goop will dampen the sound enough. Jazzcat has two separate water systems - tank, piping and pumps. The one for the shower and washbasin in the head was electric, the galley had a manual pump that wasn't working, and a replacement was halfway to an electrical one and Milady, alias the galley slave, likes to turn a tap to get water.

Top tip for fixing stuff to a vertical surface with goop - support the stuff while the goop goes off. I came back an hour later and my bit ply had slid down. The goop was still goopy, so I put it back and wedged it in place. I'll see if it worked when I go back in a day or two.
 
You know those two part 'putty' sticks you can buy for plugging holes in exhaust / core plugs etc. - they are perfect for this sort of thing ... break of a chunk ... knead it so it mixes and starts to cure .... blob on each foot of the pump ... press into place ... use rest of the kneaded putty to build up around feet ... few minutes later - its set enough to hold.

If you use a ply plate - which I would - the same putty but this time - decent amount on ply plate to form to any curvature etc.
 
Stemar said:
It's an electric pump, and the only convenient place to put it is where it's going because that's where power and pipes make it possible. If it's too noisy, it'll get some more rubber to isolate it, but my hope is that the rubber feet on the pump and the goop will dampen the sound enough. Jazzcat has two separate water systems - tank, piping and pumps. The one for the shower and washbasin in the head was electric, the galley had a manual pump that wasn't working, and a replacement was halfway to an electrical one and Milady, alias the galley slave, likes to turn a tap to get water.

Top tip for fixing stuff to a vertical surface with goop - support the stuff while the goop goes off. I came back an hour later and my bit ply had slid down. The goop was still goopy, so I put it back and wedged it in place. I'll see if it worked when I go back in a day or two.
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Masking tape or packing tape works on a gel coated surface - but wedging in place also works - it does not need to be pretty - as it is temporary.

You seem to be half way there and unless your hull is a most peculiar shape I'd guess any curve is not great and I'd simply add more Sika to fill the gap between ply and hull. The extra thickness of Sika will help cut down the noise. I'd plan for extra rubber feet - ours is attached to the bridge deck floor and without extra rubber sounds like a machine gun.

J
 
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