what to use to fit a winch to mast - blind rivets or - advice please

[niccapotamus]

Hi

I've got a winch and plate to fit to the mast in the next couple of weeks. the mounting pad was supplied with some aluminium blind rivets.

Not having any technical knowlege - is it usual and OK to use alluminium blind rivets (pop rivets) to fix the winch and plate to the mast?

Presumably and similarly when I fit the blocks to the boom for the third reefing point then I'll be using the same rivets.

The reason for this question is that I noticed that in a previous thread people were talking about using monel rivets so I'm just checking that I'm going to use the right thing

ta
nick

 

[prv]

Pop rivets, yes certainly. Aluminium or monel? Not sure, but I used monel when I did the same job.

(Just don't buy them for silly money in a chandlery - order off eBay or something)

Pete

 

[charles_reed]

The aluminium rivets will be to attach the mounting plate to the mast. Before doing so you need to drill the plate for the base-bolts of the winch. You will need to take that off, so under no circumstances, rivet it on. Monel rivets are overkill for an alloy to alloy mounting and besides being expensive require a more powerful gun than aluminium rivets, to pull them tight.
Do use Duralac for the mounting bolts - it's unnecessary for alloy or monel rivets.

 

[BabaYaga]

For such a high load I would use monel rivets to fix the plate to the mast and s/s machine screws, washers and nyloc nuts to fix the winch to the plate (if there is room and access at the back). That would make it easier to take the winch off for service etc. Don't forget to isolate between dissimilar metals.

 

[wklein]

For such a high load I would use monel rivets to fix the plate to the mast and s/s machine screws, washers and nyloc nuts to fix the winch to the plate (if there is room and access at the back). That would make it easier to take the winch off for service etc. Don't forget to isolate between dissimilar metals.

I would use monel rivets to attach the plate but don't be too quick to bolt the winch to the plate, tapping it into the aluminium with bolts cut off flush will prevent lines running under winch pad being snagged on the bolts. Definitely isolate stainless in alloy. Monel is fairly inert it will cause some corrosion after 20+ years but really minimal.