I'm finally building my boat.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Here are the gudgeons and pintles. I polished one so you can see how it looks from the foundry next to how it looks after polishing. I used 120 grit on a belt sander to get the rough casting out. (Note: at the foundry they do very roughly grind them so they can see any flaws.) After that I used a random orbit sander progressing up to 320 grit, then hand sanded up to 2000, then buffed on a felt wheel. Note: the polished one isn’t finished- I skipped a few grits and went right to polishing just to see how easily it would polish. I will go back to the hand sanding and get those swirl scratches out and then repolish it.


Wood plug next to casting.

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Rough cast untouched as it comes from the foundry next to sanded to 320 grit.

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Rough cast again next to polished, but this was a quick test and I will sand more and repolish. I only polished this one side for the test- you can still see swirl marks. The other side not shown is still at 320 grit. Will work on these in the evenings after Petra goes to bed.

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Casting these cost $250. They are huge and take a lot of metal.


Oh, I also bought all the hatches and storage bins, which were quite costly. This stuff adds up quick. I went with manufactured rather than making my own wood ones. They are at my warehouse so I can’t get pics right now.