Hi yall. I finally got a chance to re-maiden the Puffer after the whole leak drama. She was in the water for several hours, ran a 5000 mah LiPo down to 40 percent. I'd say she was on the lake for 3 hours plus, full throttle, cruising speed, reverse, all over the place. The result? about a teaspoon of water from the stuffing box. All the reversing i was doing pushed a little water up the tube, you could see the big wad of grease that had been pushed out, and the grease was discolored by the water. Im happy, shes reliable, and shes now in the fleet under the "keeper" heading.
Cash

Hi y’all. Made one more leak check this morning, with ballast. Set in the tub 20 minutes or so, nothing. Not a drop!! The tube was greased and nothing there either. I still have to do a minor refit on the shaft ends to slow any water coming in when reversing, but I feel she’s good. The rails aft, however, are another matter. Between multiple trips upstairs and all the handling trying to find the leak, I’ve bent the railings multiple times, and it didn’t take long for a couple of the stanchions to give way, so I pulled the railings off, redrilled the holes to clear the old railing bits that were left, and I’m making a new unit with brass stanchions. Don’t know if I’m going to paint them white again, or go for another color, but by all rights and measures this boat should be finished, including ships boat and a few other details, by the end of the week.
Cash

Hi y’all. I took the Puffer back to the tub this morning, bound and determined to find the source of the leak. Within minutes I had a good teaspoon of water in the hull…but it didn’t come from the tube. I checked aft, dry as a bone, so I thought the bow had a leak and it was seeping past the bulkhead. After drying her off I took her to the bench, and added water thru a drilled hole in the bulkhead and sat her bow down. Nothing. As I was fiddling with her some of the water seeped back to mid hull, and I noticed one finger felt damp. There was a chip in the gel coat that was allowing water to seep into the hull!! I carefully set her up with the water in that spot, within a few seconds I had a drip, and if I pressed on the spot from inside the hull it got worse. I noticed a black spot inside too, I thought I had dropped a drop of paint in the hull, but I had painted the whole hull matte black before I painted her red below the water line, the paint had seeped thru.
I took some light fiberglass and epoxy/microballoons and patched over the spot from within, filled the outside with ca and painted over it to seal. I’m still going to set up my shaft ends as discussed, but I feel better now.
Also, I bent the railings again as I handled her, and some more of the white metal stanchions gave way. I pulled the assembly off best I could, and I will redrill and install brass stanchions that I have coming from Harbor Models. Then a few details and she’s done.
Cash

Ronald, she was wet, but only about 1/4 to 1/3 cup after almost 2 hours in the pond. Even after everything I try, if that’s as good as I can get, I can live with it. However, like we say in Texas, “I ain’t done yet!!”😁

Doug, I have a mini grease gun tha is put out by Proboat. It has a pointed nozzle that will fit into the greasing tube of my stuffing tube. If I hold down tight while operating the plunger, it will pressurize the grease enough that I get grease coming out of the fore and aft bushings while the shaft is still installed. As y’all would say, it’s a nice bit of kit.
I was thinking about doing something similar to what you told me, but using a washer and oring at the prop end with the prop nut just, I mean just ever so slightly compressing the oring, washer backing that up to tube end, lubing the hades out of it. Am I overthinking this?
I’m doing another tub test this weekend. Will stay with the boat for the duration instead of leaving it be for an hour, maybe I can catch the leak in the act…will report.
Cash

I made a vid of our run last Sunday and posted it in the club lakes section. Here's the bit with the Puffer...
Cash

Hi y’all. The Puffer maidened this past weekend. Everything works like it should, she looks good in the water, but….I have a leak. Not huge, but annoying. I took on a bit of water in the tub test, double checked her and added more epoxy at the aft end of the boat where the tube exits, and ran ca thru a hole in the forward bulkhead and let it settle in the forward part of the bow. Ran her, still took on about a 1/4-1/2 cup down in the bilges after a 1.5 to 2 hour run. Didn’t phase the boat one bit, so it is a minor issue. I’m thinking it’s coming up the tube, tried a static test today in the tub with a cut down mixing cup under the tube end in the boat, a few drops of water were in the cup, but about a couple of tablespoons in the hull after 45 minutes or so. Tube felt a little wet on its bottom, so my theory might be correct, but at this stage I think I’ll do what I can just to slow the water ingress down a bit and live with it.
The other thing I plan to do in the not so distant future is to replace the railings with another unit made with brass stanchions versus the kits white metal units. Other than that, she’s a keeper, and looked good on the water.
Cash

Hi y’all. Didn’t get a lot done last weekend, but this past week and today saw the mast installed, boom installed and rigging done. Well, mostly. First thing you might notice is the lack of rigging for the lamp on the side of the mast. I decided to modify the fittings as I noticed some later Puffers didn’t have that as they have electric lamps, so no need to have a pulley system to raise and lower the lamp to light, douse or refill it. There’s a couple of things I didn’t do, as the plans and instructions were kind of vague, but I got the majority done. It looks okay, I think I MIGHT have done better, but it looks good from a few feet away.
I also got the Control Hobbies (Graupner) SXM installed. This is a electronic latching switch that will run 4 banks of lights on one 3 position switch. I’ve used them before, they work great!! I decided instead of having a second connector coming of my battery lead to power the switch, I’ll use a small 1500-2200 mah 2 cell lipo to power it. I’ll ballast the boat with the main battery installed, but not the smaller battery. Most runs are in the morning, so I’ll not have need of the lights, but I can install the smaller pack when I want to do a dusk run, and it’s small and light enough the effect on the boats waterline will be negligible.
Cash

Hi y’all. I was able to fabricate a decent looking hatch for the Puffer over the past few days. I’ve put a lot of detail into this boat, but the hatch/hold is where I skimped a bit, at least for now. The kit is supposed to come with a molded plastic hatch that the builder adds details to, but this kit, although never started, was used, and the only thing missing was the hatch. Sooo……I built it up out of plastic sheet, then added the kit wood pieces to make it look like a simple hold. This is the one part of the boat that will be removed and reinstalled on a regular basis, so I kept it simple. Now, the radio gear IS under the deckhouse, but once everything is wired in and hooked up, there should be no reason whatsoever to access that except in the case of a malfunction, so once that checks out I’ll use small “L” brackets to mount the deckhouse to the deck…if something does go tango uniform I’ll be able to take out 2-3 screws and access the radio components. So, my next step is the mast and boom. Don’t know if I’m going to mount the boom in the stock location or raise it up a bit. I just need to get it built to the point to where I can install and remove a battery and make sure I have enough clearance to remove the hatch without breaking anything.
Cash

Hi y’all. Did the rudder chains and associated parts and the railings for the back deck today.
The rudder chains were first. I didn’t have enough chain to complete the job, but I looked in my stash and had a short piece of the same size, so I used fine wire to attach the 2 pieces and we were in business. There a faux rudder horn that slips over the rudder post and is glued to the deck. Once I measured the chain into 2 halves and all the paint was dry, I assembled my chain system. I checked fit, realized my port chain was too long, and glued everything together, and realized my port chain was now a quarter inch too short, and the final pulley was already glued to the chain. I went ahead and used it. I know it’s there, but it’s not that noticeable, unlike my port drifting winch, which was obvious. So, I finished up the rudder chains as it sits. In the future I might get a wild hair and break the pulley loose, lengthen the chain by 2 links and redo it, but not right now.
I made up the aft railing. I wanted to use brass wire vs the kit supplied mild steel, but I only had enough brass to do the top railing. So once my holes were drilled, I set up the stanchions and glued the top rail in place once I was satisfied with the fit. I pre bent a slight bend into the mild steel, fed it thru the holes and once it looked okay I glued it in place. I then removed the assembly for painting and installed on the boat. The rudder servo is mounted too.
So, I have a few more minor details to do aft, but those will wait till im almost done. Next up is the main hatch, then the mast and associated rigging.
Cash