Rodd,

Yes, that’s exactly what I used, purchased at Home Depot. After stuffing the tube sections with the mast wires, I put
long tie-wraps around every couple of feet leaving the tail uncut to act as a kind of spring. (Someone happened to
photograph me in the act, attached.) This keeps the bundle from slapping against the mast wall when the boat rocks. It
works very well, but I guess I won’t know for many years how well it holds up.

Tor

Hi Tor,

The wire ties will prevent slapping forever. When I did my mast in my Ranger 30, I used wire ties at 90 degree angles every few feet. This forced the bundle to the ends of the long axis of the oval section of the mast and held them there so tightly that I never ever again heard them whang about in the mast. I hate things banging in or on the mast.

Rodd, that is the only thing I'd do differently – wherever you put 1 tie, put two at 90 degrees. Leave the tail on. It'll work like a charm.

My boat has two tubes riveted inside the mast for wires.

Bob

On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 7:10 AM, Silver Heels < ([email][/email])> wrote:

Yeah, I figured the tie wraps would last indefinitely. It’s the foam insulation tubes I was wondering about. However, since they’re not chafing or exposed to weather or sunlight, maybe they’ll go the distance.

Tor

Tor,
I think you're pretty safe with the foam tubing. That is what Pearson did for the original wiring in Sarah's mast. It looked like water pipe insulation when I pulled it in 2003. The foam had started to deteriorate, and the mast step was filled with foam the had flaked off the tubing. However it was still insulating the wires from the mast. Pearson didn't use the wire tie trick to keep the bundle off the mast wall.
So it will deteriorate inside the mast, but after another 25 years there should still be plenty of foam left.
I would have replaced the foam tubing in Sarah's mast in kind back in 2003, but I wanted to go with internal halyards. So the mast wiring is now encased in PVC conduit pop-riveted to the wall of the mast.

John

On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Silver Heels < ([email][/email])> wrote:

Good to know the tubing has that kind of lifespan. I’ll put “replace mast wire tubes” on my 2033 to-do
list.

Thanks,

Tor

Post generated from Pearson424 Forum using Mail2Forum

West Marine has an epoxy stick especially for aluminum . It’s kinda like taffy, the hardener is in the center, and you just tear off a piece and then mash it up, in a few minutes it’s hard as a rock and sticks like hell to aluminum.

Then after it dries it sands real nicely. I used it like bondo on the traveller supports and it worked real nice.

On 4/26/08 9:15 AM, wrote :

I am rewiring and cleaning out lots of unused wires in mast.
So far got everythin cleaned out.
My mast had a 1″ PVC conduit rivited to fwd on mast but only had a few wires in it.
Major problem was getting the bundled wires that were tied into the black foam stuff past the mid mast position where the lower shroud tang bolt went thru.
I ended up putting a 1 1/8 hole in the center of the area covered by the forward starboard spreader bracket which is above the split in the mast and lower shroud tang bolt.
Took me half a day to pick out the crumbling black foam enoughto be able to pull the wires out.
Then drilled a 3/4 hole in existing conduit to allow exit for masthead and foredeck light wires.
So far so good.

Now wanting to plug up unused holes and touch up paint on mast and am wondering if there is anything magic that will bond to aluminum mast?

Any help appreciated

John Shaul #216

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Post generated from Pearson424 Forum using Mail2Forum

Aaron,

The 2-part-in-one-stick epoxy you described is also sold in most hardware stores. (Wanna’ guess where you’re likely to pay the most for it?) Anyway, I believe epoxy in any guise will do the same thing, and I’m glad to know it sticks well to aluminum. For your own interest, you might try out a small package of JB Weld some time. It is also epoxy, but contains several other ingredients, as well, which make it especially suitable for use on metals.

Tor

Post generated from Pearson424 Forum using Mail2Forum

Don’t forget to lace in a stainless cable so that the wire bundle doesn’t hang from its own weight. The cable is attached at the top of the mast. It supports the weight of the harness.

Rich