Display mount

First, I want to give a shout out to NoSlack for his great help and support to this Blackman newb. Kudos, m' friend.

I bought my Billfisher at the end of the season last year. The electronics were about 10-years old and most of it shot. The sounder had a bad PCB (no love) and the inside of the radome looked like a meth lab from all the corrosion. Only thing that worked was the Furuno GP-30, but that model did not have a chart plotter. Needless to say, it was time for an upgrade.

Went to the Fred Hall show in LB a few weeks ago and picked up the Furuno NavNet vx2 1824 radar, BBFF1 sounder and BBWGPS. I thought about going smaller (and cheaper), but in the end I got a great deal. Only thing I worried about was whether my through-hull 'ducer was still good. I bought the 8-to-10 pin adapter cable and plugged everything together. To my surprise (and delight), everything worked perfectly ! !

Now I had to mount this display on the bridge, and having seen NoSlack's posts on this site I was determined to follow in his lead. I "borrowed" some 1/8" thick Ss plate and 3-1/2" Ss tube from a friend and started makin' chips. The plate was just large enough to handle the footprint for the mounting bracket. Leveling the top plate required a lot of measuring but I finally got all the angles correct. Here's a pic of the mount with my bullet showing it square.

http://10xx.net/Marine/navnet01.jpg

I used TIG for the welds followed by an orbital sander to clean it up. Not the most beautiful welds but its pretty hard welding on a round corner. Regardless of looks, I believe in function over form, and this baby is rock solid ! !

I could only tack-weld the top base plate to the pedestal since I was limited in workspace. I may try to use a stick weld to complete the bead or just seal it with silicone and call it good. Here's a pic of the front weld (sorry of the lousy focus job).

http://10xx.net/Marine/navnet02.jpg

And here's how she looks in all her glory. I still need to locate a hole for all the cables running up to the back of the display, as well as repair all the old holes left by the previous owners, but that's another project . . .

http://10xx.net/Marine/navnet03.jpg

Thanks again to NoSlack for the .dwg files and all helpful tips for this project. I owe you BIG TIME ! ! I'm planning on hitting Cat and SCI on Mother's Day weekend. Hope to see you on the water soon.

Best always, Brian/ale

Nice work, very clean installation!

Nice work Brian. You can make that stainless shine with a lot of elbow grease. Start out with some 400 wet/dry sandpaper and work your way up to 800 or 1000. Hit it with some polishing compond on rag wheel and your done.

Or you can find someone with an electro polisher and be done in a couple minutes.

Mike

http://www.bocaboard.com/data/512/instrament2.JPG

an electro polisher?

Bro in-laws got something that has a negative clip that you clip to the work and a positive wand that looks like a copper tube wraped in fiberglass tape. You dip the tube in some type of mild acid and rub down the area that needs polishing. I don't know how much voltage or current is applied but he lets out a yelp every now and then.

Mike

"Now I had to mount this display on the bridge, and having seen NoSlack's posts on this site I was determined to follow in his lead. I "borrowed" some 1/8" thick Ss plate and 3-1/2" Ss tube from a friend and started makin' chips. The plate was just large enough to handle the footprint for the mounting bracket. Leveling the top plate required a lot of measuring but I finally got all the angles correct. Here's a pic of the mount with my bullet showing it square."

Judging from the bubble in the pic, now I know how you got the nickname "Cockeye":o

Quote:

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Judging from the bubble in the pic, now I know how you got the nickname "Cockeye"

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LOL . . . yeah, I was wondering if anyone was going to pickup on that ;)

If I were sitting on a trailer rather than on the water, that bubble would be dead center. Having to work against two angles (fore to aft, port to stbd), it was no easy task. Once I put the finishing touches on it I'll snap some better pics.

They look great and when was the last time you saw a boat level anyway? My boat even lists in the slip (to the port side where the batteries are, common to every Blackman!)

Great job Brian. Looks like it gives ya more room for binos, glasses ect. on the dash.
Good idea.
My boat usualy list to what ever side i'm on.
Cheers!!