Can you tell I'm a sailor?

Karl Brogger

Member
Messages
519
Location
Dennison, MN
The top of the new widebelt sander is about 90" off the floor, the gates for the dust collection are about 6" above that, and completely out of reach.




I drilled three holes in the end of the blast gates where they have a 90º bend in them for the handle. The two outside holes are for a piece of 3/16" bungee, (the black line), that wraps around the pipe, and what holds it closed. The ends of the bungee just have a stopper knot tied in them to keep from pulling through. The hole in the center I ran a scrap piece of twelve strand dyneema, (the red line), and did a stopper knot in it as well. That piece of dyneema goes to the other gate, and has a stopper/figure 8 knot in it.

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So the red line just makes a loop between the two gates. Tied to it is a piece of single braided 5/16" line with a bowline on one end that pulls both open at once.

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I screwed a piece of 1/2" baltic birch to the wall to act as a plate to mount the rest of the stuff too. At the top is a cheap block I had laying around to make the turn from horizontal to vertical. I just drilled a hole in the end of my 1/2" plywood and lashed it to the plywood. I extended the plywood up to keep the pull on the gates as straight as possible to hopefully eliminate binding. My first attempt I mounted a fixed block called a cheek block, but didn't like it, (plus it's kind of a spendy little unit), and decided on tying it on as it allows itself to sit at whatever angle or twist it wants too. Not that I'm overly concerned with friction or wear here, but why not do it correctly? The 5/16" line goes down from that block and through a saddle and into a cleat. The saddle on there is just so the line stays tight to the plywood when cleating it. I can pull out at an angle, but it still holds it in the cleat. Otherwise I'd have to pull almost straight down to get it to cleat, and I just didn't like that. I just tied a bunch of half hitches over and over in the end to make a handle. Maybe I'll throw something in the lathe at some point and make myself a fancy handle.

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It works surprisingly well. I looked into pneumatic gates, and the some of the pricing scared me off, as did the potential for complications with part failures down the road. This took maybe an hour to rig up out of what is realistically garbage kicking around in my sailboat trailer and a scrap of plywood.
 
Nicely done! I was going to ask if you'd used a half knot or a figure eight but I see you did it right :thumb: :D

A nice T handle and a U finger bracket would make it easy to pull down and lock the gate open..
 
Oh no Karl you should have used a Harken :rofl: every sailor knows they better than Ronstan ;) Or instead of having to pull down how about a swivel Ronstan then it could be handled from any angle :D Ahh the old controversy of which cleat will get you to the finish line before the next man.

Anyway nice solution sailor. :thumb:
 
Oh no Karl you should have used a Harken :rofl: every sailor knows they better than Ronstan ;) Or instead of having to pull down how about a swivel Ronstan then it could be handled from any angle :D Ahh the old controversy of which cleat will get you to the finish line before the next man.

Anyway nice solution sailor. :thumb:

I use a lot of Harken stuff, and a lot of Ronstan. On my boat there's also Holt-Alen, Viadana, and Wichard. Whatever fits the needs basically. There's no brand loyalty here.
 
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