Cape Horn Windvane

mimoza · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 2:46 pm Post subject:

University Swaging comes to mind. They used to be in Ballard, but they moved out to Woodinville. Their parent company Primus is an aerospace company. They swaged my lifelines.

Just about any reputable powder coater will do, but I would be sure to get one that does their own bead blasting. Most do.

When I was installing my autopilot, I had the quadrant bead blasted, and then I coated it with epoxy. This had two advantages for me:
1) I could fill some of the casting voids with the epoxy. Many of those old quadrants were poured from melted scrap by unskilled foundry workers. Need I mention that the resulting "alloy" is of basically unknown properties? Filling the voids with epoxy helps me sleep better.
2) The clear epoxy allowed me to continue to monitor the condition of the metal underneath.

I did this ten years ago. There is now some evidence of oxidation at a few points, but nothing to make me worry - yet. If I had it to do over, I think I might go for the powder coating, perhaps on a new quadrant.