Boat anchor.

[Stick-man]

I also bought one of these, "Chene" anchors, JUNK! I have NEVER gotten it to work, under ANY conditions.

[larphead]

WOW a plethora of great designs and ideas. Thanks!

I think I am going to go with a design along the lines of jbmprods's and jman's. I will post up pics of what I come up with. If he dont like it, too bad he is getting a free anchor.

I think I got a nice long length of heavy chain I can give him too.

[crab fisherman]

I use a 12. I worked a boat that used an 18.

http://www.kolstrand.com/products/forfjord-anchors.html

Although, hydraulics make it a whole lot easier...

-Ian

[VPT]

Originally Posted by jbmprods

the bottom of the Sacramento river is lined with all styles of anchors and two of the ones i donated are of the style you prefer. there are Valley oak, Black walnut, and English walnut snags in that river that would make those little trees you fellers grow in Wisconsin look like saplings.
oh did i mention i fish rivers also.

When our local river was drained I went out and found about 5 anchors (3 of which were the style pictured). On 4 of the 5 anchors was a way to small of rope to be used on the river which explained why I found the anchors.

Don't use the metal clasp on ropes to hook to the anchors, they let go of your new anchors for you. I loop the rope threw the anchor eye more than a few times and then tie it off with a slip knot and pull it tight. I have yet to lose an anchor besides that one time when I was a kid and just used the metal clasp.

When I get anchors snagged on trees or boulders I use the boat to pull them out. The anchor rope should be able to take full power of the boat motor, unless your one of those guys that has to have the biggest motor on the market on your boat. We may have scrap pine trees but we still have some of the biggest boulders on the planet. lol

This is what I used to find my new anchors. I also found a cool vintage motor stuck in the mud (I'll see if I can find the pic) but when I went to pull it out the power head came off the mid section.



Get your anchor caught on one of these pylons and try to pull it out.


The motor.

[larphead]

MAN! that is cool! Why was it drained?

God only knows what a person would find if the Ohio river was drained. I know I have a couple of fishing poles in it.

I found an old out of date fire extinguisher today. Had to drain it first (had some fun with THAT, got a wrench thrown at me ) Slapped it in the bandsaw to cut the top off from it and THEN noticed the dang thing is aluminum. Now welding it isnt the issue, I probably have the material and skill to do the work, the problem is that I am not sure this "buddie" is worth the extra hassle.

[jbmprods]

that motor is an oldie VPT. nice hover craft. i almost bought one last year till my 17 year old boy started talking about all the great stuff he could do with it. i decided it wouldn't be such a wise investment on my part. i catch too much hell from his mother already because of the boat i gave him. if we weren't already divorced she would divorce me and take the stuff she didn't get in the first battle. i could probably retire on the salvage $$$ i could make on anchors if they drained the Sacramento river not to mention old cars and trucks. i know of one lower unit i left in the river a few years back of my 45 horse evinrude.

[VPT]

The river was drained to fix the dam and flood wall which after they filled the flowage back up they say they found more holes bigger than the ones they fixed... lol

I mostly found anchors but saw all kinds of things. Old houses that were flooded over when they built the dam. Those pilings pictured earlier for log control back when they used the river to transport logs. boats, car seats, old horse and buggy wagon wheels, bikes, pay phones, many many many glass bottles/whine bottles, you name it it was down there. I'll post a couple more pics for you guys. I found it very neat!










The rock "dams" are old roads that went out to houses and whatnot.













If you want to see the whole collection google "wisconsin river virtual hovercraft ride" lol

[larphead]

Neat pics, even tho it would pi$$ me off to see how much trash is thrown into waterways. It looks like a hovercraft would be the best way to go in that case.

Back to this boat anchor, I found another (steel this time) fire extinguisher and finished it up today.





I tried to copy jbmprods's just by going by memory. I think its pretty close, one of these days I will have to get one of those fancy phones with internet just for cases like this. The piece of bar the chain is on ended up being a bit too short, so I improvised.
For ballast I used a bunch of battery terminals I had saved for making sinkers. After every thing including the 6 foot chain it weighs in at 34 lbs, glad I aint the one who has to pull it up.

[VPT]

Great job on the anchor! Is that a miller 212 in the background? How do you like it?

Yeah I get a bit mad about all the stuff I seen in the water but this is a collection of over 100 years of junk thrown in so really it wasn't to bad. If the whole thing was like a junk yard sure, but the junk was just here and there. About as much as can be expected.

I spent a good amount of the one day searching for two buddies stuff. One was a buddies dad that lost a boat and motor and the other was a snowmobile that went threw the ice and never recovered. Didn't find either. lol

[larphead]

Originally Posted by VPT

Great job on the anchor! Is that a miller 212 in the background? How do you like it?

Yeah I get a bit mad about all the stuff I seen in the water but this is a collection of over 100 years of junk thrown in so really it wasn't to bad. If the whole thing was like a junk yard sure, but the junk was just here and there. About as much as can be expected.

I spent a good amount of the one day searching for two buddies stuff. One was a buddies dad that lost a boat and motor and the other was a snowmobile that went threw the ice and never recovered. Didn't find either. lol

Thanks!

That machine is a miller DVI. From what I have read and understand, it is like halfway between a mm180 and a mm212. More than the 180 when running on 110v and not quite a 212 when running on 220v.
One of my previous "bosses" ordered it thinking it would be more versatile if I had to weld where there was no 220v. I think the ONLY time I have ever used it on 110v was to weld an exhaust on someones car. And that was only because I was out of gas on the Lincoln 135 and too lazy to swap the tanks.
Other than that I like it. I have welded 1/4 in a single pass with .035 running at max amps with it. I also have a spoolgun for it that I use once in awhile...If I absolutely HAVE to.