Stripping wire is hard?

[Ron in BC]

Yes, there's a time and place for wet sanding but usually that's if the damage has created scratches that need to be blended in.

Ron

[John in Santa Cruz]

yeah... the gel coat is NOT super thick, and if you remove it, the ugly rough fiberglass surface will start to show through. a coarse heavy cut 'cleaner' is like 2000 or 3000 grit, a fine cut cleaner is quite a bit finer than that. the other thing about the cleaner compounds, they are designed to break down quite fast with rubbing, so you only get the full cut on the first application and as you rub them in they get finer and finer.

[Jwinfrey]

Originally Posted by hugh

My picture is under the passenger side dinette bench, on a 21C with the "basic" (not U-shaped) dinette. There's a set of connections / thermal breakers behind the battery right where the wires disappear to cross to the other bench seat. Not sure I would have noticed it, had i not removed the factory installed battery and battery box.


Here's an uncropped version of the same pic, which shows the location a little better.

And the crimper divot is on the wrong side as well. It needs to be in the back, opposite of where the wire connector is split.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

yeah... the gel coat is NOT super thick, and if you remove it,

Definitely requires a very cautious patient approach.

My first attempt at similar situations is to use this super hi-tech approach that my body came equipped with. Sometimes I wet the item with soap and then use my fingernail to skritch away at it. Depends on the substance but it can work very well sometimes.

Ron

[gbaglo]

I wouldn't do anything except send a photo and description to ETI, and then wait for a response. Anything you do to remedy the situation could make it worse and form an excuse for ETI to do nothing.

[John in Santa Cruz]

meh. if there's enough wire to spare (you probably need maybe 1/2" of slack), snip it off, trim it properly, crimp it properly onto the correct sized ring terminal, bolt it down, and move on. true, you need a suitable size crimper, and those usual red/blue/yellow stripper-crimpers will NOT do any wires over 10 gauge properly (guessing this is AWG 8 wire?). I have a crimper here that does 8, 6, 4, 2, 1, and 1/0 gauges quite nicely. you can strip big wires with a box cutter or xacto knife if you're careful, just cut around the insulation without cutting any strands, then remove the 'tube' with needlenose pliers.

these are cheap tools but have cut and crimped many heavy gauge battery cables for me quite effectively.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MVE48Z6

[WillyB]

Since our 21C will be ready in October I mentioned the cut strands and loose connectors to Escape. Samuel had one of the electricians do a spot check on the floor. This is what he sent back.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by hugh

What I'd _really_ like to hear back from them is how best to clean/fix my shower wall. The propane tank cover was stored in the bathroom during transport and ground a bunch of black dirt into the wall. (why they "packed" the cover in there without at least some padding, I'll never know)

How about a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser?

[hugh]

Originally Posted by WillyB

Since our 21C will be ready in October I mentioned the cut strands and loose connectors to Escape. Samuel had one of the electricians do a spot check on the floor. This is what he sent back.

That looks a lot better. Mine must have been made on a Friday.

[hugh]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

meh. if there's enough wire to spare (you probably need maybe 1/2" of slack), snip it off, trim it properly, crimp it properly onto the correct sized ring terminal, bolt it down, and move on. true, you need a suitable size crimper, and those usual red/blue/yellow stripper-crimpers will NOT do any wires over 10 gauge properly (guessing this is AWG 8 wire?). I have a crimper here that does 8, 6, 4, 2, 1, and 1/0 gauges quite nicely. you can strip big wires with a box cutter or xacto knife if you're careful, just cut around the insulation without cutting any strands, then remove the 'tube' with needlenose pliers.

these are cheap tools but have cut and crimped many heavy gauge battery cables for me quite effectively.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MVE48Z6

Well, why repair, when you can just rip it all out and start over? (just kidding, of course)

But in this case, I actually did remove those wires and breakers as part of some re-work for my lithium / inverter installation. That short 12v wire is in my scrap pile, as I needed a slightly longer one in the new arrangement.

[hugh]

So I heard back from Escape today on the bathroom wall "cleaning". They recommended using acetone to remove the mark, so I'll probably give that a try.

[Civilguy]

Originally Posted by hugh

So I heard back from Escape today on the bathroom wall "cleaning". They recommended using acetone to remove the mark, so I'll probably give that a try.

Years back when we drafted with ink-on-mylar, I ordered acetone from a drafting supplies salesman who would come by the office. We used the acetone to remove the textured surface (tooth) from the mylar film.

When he delivered the order, I saw that he had stopped by the local hardware and picked up a can of acetone. I commented on this and he said it wasn't something they stocked, but he picked it up to provide us the service.

The interesting part to me was that he ran major fireworks displays as a sideline, the kind where they shoot the high aerial displays off of barges, etc. He commented that he was never so nervous transporting the pyrotechnical materials as he was just driving down the street to our office with the acetone in his car.

Personally, in order to remove the rub marks from the propane cover on the fiberglass gel coat, I would try a Mr. Clean magic eraser first, or perhaps a soft white drafting eraser as I would have no use for the extra acetone and it is pretty volatile stuff to keep around.



I use the white eraser to remove scuffs and marks on Behr interior paint and it works really well, so maybe it would do the trick here.

[Civilguy]

Originally Posted by Jwinfrey

And the crimper divot is on the wrong side as well. It needs to be in the back, opposite of where the wire connector is split.

Crimping with the dimple on the split side of the connector can definitely cause a failure. It can result in broken conductor strands, or even allow the wire to slip completely out of the connector; ask me how I know!

I suspect that Steve Dunham would be rolling in his grave if he saw the pictures on this thread. Hopefully he's finding something better to do, maybe chasing the elusive lunkers up in Canada.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Civilguy

Personally, in order to remove the rub marks from the propane cover on the fiberglass gel coat, I would try a Mr. Clean magic eraser first, or perhaps a soft white drafting eraser as I would have no use for the extra acetone and it is pretty volatile stuff to keep around.

I suggested the same a few posts ago. I would try that or a fiberglass-specific cleaner. It is interesting to note that West Marine specifically states to never use acetone on gel coat. I'd at least try a few other things before resorting to acetone.

[Civilguy]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

I suggested the same a few posts ago.

Hey, me too!

Originally Posted by rubicon327

I'd at least try a few other things before resorting to acetone.

I used mineral spirits in the 80's to clean up the bugs and road tar off the enamel on a mid-70's Plymouth. It was so much faster than bug and tar remover, and it was so much more economical too! Then the damage to the paint emerged, over time...

So, yeah, maybe try a mild cleaner or something specifically intended for use on fiberglass before hauling out the big guns and doing some unintended damage to the gel coat.

[hugh]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. As it turns out, I already had a can of acetone sitting around (for solvent welding ABS), so I gave it a try.


It did a good job removing the black scuff mark, and as far as I can tell, hasn't dissolved / damaged any other part of the gel-coat. I do have a "matte" area from the original abrasion that could use some polishing, but that's not surprising.



Now I'm onto fixing the "carpentry" for the convection oven. The oven came loose because half the trim-plate screws weren't actually screwed into anything.

[brroberts]

Acetone will clean gelcoat, but rinse it well with water after. It’s a last resort cleaner for gelcoat.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by brroberts

Acetone will clean gelcoat, but rinse it well with water after. It’s a last resort cleaner for gelcoat.

it evaporates so fast there's little point in rinsing it.

[BobG]

A quality fiberglass boat manufacturer told me acetone harms gelcoat. They said use only as a last resort and rinse with lots of water or use alcohol.

[SteveSgt]

I'm late to this discussion, but 'll play the role of hypothetical apologist.

Originally Posted by hugh

It could be worse, but I came across this connection in my new 21C. This is the ring terminal on the main battery feed.

This one connection seems to show just about everything you can do wrong when crimping a connector: cutting/damaging strands, leaving strands outside the crimp, and removing too much insulation.

I have a comparatively innocent explanation for this. I've seen this frequently in mountain-top ham and other two-way radio repeater systems I've worked on.

That explanation might be: "supply chain"

When you don't have the right sized lug for the wire you're terminating, you can often fit the wire into the next smaller lug by leaving out a few strands. Having a slightly smaller wire gage for a millimeter or less will not affect the resistance or electrical performance of the connection in a significant way (at least for the short term).

Doing this is ugly, it makes a more fragile connection, and probably violates some code somewhere. But it gets the product out the door when the absence of a financially insignificant part delays completion and delivery of a major product.

Originally Posted by hugh

If it was me, I'd at least have thrown some heat shrink on there to hide it.

OTOH, one could argue that it's more dishonest to hide such flaws.

For the record, I'd be disappointed if I saw this on my trailer.