Engine room sole

The engine room sole is sheathed with 1/4" aluminum diamond plate.

I was planning on using plywood for the sole due to cost concerns on my part, but having found this plate at the scrap yard has allowed me to go with, what I consider, a more attractive sole. Because of being in the engine room, and also I believe it could be a common event to have to lift pieces of the sole off for maintenance I bolted wood firing to my steel framing and then attach the aluminum sheathing to the wood. If I had screwed the aluminum sheathing directly to the steel I had visions in the not to distant future of broken screws, corrosion where screws penetrated the steel, and just more difficult maintenance in general. Having wood to screw the aluminum in to will also give me a little vibration dampening in my opinion. Im using #12 x 1.50" stainless steel wood screws that Im countersinking as my fastener. The sole is complete as I write this post, and to date, Ive used 150 of the stainless screws to fasten the aluminum down.

I wanted as much level area in the engine room as I could build, so I stepped the sole framing up as the sole moves aft in the engine room. These steps, while some might not like, give me places of access underneath the sole, and also give me a place to sit while Im in the engine room. Whenever I give friends tours of the progress, almost everyone sits on one of these steps. This picture to the left shows the platform I built for my tool box, and my hydraulic system reservoir.

I think the largest piece of material Ive used for the engine room sole is a finished cut piece of 24"x 24". I dont want to be having to man handle large pieces when Im I have to access under the sole. I would rather be able to lift smaller pieces, to gain access and still be kneeling or sitting on the level sole. The down side to having all these smaller pieces is I used quite a few screws.

Im getting a pretty good feel on how the engine room is going to layout and I think Ive found locations for the various equipment Im going to need. Im going to dedicate the port side of the room up against the main bulkhead at frame #9 as my area for my work bench. While the head room is around 5"4" in this area, Ill be able to use a short stool with a lower work bench to be able to work in a comfortable position. Ill post more about the engine room as a whole once I begin to install the various components.

The last piece of the sole for me to build is the area over the stuffing box. Im almost out of aluminum plate so I have to give it some thought on how I want to treat this area so I dont waste any material. I think Im going to hinge a part of this area so I can gain quick access to the stuffing box for maintenance, daily checks for leaks, and stuffing box temperature.

I have 4 10" of head room on the starboard side of the engine, and 5 2" on the port side of the engine. I have more headroom on the port side by my design as I knew this area would house my work bench. Id love to have a stand up engine room, but on a boat my size, I think that would be almost impossible. I think once you get into the 50 range, stand up engine rooms start to appear. Im totally happy with the size of the engine room, and very pleased with the head room I do have. Ill be able to easily do all my maintenance work in this space in comfort.

The scrap yard aluminum worked out great. There are some blemishes, and some cleaning that will have to be done. I know as construction progresses, the dings I put in the sole, will blend in to what was there. Ill probably never do much more than clean up the messs I make. I have to say that I love the way the engine room is shaping up.

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Scrap yard finds for the engine room

My excavating business is as poor as Ive ever seen having been self employed for 20+ years. With my revenue down so low and my not wanting to not work on the boat even though I have much less cash to throw at the project, Ive taken to visiting scrap yards looking for some material.

This post still reflects my working in the engine room, but I want to look at the value of utilizing used material.

Given the down turn in the economy, I had my mind set that I was going to have to sheath the engine room floor in plywood and probably paint it. While down at the scrap yard today unloading the fruits of me cleaning up around the shop, I noticed some aluminum diamond plate getting ready to be processed. The material was a double diamond plate pattern 3.5 x 7.5 x 1/4" thickness. There were 20 sheets, but from what I could remember five sheets would be plenty, so I went ahead and struck a deal for six sheets. We agreed on a price of $.80 per pound. For the six sheets my total costs were $300.00. The pattern of the diamond plate was nothing Id ever seen before, and as you can see from this picture, it is a double diamond pattern. From here on out, Im going to call it "Double D", or "DD". Personally, I am partial to "DD", and it just makes me happy thinking about it.

I also needed a 2" stainless ball valve for my sea chest, and a 1.5" stainless ball valve for my holding tank pump out station. This scrap yard had a large bin of stainless valves and it only took me a couple of minutes to find two I thought looked good. I paid $1.00 per pound for the valves so my total cost for the valves came to $18.00. Both valves were 316 grade.

Once back at the shop I took the valves apart, applied some lithium grease, re-assembled them, then air tested them to 40 psi. I only used 40 psi since I was using PVC for my air test, and in all honesty, the valves will see no more than a two or three psi of pressure.

I also made a call to my local metal supplier to see what the costs were on new 1/4" diamond plate aluminum sheets. I was quoted a price of $3.75 per pound. The sheets of diamond plate I purchased weighed around 375 lbs. With the new cost of $3.75 I figured I got $1400.00 worth of diamond plate for $300.00. Im also going to estimate the value of the valves @ $175.00 and $150.00 respectively, for a total valve value of $325.00. By purchasing used material, I think I can figure the new value of the material at about $1700.00, but my total outlay for this material was only $318.00. Quite a nice savings in my opinion. I should also say that the scrap yard paid me $249.00 for the 2700 lbs of scrap I dropped off.

One more thing I should add about the valves is that they are rated at 1000 psi, and I think they are sch. 80 or sch. 120. I can say with confidence that these valves are what I would call "beefy" valves, and have what I would guess double the duty rating as any valve one might buy from a marine catalog.

The aluminum diamond plate I purchased was obviously used as a cat walk or some other industrial application. This is a great example of why metal is such a good building material. While this material could have been in heavy service for 20+ years, a little work on my part and it will clean up and look just like new. I also think that the aluminum diamond plate will make my engine room floor as fine as any of the so called high end production plastic yachts on the market.

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