Cheap tricks

[Ron Olson]

OK, there was some complaining that it was getting slow in here so let's see if this draws any interest.
What little things have you found that are no or low cost things that you've found to save yourself a few dollars when building or repairing your boats?

Here's a couple of things to get it started:
Disposable baby bottle liners are a dirt cheap way for bagging your recievers. I cut mine off at the 6 oz. mark and they're just the right size for most of them.
Need a tool to get the propshaft off a K&B 3.5 outboard? The tool that comes with Cox .049 engines fits perfectly on the propshaft and on the side you can use that for taking off prop nuts!
Need a starting belt for your inboards? Try your local sewing machine repair shop. I went to one and talked to the repairman. He had a box full of used belts that he saved from trade-ins or repairs that didn't show hardly any signs of wear. I got a handful of them for just a couple of dollars.
I'll post more as I think of them. Let's see yours!

[BoatDoc]

just came up with a good one yesterday ron, two in fact. when installing blind nuts into a tough location...try putting some masking tape on a mixing stick and put the blind nut on there. put the screw through the hole and use the stir stick to position the blind nut. the other way is to use a piece of threaded rod. put the rod through the hole, thread the blind nut on and pull it back. this will help to seat the blind nut. i had to practice at both of these techniques the other night while getting all of my hardware installed into my H&M Viper. BIG time saver.

[Ron Olson]

Those are good ones that I'll have to remember. When you've got fat fingers like me (not really, they just feel like it at times like this), it's hard at times just to get parts on a big hull much less a small one.

[egneg]

For steering rod boots I use bottle nipples for kittens. You can get a pack of them for a few bucks at any good sized pet shop such as Pet smart. They have a double lip on them and seal perfectly. You may have to enlarge the holes in the boat and nipples but they work great for the price.

[Ron Olson]

I was thinking of that one also. After one of our dogs went psycho after her last litter, she spent a few days in the pound so in the meantime we had to feed the pups ourselves. My wife found the bottles and nipples at not only the pet store but the big department stores also.
Keep them coming people as I feel that there are some more really goods one that haven't been posted yet.
Some of my best seem to come late at night after the Hobby Shops have closed or in times when I need something fast in a pinch.

[ColumbiaRBoater]

Living on a farm with lots of animals , I have lots of plastic syringes. They work great for perfectly measuring epoxy, I use 3cc, 5cc and 10cc sringes. The 3cc syringes fit and can be filled from a tube of silicone, and make it so much easyer to make a small even bead.

[BoatDoc]

i've found that large toe nail clippers are great for removing the plastic retainers from du-bro e-z push rod connectors.

[BoatDoc]

i'm wondering if the syringe tips would make good push rod exits??? they could be cut for a tight fit, but if done right and well lubed i think they would be watertight. this one may not fit the whole idea of "cheap tricks" but a good prop balancer is the most important tool a model boater can buy. roughly $20 for the best one out there (great planes magnetic). two other things that are important for the tool box are a can of WD-40 and a can of contact cleaner. they'll each save you lots down the road when they save your gear from certain death when you flip/roll/crash. i've flipped one boat as many times as 6 times in one day, so i know the value of those two.

[Ron Olson]

I've got one of the Top-Flite prop balancers but it might be too sensitive for the beginner when trying to work on props the first time, I know that I get frustrated when using it.
Speaking of toenail clippers, I saw a little trick on Chris Chianelli's TV show where they used toenail clippers for dogs to cut fuel line tubing. Seeing how I have a few dogs, I had to try it myself as we have several of those laying around. One that I tried didn't work so hot but maybe I'll have to try the other one. right now it would be just another tool to carry around in my toolboxes so I'll just use the old reliable X-acto knife.

[BoatDoc]

x-acto's are best for cutting fuel/cooling tubes. another invaluble but cheap trick is to have another, more experienced boater at the pond! they can tell you all the things you need for set-up and whatnot. i've learned more in the last 2 or so months running with the Madison Area Fast Electrics club than in the last 10 years since i started running model boats by myself. the internet is great for sharing ideas and all...but nothing beats hands on experience.

[Ron Olson]

True, the internet is great but there are times when having someone standing beside you with experience to give you hands-on help as some things are hard to explain. I got lucky as when I first got into boats in 1979, there was a boater who moved here from the Lansing area to attend college and was looking for other boaters. After I got out of boats for a while, we lost contact. He reappeared a few years later and moved into a house less than a mile straight north of my house! He recently moved again but now I know how to find him.
Attending races you can pick up a lot of things. I was not only hitting the district races but worked at one Internat's race, pit bossing and retrieving dead boats. I picked up a lot of things just while bringing in the "dead wood" and listening to the other racers in the pits. When Andy Brown's brother John talked, the pit area would go silent with people trying to pick up a few new tricks.

[BoatDoc]

ron, i don't want to call you old or anything, but you got into r/c boats the same year i was born! anywho, i'd love to have someone in the pits like andy or john brown. talk about fast! brian buaas is coming to the sardine, he holds something like 9 SAW records at the moment. i'm hoping to learn a few tricks from him. over the past few years several records have been set at this venue.

[Ron Olson]

Yeah, I know that I'm old, in body anyway, 54 in September. It comes up on you too fast. I started in R/C before that with crashing planes in the mid `70's.
I'm old enough to remember when ESC's first came out, wheel radios were new and if you didn't fly with a Kraft radio, you weren't part of the "In" crowd. R/C boats had little spots in the car and plane magazines and none for us boaters.

[Doubledog]

TURKEY BASTER ~!

For those hard to reach places in the hull when not using an auto bailer. Sounds like a fantastic idea. :)



*note: this idea came from "gasfreak" over at RCU.

[Fluid]

Better than a turkey baster is a nitro fuel bulb from the LHS. This is a rubber bulb with silicone fuel tubing coming out the end. Squeeze the bulb, stick the end of the fuel tubing in any hard-to-reach wet part of the boat and release the bulb. It sucks up water quickly and is the easiest way to get that last bit of water out of a smaller hull - way more flexible than that big ol' turkey baster. Been using mine for over 25 years.... ;)

.

[Creed]

if you arent into a whole lot of performance, then for an engine, just take a weed wacker motor and slap it in your boat. thats what i did. you can go to a pawn shop and they usually have some working weed wackers. i actualy got a brand new Echo weed wacker because it has a pull start on the back instead of the front. it works great because basically thats what most of the engines are.

Creed

[Fluid]

To add to Creed's comments, if you save the flex cable from the weedwacker you can use it as a flex cable in the boat. The gas tank is usually okay to use too. Don't expect much in the way of speed from the usual WW motor (especially one which is worn out), even when new they are low on power and rpm. But you can get around 25-30 mph in a large (~48") mono hull with a good setup and prop.

[Burkey1000]

Because flex cables can be costly we used weed wacker cables, its just the same. Used to get about 4 flex cables out of one weed wacker cable, so you get 4 for alot less that the price of one. Used them many times and never had one fail yet. :)