Do-It-Yourself Metal Fabrication

I’ve got my new Rocna anchor, and it fit on my anchor roller just fine…once I removed the anchor roller bail! See, the Rocna’s shank is too tall tall to fit under the existing bail. Sorry I didn’t take a picture of the anchor + anchor roller so this would all be clear.

This product picture from Fisheries Supply will have to suffice. The bail mounted on the end helps keep the anchor and rode on the roller, protecting the ground tackle AND the boat.

But like I said, the bail isn’t long enough to accommodate the Rocna’s shank. It needs to be about an inch longer.

Ballard Sheet Metal offered to fabricate one for me. For $55! That’s probably a reasonable price for one-off custom fabrication in stainless steel, but I was willing to put a little bit of my own time and energy into the project, especially if I could save a bit of money.

See, I’m not even sure my existing anchor roller is going to work very well with the Rocna. My old Bruce-clone “Claw” wouldn’t self-launch from this roller under any conditions. The Rocna MIGHT self-launch…just maybe: It appears to be perfectly balanced on the roller. If I can get the inboard end of the anchor up just a bit, the anchor should roll off on its own.

Anyhoo, that’s why I’m not willing to spend $55 in a long bail for the current roller; there’s too much chance it’ll all end up on the ash heap of history if I have to buy a new self-launching anchor roller.

So Wednesday afternoon, I spent a couple of hours visiting shops in Ballard (which is always a lot of fun for me anyway) in an effort to save some money. As it turns out, I saved a LOT of money. About $50, in fact.

I stopped by Seattle Marine & Fishing Supply, told my sorry tale to Skip, and he put on his thinking cap. After a few dead-ends, he came up with an idea: Buy one of these for about $5, bend it to the proper shape, and drill the holes.

I was a little skeptical at first. I know how hard it can be to drill into stainless steel, and I had no idea how easy or difficult it would be to bend the strip into shape. He suggested that I could heat the metal to make it easier, but that sounded tricky to me.

Well, I bought it and brought it home, not sure if it was really going to work. Here’s the item, along with the existing bail:

I knew the new item was long enough…I measured. The old one is about 9″ in total linear length:

I needed an extra inch, and that meant two additional inches in total length (one inch for each leg of the bail). As it turns out, I got three additional inches of total length:

Once I got started, it was actually fairly easy. I had to bend, straighten, and re-bend the strapping several times to give it the proper shape and a somewhat symmetrical appearance. I did most of this by hand, free-form, though at various times I did use clamps, channel-lock pliers, various pieces of scrap wood as forms, and, for one operation, a short sledge hammer. No pictures of this process…I had my hands full!

Then I had to drill the holes, and as expected, that was a bit tricky, especially since I don’t own a drill press. But it worked out OK. I reamed out the existing hole (visible in the image above), and drilled a new hole in the other end. I used a round needle-file to smooth out the edges of the drilled holes, although this probably wasn’t necessary.

So here’s the finished product, with the old one for comparison. I gained almost two inches, but I doubt the extra length will present any sort of problem. Take a look…

T’ain’t perfect, by any means. There are lots of tool marks, an extra hole, and the legs aren’t completely straight. But once it’s installed, I doubt even I’ll notice these things.

Now if only I can figure out how to keep the inboard end of the anchor up off the deck; just two or three inches would do it. I’ve got an idea about that, too.