Tool for tightening/loosening a shackle pin

[RichR]

This is the drum for the roller furler on my friends sailboat:


He ask me to make a tool for installing and removing the shackle pin since there's no room to get your fingers in there:


I started with this piece of stainless. The near end is counter bored from when I needed to make some washers. The blurry end is
threaded 5/16-18:


After polishing it up, I mounted it vertically using an aluminum V block and a piece of brass shim:


Continued in next post ......

[RichR]

Then I milled a slot in the end to engage the flat end of the shackle pin:


Another view of the end:


I drilled through a piece of 3/4" dowel. I threaded it as deep as my tap would reach. Then I screwed the piece of stainless in
allowing it to cut its own threads the rest of the way through. That made for a tight fit. Both ends received split washers
that I bent straight so they would lay flat. I used split washers because I wanted something thick. A nut was tightly Loctited
onto the end:


Here it is completed, or so I thought:


Continued in next post ......

[RichR]

The collar I cleverly left on the end prevented the shackle pin from seating deep enough for the threads to catch:


So I turned off the collar and sanded off most of the machining marks:


Now it's really completed:


One last view:

[Ironwoodsmith]

Nice work on the tool. How do you keep track of it?

That would be a good place to use an Avibanks push button pin into a non threaded shackle.

[MattiJ]

Sure looks much better than my piece of pipe flattened with FBH. (Fine Ball Hammer)

[flathead4]

Nice work on the tool. How do you keep track of it?

Agree a beautiful job on the tool. My next thought was to make a longer shackle bolt that you could reach.

Tom

[wdtom44]

Have you done a float test to see if there is enough wood for it to float when he drops it over the side?

[RichR]

Nice work on the tool. How do you keep track of it? ...

Thank you. We have some drawers in the cabin for storing important items like flares, zip ties, corkscrews, etc.

That would be a good place to use an Avibanks push button pin into a non threaded shackle.

Interesting though, but it's still buried pretty tight in a corner:

Even if we found one that fits, it would probably still be awkward to remove.

[Dan Dubeau]

Nice job Rich. Looks great, AND works well.

[RichR]

Sure looks much better than my piece of pipe flattened with FBH. (Fine Ball Hammer)

That's what my friend suggest doing. I told him I though his boat deserved better than that.

[RichR]

Agree a beautiful job on the tool. ...

Thank you.

My next thought was to make a longer shackle bolt that you could reach.

We would still need a tool to snug and loosen it. Besides, there are a couple more shackles of that size and style between the boom and the traveler
that will benefit from this tool.

[RichR]

Have you done a float test to see if there is enough wood for it to float when he drops it over the side?

No, and based on the weight of the piece stainless I don't expect it to float. I did offer my friend 2 suggestions to deal with it falling overboard:
1. Use the lathe to cut a groove so a lanyard can be attached.
2. Don't let me handle it when we're near the water.

[RichR]

Nice job Rich. Looks great, AND works well.

Thanks Dan. The best part was the look on my friends face when I gave it to him, priceless.

[mattthemuppet]

beautiful work and a good deed too! Only improvement I could think of, but probably no room for, would be a spring loaded captive ball to engage the hole in the shackle bolt. That would make the fit a bit more positive, if that were an issue. But as I said, doesn't look like there's enough meat in the side to fit a ball, a spring and a way of keeping it all in there.

[RichR]

beautiful work and a good deed too! ...

Thank you.

But as I said, doesn't look like there's enough meat in the side to fit a ball, a spring and a way of keeping it all in there.

Yeah, there's only about 0.120" between the slot and the outer edge, so it might be a bit of a tight fit.