banaari 27 Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Contemplating the install of my nice new shiny Hella nav lights. Question: What's the correct technique for running wiring through a bulkhead? In this case, one side of that bulkhead is the anchor well which should be assumed to be periodically full of water. The other side is the forward cabin. Existing installation is a one-inch hole carrying the wires and filled with a plug of silicone sealant. I assume there's a better way... Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Make your wiring loom pass thru the bulkhead higher than your anchor drain hole and that is a good start. The whole thru the bulkhead needs to be water tight. Use the Dorade principle for bulkhead hole. (wire thru a pipe that drains into a box, on the anchor well side of the bulkhead. ) Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Existing installation is a one-inch hole carrying the wires and filled with a plug of silicone sealant. I assume there's a better way...Sadly not really. Only slight improvement is a Cable gland that basically keeps the hole more attractive and offers the cable some protection and then you still need to seal it with silicon or similar. One single round cable works well because the gland can seal around it, but with multiple wires, that doesn't work. Link to post Share on other sites
too_tall 15 Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Existing installation is a one-inch hole carrying the wires and filled with a plug of silicone sealant. I assume there's a better way...Sadly not really. Only slight improvement is a Cable gland that basically keeps the hole more attractive and offers the cable some protection and then you still need to seal it with silicon or similar. One single round cable works well because the gland can seal around it, but with multiple wires, that doesn't work. Using glands is by far the most secure way. We have done this with all waterproof bulkheads on the yacht. A quite time consuming process but its tidy, waterproof and has the added bonus that it anchors the cables - preventing some errant marine electrician from pulling on cables, dislodging the silicon plug and therefore negating any waterproof proprieties once there. There are cable glands which will work on figure 8 wire, as well as the marine type flexible tps looking stuff. But I always choose to run round flex cables. That makes them far more resistant to breakages, more protection if there is an area of chafing, makes for easy use of glands wherever they are required etc.. Link to post Share on other sites
PaulR 3 Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 There are some nice small electrical boxes that have good waterproofing ratings, with sealing rings / ribs on the lids that are available at most electrical wholsalers with IP65 or similar. Nearest to Westhaven is K Simpsons in Sale st behind Victoria Market or the Plumbing / electrical (Mastertrade??) in Cook St. Relatively cheap say 13 to $20 for small ones. The waterproof junction boxes (mostly) come with suitable makings / conduit cutout guides moulded into the plastic. Use a "stepping drill bit" in a drill press is best to avoid the hand held "wobble" elipses(?) alternative results. But then again, not that many yachts have drill presses onboard There is nothing to stop you having conduit pipe and gland inside a box with more glands in the sidewalls of the box. You can expoxy the box onto the bulhead as well Drill your bulkhead hole as near as to the deck on centre line for least opportunity to get soaked when healed and anchor well swamped. Glands in bulkheads are best and can be glued / epoxyed into place before wires threaded through. You can still add silicon around the wire and the rubber compression grommet in the gland before finally tightening. It is always best if WIRES ALWAYS GO UP INTO BOXES / GLANDS. Water seldom follows this uphill path but if it does, then you are likely to have other more urgent problems on deck anyway. Likewise a short length of conduit can be permanently mounted / glued / epoxied in and glands attached to each end. The conduit can be easily bent by heating with a heat gun and gentle encouragement, using a curve or larger say 100mm downpipe. Some electricians have VERY clever metal flexible (spiral/bendable) inserts that they put into the conduit before heating which help make a suitable curve or superfancy squiggle to fit around and over obstacles. For the expensive option, buying premade conduit curves and (Marley pipe cement) gluing to a short through bulkhead pipe also works but the curves cost more than that off-cut you already have lying around somewhere, if only you could remember where you saw it. I prefer the wires from sidelights / pulpit legs to come through the anchorwell bulkhead first in seperate glands and then enter through more glands into a waterproof junction box in forward cabin. Any repairs, joints etc, can be done lying down, head supported by a pile of pillows, warm and dry!! and in more comfort than on deck; especially at sea. A good practice, that I have adopted, is to wire each sidelight and the stern light through seperate Fuses before the OFF/ON switch. So when one sidelight gets damaged / wiped out in a collision with wharf / jetty / racing yacht etc., not all your lights go OUT at once!! I would label the wires on both side of the bulhead as well. I use a Brother P-Touch label machine and then put clear heat shrink over the label as well. Hope that confuses one and all Link to post Share on other sites
banaari 27 Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 Brilliant - sounds like glands are the answer. Link to post Share on other sites
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