Keel bolts

[Myjane 40]

How do you tell s/s or monel by look I and helping a mate on his boat and noticed a keel bolt washer loose and going to twitch it up in a day or two How can you tell in looks monel or stainless ,or is there a different

[wheels 375]

You probably won't be able to tell the two apart. Side by side, you may notice the Monel is a bit duller. It does not have Chrome in it, but Nickle and Nickle is not quite so bright.

[vesper1 2]

Sometimes Monel has a greenish spots from the copper, another interesting thing it's slightly magnetic if you file it the dust is magnetic. 316 should not be magnetic.

[Myjane 40]

Yes they have some slight green on the nuts All polished highly as they are seen I tried to spanned one that had the loose washer and I could see the bolt twist a tad , so will soak with crc the day before to help tighten it when ready

[Island Time 780]

are these large bolts? Over 1 inch dia? If so, a simple test. Put the biggest socket and bar on them you can fit. Out your back against a bulkhead, and your feet on the bar. Torque is over 250 ft pounds (for 1 inch stainless), so on a 2 ft bar that's 56 KG....

If you can break them with manual force, they are knackered...

[Myjane 40]

thanks IT i think they quiet long i see the bog spots on the lead about half way down so they could be a foot or two long or more so it looks like they were fitted after the lead pour baby and they are about 3/4 in good nick it has a keelson and a sister keelson above about 10 inches wide and solid to the main keelson so is very strong ship  

[wheels 375]

There's another answer to identification right there. Lead will "meld" (solder) to some Monel, but not SST.

I answered the the question of can you identify by looking at the two and that is very hard to do. But there are other tests to identify accurately and even identify what species of Monel or SST.
The simplest is the scratch test. Monel is soft and easy to file or nick with a hacksaw blade. SST is not. But that will not tell you the type. To do that requires the use of Nitric and Phosphoric Acids and I figured that a bit beyond the realm of the original question. A drop of Nitric does nothing to SST. It instantly reacts on Monel. A drop of 45% Phosphoric Acid will slowly bubble on SST. Then it gets a little more complex for identifying the types and probably not needed here.

[harrytom 271]

may need a retighten once in the water,at the moment(if out of the water) the hull is resting on the keel,once in the water keel will be hanging with no weight so may need a retighten.

 

The person who brought my wreck has removed the keel and replaced bolts 1  4 5 6 7 8

2 and 3 is a s/s u bolt fitted at pouring and this is the bolt that broke a nut off,did suggest drilling a new bolt alongside but seems happy to refit with by cutting thread off and welding new one on. 

[Myjane 40]

Iam pretty sure they are monel now with these answers there in such good Nic to look at ,

[Myjane 40]

Is the monel breakable or anything need to watch out while tighting