Where do you get the aluminum stock?

I would recommend www.mcmaster.com - super quick shipping and reasonable prices for small quantities of raw materials. A standard 6061 alloy would work just fine.

McMaster-Carr is da' bomb.

+1

I got mine at speedymetals.com

We have a Metal Supermarket franchise in my area. Most items are in stock, local and cheap.

Wouldn't even bother to buy a bit of billet aluminium, most machine shops will have a piece knocking around from a previous job, should be way less than hour total machine time from starting the job to finishing if done freehand, would take about 20 minutes set up time for CNC and about 5 minutes machine time.

I went to a machine shop and it was around 1hr plus metal which was around 100.00. I bought 1 foot of solid round aluminum with shipping for 15.00 and have already made three and sold two. I still have enough to make 3 or 4 more. The one off in a machine shop cost a lot. The price that is listed on this site is pretty good in my opinion.

I can make them for $38 a pop at emachineshop.com

If I order 25. Less if I order more.

thats pretty neat.. are there 24 other people with 2" poles interested?

Is 2" the inside or outside diameter of your pole? I might be interested in making one (or more) of these if I had all the desired dimensions (Overall length, outside diameter, tenon length, tenon diameter, tack line hole diameter, counterbore diameter, counterbore length - I assume the inside and outside edge radii are not critical).

Regards,
Eric

I've got a Solidworks drawing somewhere I drew up for those...I made a couple myself (though I don't use one). I'll see if I can find that drawing tomorrow and post it.

If I had a 2" pole I would keep it to myself, if you know what I mean.

The OD on the "spinnaker pole" of the ARC21 is 2". They used a material that looks like delrin for the tack guide. It is 4 years old, lightly used and has no signs of wear. Maybe you can order it from Aquarius Sail. Call them, they are good folks.

I have a 13' pole.. with a 2" OD... slightly different...

I can't bottom out a tuna can, but I can raise hell with the edges!

like a cheese wheel?

I've had the standard single thru deck fold up on my in the spin tack line application...though it might have been due to the rivet pulling through the carbon pole first.

Here is my current setup...basically a Harken hi-load wire block fits through an opening in the top side of the pole end. It is lashed with vectran to the vertical carbon post. The post protrudes out the top so that my pole end stay can loop over it (thereby maximizing the down-angle to the bow tips)
Has worked flawlessly for a few regattas now.



More pics starting with this one:
Marstrom Rigging Shots

thanks Mike. i was originally going for a similar design but didn't have power at my boat parking so i had to have our local sail shop do it.. and he didn't do it as requested. I think i am going to try and modify what he did to emulate this... but if it doesn't fix the problem.. i think i will try what Jake has... a double thru deck exit block and an external block on the end of the pole.

Pete- Why not imbed a piece of stainless steel tubing in the epoxy? You could bend it first to point in the correct direction. It does not matter if your epoxy is old. (My half-used West System epoxy is at least 25 years old and still good. The price was right- donated to me)