DIY: What to do with your old anchor light?

[Eug]

With the new regulations on the 360º navigation anchor lights my 1 year old one was made redundant. I had previously bought a telescopic 1m LED light but wanted to make use of my old one. New ones range from $40-80 depending on bulb and brand.

This is a very simple project and will require basic tools and knowledge:

- Soldering iron

- Heat shrink

- Electrical wiring (tinned) 4mm red and black

- Wire strippers

- Angle grinder

- Aluminum curtain rod

- Steel drill bit and cordless drill

- Phillips and slotted head screwdrivers

-Now illegal anchor light (mine was 450mm)

-Heat gun (missus's hairdryer will do)

-Rivet punch + rivets

-Duralac

-Vernier caliper

Step one

On your old anchor light unscrew plastic cap from the top and remove bulb. Now you may need to gently drill out the rivet holding the bulb retainer in, once drilled it should come free off the aluminum shaft.

All the components separated (From left to right: female plug, locking mechanism, wiring + bulb contacts, bulb retainer, bulb, plastic cap and at the bottom aluminum shaft/pipe).

Step two

On the bottom of the old anchor light unscrew the locating screw and gently pry out the female plug. Now cut the two wires as far away from the plug as possible giving yourself as much wiring to play with later on. Pry apart the pieces and you should be left with three parts: female plug + wiring, short aluminum pipe and bulb/retainer/cap + wiring. Please do these first two steps with care as you do not want to damage these parts in anyway, we will be reusing them!

Wiring + bulb contacts gently removed from bulb retainer.

Step three

Measure the width of your old aluminum pipe and buy one with the same internal and external diameter, this is important as you'll need to retrofit all the plugs and bulb retainers back on. I had a spare curtain rod lying around which fit the bill, using an angle grinder I cut a 1000mm piece and cleaned up the sharp edges.

Vernier calipers to measure external and internal diameter of original anchor light.

Step four

On your new shaft of aluminum place the bulb retainer on and mark where the new rivet will go, using a small bit (appropriate to the size of your rivet) drill a small hole into the shaft. Do the same for the other (female plug) end for the locating screw.

Female plug end (bottom of the anchor light).

Bulb retainer.

Locating screw.

Step five

I used 4mm marine grade electrical wire (tinned), they are about ~$1/m at your local whitworths/bias. Strip each end of wiring and using your solder extend the wiring on the bulb retainer end ONLY, then slip on a section of heat shrink over each red and black wire and heat them until they contract over the wires.

Soldering the extended wires.

Heat shrink.

Heat shrink placement over the solder points.

Step six

Fit the retainer and feed the wiring through the pipe until clear at the other end, at this point I temporarily taped the retainer to hold it in place. I cut the wiring as short as I was able to in order manage the soldering, heat shrinking and tucking the wiring back into the tube. I fed another section of heat shrink over each wire (black/red) and began to solder the remaining wire to the wire at the female plug end. Heat shrink and carefully tuck the wiring back into the shaft (this is why I temporarily taped the bulb retainer to the head as it takes some careful twisting and jiggling to get the wiring tucked away).

Extended wiring attached to retainer and bulb.

Attached onto new shaft.

Step seven

If you have a 12V power supply then this is the time to test your soldering and connections. If your bulb lights up then rivet in the bulb retainer and screw in the locating screw (which will also hold the female plug into the shaft). Ensure all holes, screws, rivets and fittings are coated with a bit of Duralac to prevent corrosion.

Almost done

Finished product!

Step Eight

Plug it into the existing male plug on the boat and test it out! Assuming all your soldering and bulb connections have been done appropriately your new anchor light should work as if you bought it straight off the shelf.

On the boat plugged into the male end.

Voila!

Big success...

If you've done this kind of work before it should take you no more than an hour or two. Otherwise I'd allocate about 1/2 a day for those who are new to DIY and would strongly recommend taking your time ensuring the soldering points are good. Angle grinder work should be undertaken by those who are capable otherwise a hacksaw is a safer alternative. All up I spent about $3 on wiring, $5 on heat shrink and I'd guess around $5 on the spare tubing if I had bought it. A much cheaper alternative and a simple easy project to save you a couple of bucks in buying one and to avoid those nasty fines.

Any questions fire away and I'll try my best to answer them.

Cheers

Eug

[nadders]

nice one eug, but what do you do when they tell you it's not bright enough to see from x amount of NM, or that they dont like the angle of your bench cushion :pinch:

cheers

Dan

[Eug]

they'll be getting us for the colour of our braid next!

regardless i now run two anchor lights when out at night. the one at the stern and another right behind the driver, i usually put a bit of tape to block the glare from that one. however it helps with the fishing as when we're jigging at night i take the stern one out to give me more fishing space, it only goes in when we're underway.

[nadders]

nice rig ya got there mate

am getting a full false floor welded in on thursday and saved a bit more space by moving my battery under deck, thats about all the modifications my boats had lol

cheers

Dan

[Eug]

haha thanks, that box took me two days to make lol...

thought you already had a bit of a floor, be keen to see some pics when it's done.

[nadders]

no real floor was still 30cm of ribs exposed on either side and a decent angled section

am having gussets welded to the ribs to bring the floor up to where the bottom of the boat hits the sides thus hiding the ribs entirely, and giving me 30cm more deck room up both sides of the boat inbetween the benches

gained some space by moving the battery as well so i'll have a good deal more deck room this thursday coming :cheer:

will take before/after shots.

ps; you recently carpeted your flooring right? got any hot tips? lol

cheers

Dan

[Eug]

yeah i did a bit of carpeting on the boat recently, if you've cut the marine ply then you'll need to seal the exposed edges with some waterproofing membrane. i used bondcrete which was far cheaper than the stuff you get from marine mobs and does the same job, i coated the whole lot. make templates up for the flooring and give allowance as the bondcrete and marine carpet is thick stuff especially if you start going around edges and corners.

use an even spread of glue and be patient lol, i tried to rush too many pieces and ended up gluing stuff together. if you need a hand let me know.

cheers

eug

[nadders]

cheers eug, i was thinking more of going down the road of painting the ply in polyurethane exterior varnish all over, and stapling the carpet to the underside as well as using self tappers to hold it down on the top, but glue on the top + staples on underside does sound like a better idea

[Eug]

personally i'd try to avoid as much metal as possible but that's just me, i would imagine that the staplers would eventually rust out.

i'd go with your second idea as the carpet will move around (if you don't glue it) and i imagine the tappers would eventually tear away at it. the staples should hold it all in place while it dries, then just remove them once the glue has set.

[nadders]

yeah will hit it with some gel bond or similar, will hit the ply + carpet laid out flat, place ply over carpet turn it over and roll out imperfections then put some weights over the surface

did you wrap the carpet around the underside of the ply too or trim to the edges?

[Eug]

sounds good dan. i folded it over to the underside mate, makes things harder but a much nicer finish - just got to make the ply smaller by ~5mm on each edge that you fold around.

[Schmuck]

I don't own an anchor light or a boat for that matter but a nice DIY write up for the archives.

[dhess]

Nice writeup Eug.

My only concern would be that its not anywhere near the centre line as required by the regulations. (I have the same problem with mine.)

All it takes is one over zealous cop to not use any discretion and fine you for it.

[Eug]

thanks

yeah mate i know but there is no where practical to mount in on the centre line (in my boat anyway), it's unfortunate that the boat builders/dealers don't build according to standard.