Re-Packing A Stuffing Box - A New Photo DIY Article

[Maine Sail]

Hi All,

I have seen this question, "how do I re-pack my stuffing box" posed literally hundreds of times, on different forums, and still no-one had a good photo based article on how to change the flax packing in an old school stuffing box. Sunday it was ridiculously rainy, hahvin' a Noh' Eastaah, and too miserable to go to the boat yard so I dug out my old stuffing box, cleaned it up and created a photo based how-to article on re-packing a stuffing box. I hope this helps someone and when this question comes up again perhaps we can just copy and paste a link !

If I missed or forgot any important points please let me know and I'll make the changes. As usual I'm not claiming these are the be all end all instructions just the only ones I know of that are in-depth and picture based.

There are two pages to this article so be sure and click page two when you get to the end of page one!

Here's the link: Re-Packing A Traditional Stuffing Box Photo Gallery by Maine Sailing at pbase.com

[Freesail99]

Thanks, I even saved the page for offline reading.

[sailingdog]

I'd say it's fairly well done, with fairly decent photography. I've seen some DIY pages which had horrible photography... yours is fairly good... illustrative of the points in question. This reviewer gives it two thumbs up.

One minor comment... you need a better hand model... the manicure on the one you used was horrible...

[stevemac00]

Jeez, SD is a hard critic. It's the best I've seen by far. Excellent step-by-step. Is this a new boat or did you shine up the bronze? I've never seen one look that clean.

[Maine Sail]

Is a 1985! The it's so clean is because I had replaced it with a PSS Shaft Seal and it was sitting in a box in my basement. I found it a few weeks ago and figured I'd try and put an end to all the "how do I repack a stuffing box" questions. It seems that I see this question posted once a week on various forums. The reason it's so clean is because I cleaned with with a brass wire brush in my drill press before photograping the set up on my work bench. These pictures were not taken in a boat but rather at my house. i did my best to make it as realistic as possible using a PVC pipe as a stern tube and a piece of 1 inch stainless steel as my makeshift prop shaft. My other article on installing a PSS was actually done on the boat though. if you want to see how to isntall a PSS read that article..

Here's my PSS article: PSS Shaft Seal Installation Photo Gallery by Maine Sailing at pbase.com

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by stevemac00

Jeez, SD is a hard critic. It's the best I've seen by far. Excellent step-by-step. Is this a new boat or did you shine up the bronze? I've never seen one look that clean.

I gave him two thumbs up... how is that being a hard critic???

[TrueBlue]

I thought it was well done halekai, and your nails are better manicured than mine.

I was amazed however, with how skinny your shaft is . . . guess I'm just used to my 40mm.

[resdog]

Nice job, although it would have been much more realistic if you had done the job and taken the photographs while sitting in an empty kitchen cabinet or laying on your belly with your head and arms stuck in a hole.

[sailingdog]

TB-

Not all of us are sailing large full displacement motorsailers such as your Nauticat... which is many times heavier than my boat...