MODIFICATION OF 103R COMPASS SPIDER

A

AWESOMEHTHING

New Member
I have just brought a silva 103r compass but the sider is made for the old deck fittings.I Have been told it is possible to modify this.Can anyone suggest how I can modify this to fit the new xd fittings? a sketch would be useful
 
Hello Amos,
Here's my suggestion, take your old compass spider and get a piece of cardboard. Trace out your spider on the cardboard. Carefully cut out the tracing and then go out to your boat and remove your fittings. You'll need four thumb tacks or carpet tacks and some duct tape. Take a couple of short pieces (2"-4"/50-100 cm's) long of duct tape and tape it over the existing fitting locations, make sure you get them good and square. Mark the outside edges (each end, top and bottom edges of the tape) on your deck with a pencil. Then poke a small hole through the exact center of the fitting screw holes. Remove the tape and place your tacks through the holes in the tape, so when you tape the tape back down on to the deck the tack points will be sticking up. Line up the tape marks with your deck marks and the tack points will be in the same place as the fitting screw holes.
Now comes the fun part. Take your cardboard piece (template) mark a centerline exactly down the center of it. Then mark a faint centerline on the deck with your pencil (using the screw holes of the cam cleat fitting and six o'clock on the mast step as a guide) just longer then your spider is. Carefully position it so it will fit the place where your spider will fit. Then press it down so the tack points poke through the cardboard.
Then place your fittings over the holes (make sure your center the screw holes) you poked in your template and trace out your fittings. Remove the fittings and take your template and place it on a board (a cutting board or something like that). Get a razor knife and cut out the where the fittings will go.
Now comes the even funner part, take your template and place it onto your spider. If you have been careful and taken your time it should exactly match what you need to cut out from your spider to make it match your deck fittings.
Now get a black,blue or green magic marker and color in the plastic you'll need to remove. Then figure out what you have in your tool box that will cut/remove the plastic easily.
I used a dremel tool with a small cutting disc to remove the bulk of the cut out/marked area. I would cut it out in small pieces leaving just a fine edge of the marked plastic. Then I replaced the fittings back onto my boat. I tested for fit before removing the fine colored edges with a cone shaped deburring bit in the dremel tool. This insured a tight fitting spider with very little slop when I finished.
It took me a couple of hours and it turned out well. Good luck and hope this helped you figure out how to do it.
Regards,
Fishingmickey
150087/181157
 
AWESOMEHTHING said:
I have just brought a silva 103r compass but the sider is made for the old deck fittings.I Have been told it is possible to modify this.Can anyone suggest how I can modify this to fit the new xd fittings? a sketch would be useful
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Amos, where did you get the compass? Sources for them are drying up. Thanks Scott
 
Hi Scott,
I brought my compass off ebay.I kept typing in silva compass for about two or three weeks and eventually one came up.I payed £51 for it.The guy I brought it off had only used it four times and then swapped his boat for an RS600.Hope this has been some help good luck.Amos
 
Hi Amos,
in December there was a thread about how to make a compass spider.
Here is the link:

http://www.laserforum.org/showthread.php?t=1802

If your old Silva 103R has only the original hole for the old cunnigham control line, make another hole (same diameter) to the left and to the right of that hole for the new XD-control lines.
Good work
LooserLu
 
I agree, I like yours Ludwig. The ones you can buy from APS and other places are solid white and just look pretty ugly.
 
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