easy to make turnbuckles at about 60cents each

Rcsailing.net General Discussion
1

just a “for your info”
i recently worked out a way to make a functional turnbucke VERY cheaply (dosn’t look too bad either).
get a hold of some 3mm stainless steel metal threads (bolts) and a couple of 3/16" rivets (i used alum) drive the core out of the rivet and you have a little tube with a flange, get a 3mm tap and tap out the rivet. you now have a tube that is threaded on the inside. grind off the flange if it bothers you though it does help the adjusting process. next get some ball bearing fishing swivels and push them into the tube and drill out a hole and pin one end of the swivel. you now have a bolt and a turnbuckle! i have the bolts coming from under the deck with a nut above deck to tighten it down and stop it turning when adjusting.

worked very well for me and cost a whopping 60 cents each (hence i’m not worried about mixing stainless with alum) I have about 3/4 of an inch of travel and can get some serious tension with it.

hope it helps someone. (or makes a couple laugh)

2

My way: DuBro brass model airplane links and appropriate brass rod - either 4-40 or 2/25-ish… Put external threads on the rod to match the link, snip off long and bend to fit into the stayrack… the quicklink snaps onto the loop at the end of the stay and the bent portion of the rod fits into the rack. Not a turnbuckle, but not bad. I put beeswax on the threads to ‘tighten’ the screw, otherwise it’s almost freespinning.

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Kenneth Graeme, Wind in the Willows.