May 2012 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 5. R. E. THOMAS MARINE HARDWARE OF HANCOCK
HANCOCK – There are several places I stop in that really intrigue me by what they do. One place that captured my attention is R. E. Thomas Marine Hardware in Hancock. Every time I do boat yard news at Mike Light’s shop in Corea he is always saying how impressed he and the fishermen have been with a self-aligning shaft bearing that he gets from R. E. Thomas. I will be the first to admit that this was getting over my pay grade, but I really wanted to know why this was better than sliced bread.
One day I was running through Hancock and had a little extra time so I stopped in and was given a brief tour by Mike Newbert, Ron’s right hand person. It was fascinating, watching the CNC machines manufacturing several different parts for an outside customer. For those of you who follow NASCAR, driver Tony Stewart is part owner with Gene Haas, well Haas’ business is making automation machines, which were some of the CNC machines being used. The next time I stopped by I talked at length with owner Ron Thomas who explained what they do at R. E. Thomas Marine Hardware. The first question I had was the self-aligning shaft bearing used in lobster boats. Ron explained, “Basically we’ll start with what used to be done. The horsepower is everything that has made the difference. Years ago a six cylinder Ford engine out of some truck or car with a one inch shaft was typical. They were very flexible. With the introduction of larger and larger horsepower engines it necessitated tougher and more stable shafts. It has resulted in going to the best applicable steel, which is the Aqualoy 22. It is certainly the only thing I would put in a boat. With the strain and the stresses on the boat of today you have got to have something like the Aqualoy 22. The way they hooked up the old shafts would be a coupling to your reduction gear, and then you would go back a ways and you would find a bulkhead or a place where you could tie a stuffing box. Then you keep going aft and you’ll find another typical stuffing box bolted onto the outside of the boat. Years ago, if things got out of line that
shaft didn’t even know the difference. Today, if you are not lined up reasonably well it makes things shake, rattle and roll. The problem is horsepower, but the real word is torque. All the engine manufacturers are bragging about their low end torque. In other words before you even get up to 1,400 rmp you have terrific torque at low end. That torque means it is really moving something. It sure is because if you could be a stowaway below deck with a 600-hp diesel, which is the average today, and somebody punches it, I can assure you that shaft is just a whipping around. What people in the last 10 to 15 years have been finding is that they can’t keep their packing nut tight on the inside stuffing box. Well, you’re not going to because you are simply rolling dough and the packing is just creating a bigger diameter inside the nut. It then allows water to come through just as soon as you make one revolution with it. “If you tie a self aligning box to the end of the shaft tube,” continued Ron, “that self aligning box has a piece of rubber on it that goes over both the box and goes down the shaft tube and the box just follows the shaft where ever he goes. It occurred to me that this system doesn’t have problems. We took a box that was in existence for the Young Brothers, an intermediate bearing, and changed it a little bit in the foundry. The only thing that you have to do is introduce water to it. It is barbed on the forward end, which receives the hose just like the shaft tube does. With this system a fishermen can easily work on the boat himself. With our design you remove four bolts bring the unit to the shop, punch the bearing out, replace the bearing and put it back in.
“I don’t know how many we’ve got out there,” added Ron, “probably in excess of 250 units. It works and it works well and that is the key. Every day that you are trying to fix something, it’s costing you money. The more you are out on the water the better we like it.”
Ron and his crew are real concerned about one thing, safety and that is evident in their rudder ports. Ron added, “Again, horsepower is causing a lot of the problem
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inherent in today’s work boats. You don’t realize the extreme tonnage against the blade of that rudder. We got a hold of Peter Kass’ design and we manufacturer Peter Kass’ style rudder ports. Peter came up with great box. I really believe that it is the best rudder port in the world today for a work boat. It is well designed, rugged, some call it over built, but when you are talking about somebody’s life it is never over built.”
Ron also has gotten into shafting and can do shafts up to three inches in diameter. However, they do not do propellers and have no interest in getting into that business. Ron graduated from Foxcroft Academy in 1964. Instead of following his family’s business in the logging industry he headed to Connecticut and found a small company, Copper Weymouth, where he became a
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machinist apprentice. He said, “I wanted to learn and I was fortunate enough to go into a small shop so that I could get around and learn different things. They made press room equipment for big factories like General Electric, who makes refrigerators. This equipment takes coil steel which come in rolls and through a series of rollers straightens it out. Then it goes through a punch press, which will form or make some metal part with stamping, like a car fender is made.”
Ron then did a stint in the military first serving in the Army, and later the Air Force. He returned to the State of Maine and went to work for GE as a toolmaker. He worked for them about four years. He had also been
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