My body parts ache. Budge said "Pain is weakness leaving the body". This is a phrase used by the military to get young dumb guys to work, Right now I have weakness leaving my knee and shoulder. I should have run out of weakness by now, but it continues, This whole boat building thing is a colossal weakness leaving my butt!
Hey.....'Nother video. Please no comments on the tawdry quality of the production. If I want to make good videos, I need a 12 year old introvert video savant and that skinny girl in the bikini. All you get is me.
Oh well, to the blog!
I started on the final stud, I dropped the nut but it only fell on the motor housing. I stuck my finger in to retrieve it and it disappeared. Huh? I reached around with my pinky finger and discovered a hole in the side of the motor housing. I stuck my finger in and only managed to push the nut further into the hole. I got a bent pointy tool to scoot it back out. Nope. Much bowelship language ensued. I had to take the motor back out. I unscrewed the 3 hard earned nuts off the studs and took everything apart. There was the nut inside the housing nestled near the shaft. I took it out and put a piece of tape over the hole to prevent a recurrence. I started again in the over 90 degree heat in the sun. I managed to fight two more nuts and lock washers on two of the studs. I then checked the fit and the motor was not sitting flush against the bottom of the mast case. I bent over held up the motor and looked into the mast case. There was a fillet in the way preventing the motor from sitting flush. I removed the motor and windlass. I took a lunch break.
In the afternoon I attacked the portion of the fillet that was in the way. I chiseled and used the multitool saw and removed that portion of the fillet that was interfering with the process. I decided to make a video of the final assembly (See: Videos). I fumbled around again in the heat and the frustration was mounting, I started two nuts. I finally gave up for the day after I dropped my final nut into the mast case. The entire day consisted or getting two nuts threaded!
Tuesday I was back at it. I finally got smart enough to hold the nut and washer together with a bit of sticky butyl rubber. I threaded the two final nuts and started tightening the nuts on the studs. I got the front and back studs pretty secure, But I could not access the port and starboard nuts with the wrench. I had to cut two side access holes anyway to get the wrench in. If I would have done this in the first place, everything would have been easier. Of course, I then had to make two cover plates, coat the bare wood surfaces with a couple coats of epoxy, paint and primer, the dreaded epoxy two-step (3-step). This of course wasn't finished for another day.
Finally, on to the wiring. I found some short lengths of 2 gauge wire and the control box. I was going to finish. I dug out the lugs for the ends of the wires. There only was one. I needed six. On to the way too expensive marine store. They had two, way too expensive. The interweb! They will be here Monday. Mission Unaccomplished! Nothing goes right.