October And The Legend

What ho, ye faithful followers of the failures of progress. Welcome back to the futile documentation of the mundane and uninteresting. This week I embark (I done already embarked, I'm more like re-barking up the same tree) on the motor amalgam of quandaries. I slog on trying to keep focused on a single problem at a time. 

The rains slow me down. It's OK, I really need breaks. With the rain comes the rebirth of life, like mosquitoes. I had not seen many bugs for months. I currently have a few spiders hanging about. I did relocate a couple of misguided baby toads to greener pastures. It's tough to make a living on concrete, both me and the toads.

So here it is. Maybe my sub subconscious was just waiting for it to be October.  It seems that a lot of major events in my life happened in October. I ditched the kids for a week one October and helped remove the siding from an old timber framed Ohio barn. A year later I had my own timber frame workshop and raised the frame in October. A year (or was it two) later we moved in around October. I got married in October. No, wait, that was April. Close enough. Hey, I'm creating a legend here allow me some artistic license. Maybe it was the divorce?? Now I will enhance the myth that I have created by this Octobular event, the launch. I hope...... If I don't launch, I'll eat lunch and document that. Pictures of lunch seems to be what passes for creativity nowadays.

It seems that most of you read this on a mobile telephone device. Oh golly, not only am I participating in the downfall of good taste of two people, but also their eyesight. Do I have to use a smaller font to fit on those things? What about those stupid hip techno savvy wristwatch things?  Is the font tiny or do you read one letter at a time?

Another week of frustrations piled high and deep, my PHD in boat building. So, off we go.

I dug out a board.

The glue died, baked to death in the Texas heat.

I made this. I didn't like it. Besides, it was too long anyway.

Stainless shmainless.

Good ol' meranti marine plywood. The secret to drilling it is to first drill a small hole. It chips a little. Then you drill out a little bigger hole. It chips out a little bigger. Then you drill a little bit bigger hole. It chips out a little bit more. Finally you drill the hole to it's final size and it chips out in huge chunks all the way across the board. Good ol' meranti marine plywood. 

The old (top) and the new (bottom) neutral safety switch.

In situ.

These Morse, Incom, Teleflex (or whatever they're called this week) controls are wonderful, versatile contraptions capable of many configurations, if you know what you're doing. I hooked up the ends they sold me. I seized them in place with safety wires. They looked good. I needed special clamps (top of the photo) to hold the cables against the sides so the inner part would slide. My local boat store did not have them. I drove 23 miles one way to get those special clamps to a bigger boat store. A bigger store means that they have a lot more expensive shirts that you cannot afford. I returned. The cables were too long and would not clamp. I didn't know what I was doing. I asked people. They didn't know what I was doing. 

I cut the safety wires off and dismantled them for the second time. The first time was because I needed shorter cables. Mike, the yard parts guy, has no more patience with my bumblings. I have no patience left either, but I must continue anyway. It would be easy if you know what you're doing.

Se all those attachment holes? Versatile, a myriad of options, if you know what you're doing. I finally dragged the contraption to the outboard motor shop, the experts. They hadn't a clue, and they know what they're doing. They suggested a 40 mile journey to a specialty place in Houston. Once again I get dragged into becoming an expert in an area that requires research, patience and some degree of mechanical ability. I took a nap. I hit the computer. I looked. I searched. You have to know what something is called in order to find it. It's easy if you know what you're doing. These controls have a bunch of different ends and I stumbled onto something called a pivot end that will take up less space and maybe allow the cables to work. They are on order. Slowly I'm becoming knowledgeable in what I'm doing. I'll probably have to drill holes in the side plates of the controls. All those holes and you still have to drill another.

I cut a couple lengths of aluminum.

I drilled some holes, 

I drilled some smaller holes in the center of the larger holes (Huh?).

See. a hole in a hole. Ya just gotta know what you're doing. What next? I don't know what I'm doing about that yet. If it seems to you that I didn't do much this week, It seems the same to me. Why am I tired and worn out?

The Music♪: Incredible String Band "October Song"

OK, two weeks, same artist. I've played the song before. I don't care. Listen or not. It's one of my favorites. I feel sad that some people don't listen to the music. My concept reinterpreted and misunderstood.