Switches, Swatches Motor Manipulations And The Art Of Free Associating

A big thanks to Ed who's wondering why we don't offer our custom mugs in lime green. That's because my brother, unlike me, has good taste.

I do not know why you two followers even bother to read this tripe of late. Not much is happening and I am reporting nothing. I suppose that you think that every week you will see the boat floating or something. This week you get the "or something".

Phyllis (you remember Phyllis, don't you?), the upholstery swatch lady, still didn't show up but sent an emissary to begin the long forgotten project. His name is Michael. I was able to ask him those questions I wrote down for the second broken appointment weeks ago. He didn't know about some aspects of the project and I had to re-send the drawings Budge made for the cockpit sides. I am still leery about the professionalism and customer service aspects of her business. Heavy amounts of male bovine excrement doth not a successful business make.

​Those of you that are complaining about the price of official catnameddog mugs must realize that the price is the equivalent of just a couple fast food meals. You know what the cup would look like the following day compared to what the fast food meals would look like the following day. It's your choice.

Ben finished up the tillers with a coat or two of paint. We let them dry for a couple days and then re-installed them. Because it's the last time we will see each other for a while, we took off and went to Houston and hit the museum. It was really nice. We were just doing simple stuff so we could afford the time off.

I wanted to have some switches to control the lighting in the cabins. I bought some push button on/off switches previously on the interweb. They are easily mounted as they only require a 3/8" hole.  I was unclear about how to mount them. I utilize free association as a solution to solving a problem. I had done this a couple timed searching for the correct way to mount the switches. I came up with nothing. Ben said "Lets do it again". The process is simple. Clear your mind of all prejudices and put the problem in the back of your mind. Wander about the big box hardware store or interweb images and see if anything could be adapted, converted or utilized.

After wandering the store for about an hour, we stumbled upon these electrical conduit boxes which can be adapted to our needs. We kicked the idea back and forth and finally decided to give them a try.

They has some mold marks and things.

We sanded the marks down, the cover plates, too.

We hand sanded the crannies.

I took the face plates and marked the center longitudinally and latitudinally. I took a compass and marked equidistant from the center along the latitudinal center.

I center punched the marks and drilled three holes in the face plates.

The final check. Ben then painted them.

Side view. We made extras.

On Saturday Robbie cleared his calendar and laid his hands upon the motors. The starboard motor starts, but runs too fast, He adjusted, He tweaked. He thought.

He studied the service manual. Boy am I glad I bought that book.

He wmanipulated his hands to work the orientation and visualize what was happening. Are there any Yanmar outboard specialists out there? We could use some expertise. 

The Music♪: The Pogues/ Kirsty MacColl "Fairytale Of New York"

Your Christmas carol for this year, Lots of covers. We'll go with the original one.