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The Building of Old Codger


Chick Ludwig

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Gosh, I've never had a fuse on that wire on any of my boats including the fiberglass boats that I used to build. No USCG inspector ever questioned it either.

Something like this? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NVJ5SVS/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?psc=1

 

Or this?  https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems-5191-Terminal/dp/B0019ZBTV4/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1530674687&sr=8-6&keywords=battery+terminal+fuse

 

What do you recommend that could go in the battery box?
 

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While awaiting further suggestions on the best fuse arrangement on the battery cable, I got the cockpit seat tops puckied down. Now to finish out the afternoon with a good John Wayne patriotic movie (The Wings of Eagles) and some home made ice cream. I'll finish filleting the corners tomorrow.

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I've been thinking of how to rig a comfy helm seat to steer the boat from. Remember, it's a tiller steer motor. I'm thinking of a swiveling bass boat style seat mounted close to the foot well edge in the starboard aft corner of the cockpit. That should let me sit at about a 45 degree angle with my feet in the foot well. Maybe I can mock-it-up tomorrow.

 

Be careful of the fireworks tonight. I KNOW none of you would shoot off anything illegal!!!!

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21 hours ago, smccormick said:

Exactly, then choose a fuse based on wire size.  

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Welcome to boat building day-by-day. Today's progress is just some little details in the cockpit. Kinda boring actually, but, I dood it anyway.

 

First picture is a "mock-up" of where the "helmsman's chair" is gonna go. I climbed up there and pretended I was hanging onto the tiller handle of Mr. Hatsu and steering the boat. I think it will work out fine.

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This is the corner platform to mount the seat swivel on.

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I also built in the transom doublers on either side.

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I like to round off (fill in?) the corners of the seat top. Why? I dunno. I just like the looks.

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Today was spent sanding yesterday's work. Then the shelves that will mount on the inside of the aft cabin bulkhead were built. The glue wasn't dry enough to try to mount them. Ya gotta wait to see 'em in place. Then I made the quarter knees and glued 'em in. This boat will have slotted gunnels like Turtler and the motor canoe. As usual. I'm doing what I like, not necessarily what is usual practice. I hope that's ok with y'all.

 

The shelves.

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The quarter knees will have the stern nav. light mounted on the starboard one, and a flag staff socket on he port one. No cleats. If I need a dock line, it can be tied through a slot in the rubrail.

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Y'all have a blessed weekend, y'hear. I probably won't get back to boat building until next Tuesday or so. Life's gettin' in the way 'til then.

 

 

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Ok, so I'm back already. We had some plans change today, so I could get a little more done. Remember the shelves from yesterday that I couldn't install yet 'cause the glue wasn't dry enough? Well, today they're up. They are glued to the bulkhead with poxy. Boy, did my arms get tired holding them in place 'til the poxy cured...

Here they are.

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Only foolin' about holding them up while the poxy cured. Here are the magic holder-uppers.

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The seat hatches were also assembled. I LOVE those B&B hatch kits!!! Like the hatch gutters, super glue was used to tack the thin plywood parts together so the fillets could be applied. You can see the "tools-of-the-trade" setting in the completed hatch.

 

 

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So, NOW it's time to leave you for a few days. Bye y'all!

 

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I'm ba-a-ack! Kinda an interesting building session today. I was supposed to get all of the cabin bulkhead cleats (If that's the right term...) made and installed. I also wanted to make a temporary frame to support the cabin sides at the right angle as I mark and cut them. Remember y'all, this ain't no kit. Or plan. I'm making it up as I go along. Anyway, when I sprung a batten around where the sides meet the top, it just looked too "clunky". The sides were too high forward. Trouble is, I already had the cleats glued on where the top meets the forward cabin face. What to do---what to do. The poxy was already cured . Mostly. Leave it alone and pretend it was supposed to look like that? Naw! The sides are pretty high as is. No need to look clunky too. Oh well. Chisel the top cleats off. Out comes Mr. Saber Saw. Cut-er-down. Try again.

After redoing it and gluing the cleats back on, and re-springing the batten, I think it looks better. Because of the time spent on the re-do, I didn't get everything finished that was supposed to be finished today. Tomorrow's another day, as my Momma used to say. I'll show y'all what I'm talkin' about.

 

This first picture, if ya can figure it all out, shows the aft cabin bulkhead cleats. Also the temporary frame, and the batten. This picture is taken after lowering the forward cabin face. Because of the angle I had to shoot the camera from, I still looks high, but viewed from the side, I think it's ok.

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Hear is the beginnings of the forward companionway threshold. The "scrap" laying on the deck is the cut-off of the cabin face.

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This is just another view of the aft bulkhead cleats and threshold. The drop board retainers will come tomorrow.

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The forward cabin face. Also waiting on drop board retainer cleats.

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Maybe. Just maybe, I'll get the cabin sides cut out and installed. Got an eye doc appointment in the middle of the afternoon. Dang, always something getting in the way of a good day's work. Big decision is what to do about port lights. I've got some salvaged opening ports that I could use. Or I could make some "Herrshoff ports". (At least that's what I've been told they were called.) I used them on my OB-20. That was the prototype boat. Or I could buy some new ones. I dunno. We'll worry about it later. G'night y'all.

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i mever nake misteaks? There seem to be two major, but conflicting philosophies that control most everything that goes on in my garop. They can be summed up thusly. "Measure twice and cut once", and "I've cut it off three times and it's still too short." Although always intending to follow the first of those, somehow the second usually seems to win out.

 

I have discovered why the port cabin side appeared to be clunky. Apparently when I originally layed out the cabin face, before installing it on the boat, I must have measured the top curve twice wrong. I know I only cut it once. Then when I discovered the clunkyness, I assumed that it was both sides and cut it off equally all the way across. Then I finished adding the cleats. After gluing them on, we had relatives from out of town to meet for dinner. When we got home, I was looking over the day's work and something just didn't look right. The port side looked higher that the starboard side. Now how can that be? I know that I cut  both sides off evenly. So here is where the second philosophy almost explains things. Even though I only cut it off once, it was still crooked. It's one inch higher on the port side! As evidence, take a look at the picture below where I've sprung a batten across where it is supposed to be cut. Well, maybe one inch lower that it outa be. HEY TIGER, QUIT THAT MANIACAL LAUGHING!!! Graham and Alan, why are you shaking your heads and turning away in disgust? The rest of y'all, I know that you never would do anything like this. PAR, I'm glad you're not here to see this.

 

I layed awake late last night, and then woke up early this morning fretting about it. But, now it's off to meet the before mentioned relatives for breakfast and a round of visits to various antique shops, they call it "antiqing". I know I'll be lousy company all day. Gotta get home and try to make it right. If I just cut to the new curve, will it be ok? Will the forward end of the cabin now be too low and create new clunkiness? I dunno. I may not be able to work on it until tomorrow. Probably won't get home in time tonight. The old body will be too pooped to work in the shop then. So, y'all come back Saturday some time to see if all will work out alright. Meanwhile, try to learn something from my "oopses". I guess this old codger still hasn't learned.

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   Ya know, Chick, that's pretty generous of you to go to all this trouble just to make people like me feel better about making this kind of mistake.  I'm pretty sure your fix is going to look a lot better than mine would, though.

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So buried beneath the fiberglass cabin top of Jazz Hands is a 1/4" plus shim of plywood edge glued to the port side of the cabin top. In spite of clear directions and dimensions given by Alan to Pete M who shared with me, I just couldn't get it right. I had the supports and stringers all glued up and the cabin top was just a bit too narrow. The easiest thing was to make her a "wide track Pontiac" if you are old enough to know what I mean. Or as my late father used to say......"They'll never see it from Broadway" which is what you can say after you fix it.

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Ken. As you all know, I'll go to extreme lengths to demonstrate to both of my readers how to do it wrong. I've been honing this talent for most of my 71 years. I actually began learning how to do it back during my days at good 'ol Glen Oak Elementary school when I began building models. First plastic models, then stick and tissue balsa. My policy was to never, under any circumstance, read the instructions or ask for help.

 

Steve. I well remember those old advertising days where the new cars were always "longer, lower, wider, and and big enough for six six footers. Two tone paint and lots of chrome. Just beginning to have seat belts. That was the beginning of the days of the muscle cars that killed off so many of my generation. Cars including the wide track Pontiac. Go like a bat out hell!  But took a country mile to stop, and terrible handling in anything other than a straight line. Big heavy land yachts with more horse power every year. Subject of great music by the Beach Boys. And Jan and Dean, among others. Remember the song Dead Mans Curve? What a time to live for a teenager. It's a wonder that any of us survived.

 

By-the-way. A measly 1/4 inch. C'mon. If ya wanna be an expert at the screw-up like your elders, ya gotta do better than that!

 

Just got back from antiqing. And as expected, I'm pooped. (Tired, worn out, in need of rest...) Tomorrow is soon enough to get to the second try on getting the dang thing right. I'm Gonna just cut the port side down as indicated on the photo. I thank all will be well. I've sprung that old batten over on the starboard side to see what the roofline---I mean cabin side top line will look like and it looks fine to me. Of course I gotta re-do the cleat on that side and glue it on. Another day wasted before moving to the next step.

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So here's the final verdict---I think---if y'all approve. Check-it-out. This is your last chance to chime in with shoulda-coulda-woulda. Here's the cabin top line as delineated by the batten. (Sorry 'bout the big d-word.) Both sides are even gonna be the same. At least that's the plan. Tomorrow morning we're gonna make it happen.DSCN3592.thumb.JPG.a074755c7a32b6178295cc3da3452a1f.JPG

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On 7/14/2018 at 5:03 AM, Chick Ludwig said:

By-the-way. A measly 1/4 inch. C'mon. If ya wanna be an expert at the screw-up like your elders, ya gotta do better than that!

 

 

   I was talking on the phone with a colleague today about quality control (yes, I am that boring in real life).  He related a tale about a local engineering firm that I will name "Jones Engineering" in order to protect the guilty party.  My friend said someone had told him once that being off by a few millimeters was tolerance stackup, being off by 20 millimeters was a design mistake, and being off by 500mm was Jones Engineering.

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See Steve, 1/4″ to mm = 6.35 millimeters, so that's only a  tolerance stackup. Even my 1 1/2 inch = 38.1mm doesn't qualify as "Jones Engineering". I guess we'll both have to work harder to lower our standards to the mess-ups of the big boys. By-the-way, Graham once told me that a good workman isn't someone who never makes mistakes, but rather, he knows how to fix his mistakes.

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