I have returned... with a Starcraft this time!

[BWR1953]

Yeah, even the boy said he wishes we were working on the Chief instead of the KF! :lol:

Got a new chain put on my chainsaw today. It's ready!

And I got the new starter installed on the Gravely and it's running strong again. Just put the ad out on C/L too. Offered to drop the price if the buyer removes the trees! Maybe I won't need my chainsaw at all.

Tomorrow I work on the Craftsman tractor. It has a flat tire but I have Green Slime! :laugh:

 

[crankbait cowboy]

BWR, GOOD TO HEAR IRMA WASNT TO TOUGH ON YA! good luck on your projects

 

[BWR1953]

Hi all!

I met with Pulmonary today and got some good news. Looks like I'll be around long enough to finish the KF and even the Chieftain! :lol:

I'd received some incorrect information from a different non-specialist doctor a week ago which had put a major scare into me. I hate it when that happens. :frusty:

But it looks like I'll be okay. Gonna be having some tests done and whatnot but no real reason to worry. Whew!

Am really looking forward to finally getting some work done!

 

[Watermann]

Hey that is good news, if you don't have good health nothing else really matters.

 

[BWR1953]

Yup, health is everything. Ten days ago I was told by a new, very young and inexperienced rheumatology doc that I had a disease which would gradually suffocate me to death over the next couple years. :faint2:

Then the day before yesterday I met with the Grand Poobah of the Pulmonary Clinic who examined me, checked my recent test results and then assured me that I don't have that condition and that since I'm a young 64, that I should go ahead and make plans for the next 30 years! Whew!

Anyway, the boy and I spent pretty much all day yesterday dealing with the downed trees in our yard. They're still there, but at least they're in more manageable pieces now! And today I got the grass cut. Well, most of it anyway. Had to work around the tree parts piles! :lol:


Trees down!

The boy drivin' the heck outta that garden tractor! (Note the bad a$$ Makita chainsaw. Works great!)



Most of the turkey oak cut up and hauled off.



And that big Slash Pine is finally on the ground.

 

[BWR1953]

Back workin' on the KF today. Minimally, but something. Any progress is okay with me right now. :lol:

Had to deal with doc appointments last week but on one trip I realized that I'd been fussing the wrong way with that cross brace. I'd had the boy upside down while I was trying to lift the brace up enough for him to put the brackets in place from underneath. The brackets turned out to be too large and I wasn't effectively lifting enough and we just couldn't make it happen.

Then, on that aforementioned trip, a light went on in my beat up ol' brain. Use the old T-brace to temporarily hold the new cross brace in place so that we could position the new brackets to the hull sides. Duh! :doh:

Like so. Mind you, the brace isn't installed, but at least it's fixed into place so that we can continue to work.

The pic also shows how we've scratched up the new paint by banging the new aluminum cross brace in and out of the boat. Should have waited on the paint until after the cross brace was finished. Didn't know that at the time we removed the old one though. Anyway, I'll be very glad when this part is done. It's really been holding me back.:ballchain:



And today I also cut one of the new brackets in half. It should fit into the tight space and hold the new cross brace into place okay.


Sadly, that's as far as we got this morning. We'd been working on my Craftsman Garden Tractor yesterday, reached a stopping point and were waiting for a buddy to loan me a large drill bit and he finally let me know it was available just after we started on the KF this morning. So we worked on the tractor after that point. Made good progress but got side-tracked with other stuff and didn't finish. I'll be able to do that tomorrow though while the boy is in school.


Good news stuff:

Late last week I paid a tree service company to deal with the downed trees in our yard. They had the right tools for the job. A couple able bodied young dudes, a chainsaw and a tractor with a gripper-picker-upper thingy on the front. They got the job done and were gone in 25 minutes! The boy and I had worked for 7 hours on those trees last week!



Chomp chomp!


All gone!



And the final bits of good news. I sold the Gravely yesterday! :rockon: That thing was a jinx for me ever since I bought it... and it took one last swipe at me as it was leaving. The young man who bought it from me was driving it up the ramp into his trailer and the danged thing fell off and was hanging off the back of his trailer with the left wheel spinning in the air, the right wheel trying to turn and the mower jammed up against the side of his trailer. I did my best to lift the tail end of the thing and he re-steered the machine and we got it inside. Whew! I'm glad it's finally gone! :lol:

Lastly, my health is improving! I'm continuing to taper off the steroid and dropped to 7.5mg a week ago today. Within 2 days of that drop, I noticed that I was starting to feel like my old self again!

Slow but steady progress is progress. I shall continue to fight on!

 

[Watermann]

Nice to have that storm damage behind you and no one two punch with the other storms.

Glad to hear you're feeling better, maybe your nemesis bow arch will fall at your hands in the near future.

 

[Decker83]

Sounds like you had a busy day. Good to hear you are feeling better.
Those scratches happen to the best of us.
Looks like those young dudes did a great job for ya..

 

[BWR1953]

Got that nemesis up against the ropes now! In spite of having a minor relapse for the last few days, and doc appointments (and test driving a hot rod) I managed to make some progress that will make a big difference! Boo yah!

Used the old upright board to hold the new wood and aluminum brace in place while I drilled pilot holes for the bow cap screws this morning. Then I screwed both boards into place from above and added the aluminum cross brace to mock things up. Got too hot to keep working (95 degrees!) so I took a long break.

Tonight I removed one board and the aluminum piece, leaving the other board screwed in, then got under there (a difficult process for me!) and bent the new aluminum side bracket to the correct angle. Repeated for the other side. After the brackets were the correct shape, I marked them for drilling the first hole. I did this by holding the brackets in place from underneath while the boy marked them from the outside through the original bracket hole. Worked great.

Tomorrow I'll drill the first holes for the side mount and temporarily fasten them in place with bolts so that I can mark locations for all the other holes. Then I'll drill all the holes and lock that brace down (temporarily again) with bolts. Still haven't ordered rivets but now I have a better idea of what sizes I'll need. Havin' fun on a bun here! :lol:


Screwed down from above and held in place so that we can work underneath to get those side brackets mounted.



Both boards mounted and the aluminum brace mocked into place. The methodology is going to work! That bad boy is solid, even without the side braces mounted. Awww yeahhh... :emmersed:



Side brackets bent to shape. Don't mean to be obtuse about it but it was an acute problem! :laugh:



Up and down and port and starboard and whatnot.

 

[Watermann]

Nice to see that chore all done and in the rear view mirror I'll bet.

 

[BWR1953]

I wish it was done and behind me! :lol:

Still working on it but it's not really a big deal.

The design is solid and the methodology and technique are straightforward. It'll be finished soon.

I'm just running into my own physical limitations.

My wife really doesn't want me working alone. Probably with very good reason. (See my sig line.) A couple days ago I was alone in the garage, working on my garden tractor. Had it jacked up and blocked with a cinder block and one wheel off. Got the holes drilled that I wanted, then had to put the wheel back on. Raised it up with the jack, removed the block (which couldn't be removed with the wheel on) and started to put the wheel back in place. That's when the tractor fell over to one side. Fortunately, it was opposite my side. Else I might have had a real problem. D'oh! :facepalm: Got the wheel mounted and tightened after that though. My wife was not pleased when she heard the story that evening.

This morning I went out to work the brackets. Alone again. I have difficulty being upside down and whatnot. Didn't care. Had to do what I had to do. And I nearly fell out of the boat from being dizzy and woozy! I'm such a big dummy! :laugh:

Shortly after I took these pix, I was back in the boat. I'd bolted the bracket onto the side of the hull and was trying to get the holes in the aluminum and wood lined up. That's when the world started spinning and when I tried to climb out of the boat, it rocked a little and made things worse for me. I nearly went overboard onto the concrete floor. Oopsies. No more pix after that! :faint2:

So I'm back in the house now. Being a good boy! LOL!

But I did make a little more progress.


The bracket mocked into place on the inside, using the original bracket hole.




The bracket rotated and set so that I could mark where it would fit on the wood cross brace.




Holes drilled in the bracket and into the wood cross brace.

 

[Watermann]

Yeah nothing worth doing a face plant on concrete over. :faint2: If you have to do something work on some smalls on the outside of the boat.

 

[BWR1953]

Boo yah!! Nemesis defeated! :rockon:

Details later, but it's in and plenty strong. Just ask the boy.

 

[Decker83]

Glad to see you got it done.. That's a great pic of the boy..
Don't be doing stuff that will cause you to fall out of the boat. That's the last thing you need..:nono:

 

[BWR1953]

Well, we just finished watching Wonder Woman. Good movie! Had to treat the family after such a good day working on the KF!

Details from today's efforts...

Got out there early. As in before my 2nd cuppa coffee! I figured it would only take us an hour, maybe two, before the brace was done.

Not! Took us all day! :lol:

But the boy got under the bow right away and started getting the brackets positioned. Took quite awhile, but all the holes eventually got drilled and the (temporary) stainless bolts and nuts were placed. Rivets later.



My wife brought us breakfast while we were working. Awesome.



One unexpected good thing that happened during breakfast was that a folding chair got backed into and under the "lip" of the side of the boat. And that stopped it from rocking! So I jammed another one on the other side and the boat was finally stable. I was able to get in and out okay and even able to work in there without problems. Of course, that was after the boy and I caused it to tip hard to starboard while we were both in there on that side at the same time. Silly humans.

But the chairs worked great.





Man, were we ever glad to finally get that brace system in place!


Although it is a small piece of the overall boat, getting it in there leads the way to much bigger things!
I wanted to have my wife stand up on the brace with the boy, but she "didn't have her makeup on" and declined! :laugh:

 

[BWR1953]

Now that the bow brace is in place and strong, we were able to get on to bigger and better things!

Went out this morning and did a little shop cleanup.

Then we turtled the boat! Just the boy and me.

It's time for paint prep. Am still deciding on whether I want to do the scuff and paint method or completely strip it down chemically to the bare aluminum. The former is cheaper. The latter is easier. But my pressure washer is on the fritz. :grumpy: Decisions, decisions...

That's all we have planned for today. Gotta go do family stuff!

Upside down and ready for paint prep.

 

[Watermann]

Whew glad that's all behind you now, :happy: Yeah I say strip her bare as the day she was born!

 

[Decker83]

You must be doing something right.. Breakfast brought to the shop!!! She looks good all turtled. Strip her down..

 

[BWR1953]

So I ended up in the ER in the middle of the night last night. Most likely a kidney stone but follow-up is needed because none showed on the CT scan. PLENTY of pain though! Excruciating. Once they hit me with the morphine, things settled down.

Ugh.

 

[Pusher]

Ooh, my wife had one of those this summer. She was in tears begging for something stronger for the pain! Steroids aren't much fun either. Hang in there!

The finished bow support looks nice and clean. If the wife had makeup on, I'm sure it still would have held both of them no problem