After a couple of weeks of thinking, drawing, and holding metal in my hands considering what it can do and what I can do with it, this is what I have in mind:

God knows, I’ll do photos and so much commentary along the way, so let’s just leave it right there for today.

Day 42

I finally descended into the shop determined to cut metal. And I did. And then I almost immediately discovered that some, not all, of my measurements were batshit. For example, the horizontal part of the slider needs to be much longer to accommodate the mounting points on the drawer side of the sliders. How’d I miss-measure the available mounting holes? I didn’t. But I measured their positions from the wrong end of the drawer-slide. I caught that before wasting metal. And then I proceeded to make noise and metal shards anyway because if my careful and meticulous drawings aren’t foolproof, there’s no reason to waste more time with more of them (cf. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, Part Deux, “When have any of our plans ever actually worked? We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose”). I have the finished piece pretty firmly in mind, so I thought that I might as well just start whittling toward it. So I went for it.

After an hour or so, I could hold and dry fit the slide. I can also try this and that and decide how I really mean to install it. Many things are clearer; but so are some problems. S’OK: if I see them, I can fix them. In the end it will be more or less what I’ve been drawing and posting, but it won’t be that exactly. Also, trivially, I’ll need to replace too-long 3/4-inch 10-32 bolts with shorter ones (just because, but the long ones will work until all is together and proves out). Yes, as suspected, the toggle clamp will determine the minimum mounting height of the slider. I hacksawed off the hasp provided for locking one of the toggle clamps which was satisfying but probably unhelpful because the toggle clamp’s handle is almost exactly as high. I may yet put the toggle on the stern-side of the rowing machine where it will not require special vertical clearance by the slider and will be out of the way. Of course, it will be harder to reach and lock back there should something slip. Details.

After setting plywood and spacers into the boat and trying this and that, I think I will likely impose the 1:40 tilt by mounting the whole shebang on shims (remember the ramp I drew days or weeks ago) rather than try to set the angle internally. That remark means something to me today, but will it next year? Will it to you? I doubt it. Just hang with me for a bit. I’m worn out from planning and overthinking and just hankering to get on with it. I’ll show you how it works when it works. For now, keep in mind that some of the details in all those earnest drawings in recent posts will not reflect precisely what eventually floats. I think everything will be recognizable, but I am sure much will be at least slightly different.