Old Man Takes Up Rowing

I’ve roughed up the bottom of the clamps that will attach to the mini-deck, and I’ve drilled two 5/16-inch holes through the plates to be epoxied. I drilled 1/2-inch countersinks into both sides of each, thinking that epoxy would fill the resulting hour-glass shaped channels and enhance the bond. I plan to fillet these pieces…

Epoxy is finished! Except (there’s always an “except”) for the wooden parts I’ve yet to make to attach the rowing machinery to the minideck and the bonds to hold some of them together. [Not so fast! See next day down below.] Yesterday, I did the decks. Today, I put a conveniently-sized cardboard box in the…

It’s been 10 weeks since my last confession. So “Day 83” is a term of art just to keep things more or less consecutive. The basement (aka “the boatyard”) got chilly, epoxy turned slow and slightly unpredictable, the winter lake was not especially inviting for a total rookie, the sky invited me back out under…

First, the “traditional marine epoxy” had not set decently even after 16 hours and even after aiming a space heater at it (it’s down to 66 in the shop). But when I went over the suspect surface lightly with some sandpaper, the remaining finish was fine. I gather that I slathered it on too heavily.…

Take a deep breath and repeat this until you believe it: the rigger can be moved to wherever it needs to be moved. There is plenty of adaptability in the design. For example, new mounting threads can be placed in the “deck;” the mounting plates on the bottom of the slide can be relocated; the…