Day 448 --

Day 448

Life Rings BBQ table, floor hatches

After one has planned something for so long, it becomes so engrained it's almost reality. Such was the case for the life ring mounts. I thought about how to do it, what would be a good way, a long time ago. I never drew anything up but commited the idea to file 13 and for some reason, thought it was done. This morning Gena was looking at them and came to the conclusion that a mount needed to be made. Well, I had my day planned already with making a BBQ table and didn't take it too lightly that making these first would use up part of my planned day! I thought, "oh, duh!". It is a good thing that there's two of us, if for that reason only.

So off I went, trying to explain to Gena what exactly I was doing for these mounts. I gave up and said " just wait and see".

The design is pretty cool ( I think ) and uses 4 angled stanchion mounts we never used, and some 3/16" rod. If you look at the photos, particularly the one where the ring is mounted, the first question is, "how do you get it off?".

The key is to leave out the set screws on the lower mount, thus it can be easily lifted in one motion to throw over board. Movement of the boat will always cause the lower mount to fall into the optimum holding place. I tested it on the piece of stanchion in the top photo, and it worked every time.

Mounts still in place ( much later ) after a rough sea adventure!

There will of course be a 1/2" 50 foot line attached to it and the boat so even if it ever did come off, it wouldn't be lost. (That was the phrase that sold Gena on the idea!) It took all of 1 hour to make these, so now I can make my BBQ table after all!

I never thought to look on the 'net at how the BBQs optional table was made, or how it lookied. I only remember it was expensive, so I decided to just build one. I based the design on the mounting holes on the BBQ's case. It's a good looking unit, so it deserves a good looking table right?

It turned out that my design was pretty close, but bigger, which is better. Anything that can fit inside the BBQ, will fit on my table.

The wood is just oak door frame that I smoothed down. The little "knobs" on the SS rod are to snap into the lower holes, and the 90 º bends are to hold it up while the side straps are being snapped in.

Once everything fit, I pulled the boards and oiled them up well, and recoated them several times later.

This photo shows the table in place. The side straps are into a solid oak block on the ends.

The underneath photo shows this better. It's easy to attach and remove, but strong in place.

It's nice to have the tools to do this sort of thing. We'll miss not having them.

Gena started making the hatches for the pilot house to access the engine room. Yes, they have changed again, but this time I think it's to the good.

There will now be 4 smaller hatches instead of 2 large ones. She is routing for the handles, and a slight inset for some aluminum corner trim that will edge each hatch, clamping the carpet in place.

Underneath ( lower picture ) she is making aluminum drain pipe into a catch frame that will be filled with foam and capped with high heat insulation and thin aluminum plate. This will muffle the noise, and add insulation from the heat of the blue monster below.

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention!