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

[BWR1953]

It is good stuff, I use it on a lot of different things I do and it was how I used to affix the logos on RV's when I had to remove them for paint or body work, lasts a long time.

Just make sure you place it where you want it the first time, cause it is very difficult to remove and it is no good the second time.

Cool beans. Thanks! :joyous:

 

[BWR1953]

We made some room in the shop today. Got the 70HP Mercury off the engine stand so that I can start working on the Kingfisher's 50HP Mercury.

Details are in my Chieftain thread!

Tomorrow we'll do some more shop cleanup and rearranging and get back to work on the KF. :joyous:

 

[BWR1953]

No KF work today but we did get the garage cleaned up and my wife bought me a new needle file set since I couldn't find my old ones.

This week I'll do some letter shaping in the "cool" of the mornings. High temps are still in the low 90s here. Ugh. :blue:

 

[BWR1953]

Time for an update. I've had a busy "doc" week this week which kept me from doing much. Appointments were in the morning and it is still stupidly hot here in the afternoons. Ugh.

 

[Watermann]

Take care cutting that thin AL, it will bend very easy.

 

[DirtyHarry83]

I like the lettering idea and I am looking forward to see them.

 

[BWR1953]

Success!

Today I cut 3 test letters in 3 different sizes; 1/16" thick, 3/32" thick and 1/8" thick.

Overall, I like the 3/32" thickness best. I placed each letter against the side of the hull and the 3/32" just looked "better" than the others. My buddy stopped by and he agreed that the 3/32" looked best too. Tonight I'll have my wife use her "artist's eye" to get her take on the sizing.

As WM suggested, I was very careful (slow) when cutting the new letters and all went well. I know, I know, I should have had another "S" printed out in order to compare apples to apples for all 3 sizes... but I hadn't thought of that yesterday until I was almost home.

It took me 12-14 minutes per letter to cut them out! And I still have final cleanup to do on each letter before painting. A real time-killer. I contacted my buddy who knows another neighbor who does laser cutting. Am hoping to be able to go that route and save a bunch of time.

 

[BWR1953]

I completed my testing this morning and definitely decided to go with the 3/32" thick aluminum. My wife saw how it looked and said it was perfect!

So I'm good to go with next steps. I contacted the laser lady (neighbor) and gave her the info. She said that she could probably do the job and I'm to contact her tomorrow.

The boy calculated that if I did all the cutting and smoothing myself that I'd spend about 9 hours getting the parts ready for paint. If I can get a reasonable price on the laser cutting, I'll go that route. :nod:

And this afternoon and evening we went fishing to 3 different shore spots. Fun stuff!

Finally received my tractor parts this afternoon so will be replacing the steering tomorrow and getting the grass cut instead of doing more boat work.


Old smaller letters on top. Too squat!



The larger font letter just looks "right" to us.


Used sector gear and new steering shaft. Never done this before so yet another adventure! :lol:

 

[Watermann]

You could find a place on the trailer to attach the smaller SC logo set.

 

[BWR1953]

You could find a place on the trailer to attach the smaller SC logo set.

Now that is a very good idea! Thanks WM! :joyous:

 

[BWR1953]

No boat work today but we definitely kept busy.

I was walking out to the garage this morning to start repairing the tractor when I received a text from my buddy asking if I'd like to borrow his Dixie Chopper ZTR with 72" deck to cut the grass. Oh HECK yes! Super easy, quick and I had a TOUGH time trying to get the boy OFF the thing!

It was a beautiful, albeit warm, morning to cut the grass.

 

[jbcurt00]

Nice work to the misses.....

miss fishing w mine....

 

[MTboatguy]

Boy, I wish I had a buddy like that, nice looking fish!

 

[BWR1953]

Late this afternoon I picked up a couple more pieces of .090" x 3" x 48" aluminum stock. While I was at the metal shop I learned that they can plasma cut the logo letters for me. Price = $100 - 150 plus tax. Uh, no. :blue:

Tomorrow I'll contact the laser lady and find out what she has to say. If her cost is high as well, I'll just continue by using my trusty scroll saw. Might order some spiral blades for it too. I have plenty of free time. :joyous:

 

[BWR1953]

Pretty quiet week here this week. :blue:

Contacted the laser lady and I was mistaken. She has a plasma cutter, not a laser cutter. So I decided to just cut the letters myself on my scroll saw. Ordered spiral blades which are out for delivery here today and should make for cleaner cuts and speedier results when put to use. I'll get started cutting letters tomorrow.

Started working on my tractor but can't physically do enough to replace the steering. Sigh. Another task for my buddy next door. When he has time. Double-sigh. :grumpy:

And the KF trailer weld job still hasn't been started. My buddy is just super busy. I'll get in touch with him later tonight or tomorrow to check status but I may have to just get it back and pay someone else to do the job. I'm running out of year.

After the trailer job is done it'll take me a week to clean it up and get it painted. Then I can finally load the KF back on and get going on next steps, including finishing the KF paint job.

The weather here is still quite warm which would be great if I had the KF topsides painted. I'm concerned that the temps will finally break lower and I'll be stuck not painting the rest of the boat until March or something.

But I did do a little experimenting on one of my "extra" letters to see if I could get them to be presentable. So far, so good. :joyous:



I used a file to chamfer the edges and do some cleanup.



After the file I used 220, 400, 600, 1500 and 2000 grit paper to smooth things up some more.

 

[BWR1953]

Forgot to mention that I went fishing yesterday morning with my old buddy. Saltwater from the shore and we got skunked on the last 2 hours of a rising tide. Meh.

And tomorrow morning the boy and I are going fishing with the pontoon guy and his son.

This morning I spent several hours doing scroll saw work. The new spiral blades didn't work out though. Too loosey-goosey and made it tough to follow a straight line. So I went back to my standard flat blade and pressed on...


Getting there, slowly but surely.


Including the boat ramp.

 

[BWR1953]

Man, what a weird day today. :wacko:


First - KF stuff. Got the trailer back from my bud. No welding done so I'll have to figure some things out. But at least I'll be rolling forward again! :lol:


Now to the fishing report...

Went out on the Gulf a short way today with Pontoon Guy and his boy. Bottom line is we caught fish and did all right.

BUT! On the way out, Pontoon Guy got a distress phone call from a friend. She was with 2 other ladies and their boat was sinking! But they'd managed to beach the boat, they were in no immediate danger and there were lots of other boats and folks around. Fine. He chatted with her a bit more and we started heading their way.

That's when our outboard motor stopped working!! No alternate propulsion. :facepalm: We were adrift in the channel with a zillion boats around!

So we investigated and found that some nimrod had used regular automotive non-stainless hose clamps on the fuel lines. And the fuel filter clamp had rusted through and broken. Single clamped, natch.

He had no tools on board so we used the multi-tool from my tackle box, cannibalized another clamp from a transfer hose and made the repair. AFTER we drifted into a channel marker. :fear:

Got the motor running and eased on over to where the damsels in distress were located. But they had plenty of help by then so we cruised out to our fishing spot.

There's much more, but I may not reveal... :tape:


Caught NOTHING for over an hour. Then we moved to another spot and the bite was on!



"The Boy" got first fish of the day, so I gave him 5 bucks. He really liked that! :thumb:

And he also caught the most fish. When the bite was hot he probably caught 20 fish in a 1/2 hour. The fish were biting so much and I was so busy re-rigging their lines and whatnot that I didn't get very many pix. Good stuff! :juggle:


Pete the Pelican wishing us luck as we were prepping to head out.


We didn't know what this fish was, so released it... doh! Turns out it's Jolthead Porgy. Good table fare. NO size limit and a 100 POUND bag limit. And they travel in schools! We could have cleaned up! :facepalm:


A little Jack.


Dinner also included some Largemouth Bass that we caught recently. I liked the bass best of all.

 

[BWR1953]

Yet another significant health relapse hit me 2 nights ago. Pretty much knocked me on my butt. :mad-new:

Been having a tough time over the last 2 months but recently it got very intense, sapping my strength, stamina, energy and causing me to take a huge increase in my steroid dosage. Which also hurts me. I keep fighting though.

Yesterday I went to HF and bought more tools and supplies for my KF letter cutting, etc. I'm still not done with all the letters but with the new gear I can get going again.

And last night I spent hours reworking the KF bird logo photo to remove "jaggies" and to smooth things out. Got about 80% done and hope to finish the rest today. That way, when I shrink the pic and print the logo out, it will be smooth and clean.

Last night I started rethinking how I want to approach the KF bird logo and made an initial decision which I began implementing this morning... by buying more aluminum!

Originally, my wife was supposed to paint the bird logo on the hull for me. But after doing the aluminum letter scroll work, I decided that I'll cut the bird logo from aluminum as well. Still considering options on the best method for that:

• Cut a simple slab sized right for the combined bird and name logo and then have my wife paint the logo on.
• Cut the bird logo out around the edges and separate it from the wording but leave the words all joined together.
• Cut the bird and letters out separately and try to line them up accurately when attaching them to the hull.

Going to discuss the options with my wife this evening.

But this morning I did go buy another piece of 3/32" x 4" x 24" aluminum to use.

In this pic you can see the new aluminum with the old bird logo resting on top. The "jaggies" will all be gone when I print out the new bird logo pic.

 

[Fizzlesticks]

Looking good, hope your health issues clear up!!!

 

[BWR1953]

Looking good, hope your health issues clear up!!!

Thanks! Me too! :lol: