Bilge Pump Install

As much as i want winter to continue the birds, flowers, and running water outside my window have me doing my season change ritual. A summers worth of camping and boating gear comes out gets dusted off, fixed up and put into service.

For those new to the blog Let me introduce Florence. Every step of her construction is on this blog, if your interested the build starts here. One thing that i have always ment to do is install a bailing system. There are many examples of self bailing dorys but it requires a permanent floor installed in the rowers compartment. For me it was easier to put in a electric bilge system.

This is basically the same system that i have been putting into whitewater canoes for some time. It starts off with the battery box. I am using a plastic ammo can but anything that will keep the battery clean and dry will do just fine. Additionally if it is going to be installed someplace that is difficult to get a charger to this is where you should put a pigtail.

Here is a photo of the deck layout the passenger foot well fills up extremely fast in heavy conditions. To solve this water needs to drain from that compartment into tho rowers compartment.

Here you can see the drain hose going from compartment to compartment.

Under the rowing compartment floor is the pump itself. You can see the outlet from the passenger compartment, limber holes, floor tie downs, and plumbing for the whole system.

The plumbing goes through the rowers compartment (sealed of course) and to the outlet under the starboard oar lock. Note the backer block to add strength to the outlet.

I haven't really decided where i want to battery box to live so for now its installed under the rowers seat.

The placement of on/off switch is important, it needs to be somewhere that is safe from the normal movement on the boat. I decided to put it close to the gunwale and oarlock on the starboard side.

Once the switch is in place and wired up the install is essentially done.

Rowers floor back in place, boat covered up, yet another piece of the spring camping puzzle ready to go.

For any more information just drop me a line.

Till next time, Cheers.

Universal backcountry climbing bars.

I'm trying to remember where i first saw a pair of these (possibly in college). There is a description of them in Allen & Mike’s Really Cool Telemark Tips, a book worth checking out even if your the best heal dropper on the planet.

O' back to the point. All tele bindings that i can think of come with some type of climbing bar, a little metal bar on the heal piece that helps when climbing steep slopes. The Hammerhead bindings on my skis were no different. I removed the bars years ago when one deployed while skiing causing a awkward and hilarious pile up somewhere deep in the trees. I still cant figure out how it happened but within five minutes of the crash the bars were gone and not coming back.

Now that i have been using these skis for post season corn i needed climbing bars. Like most home made equipment these are super easy to build and after trying them work better than any climbing bar i have used. The only drawback is that it adds another piece of gear.

The components are simple. Webbing, buckles, and some PVC pipe.

Why o' why do some pics not load in the correct orientation?

Using the climbing bars is simple, lean forward and put them under your feet, then snug the strap over your forefoot. To remove loosen the strap and slip them over your heal, re tighten the strap so the bars are held behind your boot. **when you build them be sure to give yourself enough strap to slide the bars over your heal without undoing the buckle.

Well that's it. Yet anther piece of simple DIY gear to help make the up as much fun as the down. 

Cheers.

Modem Box

Months ago (possibly a year) my uncle Ed proposed that i build some boxes to house routers and modems. Well with some time under my belt the idea finally percolated and i built a prototype.  

One of the problems with this project is deciding where to mount it, after figuring that out the rest was fairly simple.

The box itself is plywood with a magnetic Mountain Ash door.

If i get the chance to build another (possibly for you) I would like to add a internal outlet as well as a master on/off toggle.

As it is now the box uncluttered some space in our office and added a little bit of wall bling.

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Kicker Skins on the cheap.

Good Morning everyone out there in internet land. The snow here in Montana is hanging in there giving up some good spring conditions. Even though i'm digging out my boating stuff i am still working on and improving by back and side country skiing kit.

So for comparison here is what the commercially made kickers look like.

To build your own set you will need some things...

1) Sewing machine or speedy stitch. (I would not want to hand sew this project but i suppose you could.)
2) Climbing skin trimmings or old climbing skins. 4-6 ft worth.
3) 1 inch webbing 3ft.
4) 2 buckles
5) Marking and measuring stuff (ruler, pen)
6) Masking tape.

The construction is fairly simple.

First figure out how long you want the skins to be. Mine are 2 1/2 to 3 feet. Lay out the scraps so they are your desired length, this includes a 1 inch overlap at the joint between each scrap.

Next mark the direction of slide on each piece of scrap.

Cut your 3 ft of webbing in half and stitch your buckles to the webbing. Use a strong stitch pattern (bar tacking).

Sew the webbing to the front edge of the first skin scrap. If you are using skins that no longer have the protective paper over the sticky bottom place masking tape over the area to be sewn so that it will slide easily through the machine.

Sew the next scrap to the back of the first. Making sure that the joint between the two is overlapped properly and that the direction of travel is correct. (this is another place to use bar tacking, you don't want this to come unraveled far from a trail head.)

That's about it.

I had the chance yesterday to take them out for a test ski. I toured in warm spring conditions from hard pack, wind slab, semi fresh dusting, and mashed potatoes. I climbed some things that i would have considered to steep for this set up but they did it just fine. The glide was ok, not any better than my full length setup and at one third the weight.

This set up is not for all conditions but at $6 well worth adding to the kit.

Happy Climbing.

end of the season

Two quick little clips from the end of the season.

Light Art.

I don't remember where this idea came from.  Some evening alone this fall made me decide that i wanted to incorporate lighting into my art. So i thought about it, puttered on the web, then a week or so ago i began playing with LEDs.

After some basics i was able to put together the guts for micro stage lighting.

(i have attempted to rotate above image several times, it refuses. i don't speak computer, it stays wrong. In your mind please rotate 90deg counter clockwise.)

Digging back into last falls sketches i picked one that was simple to cut out, colorful, and something i could see in several layers.

After some fiddling i ended up with the image cut out, borders penned in, design penciled, and LED wired. I initially wanted to light the image with a spot style directly onto the leaf in the lower center. Next i tried using a ping pong ball as a defuser.

This produced a great background light. White tests done i went for the simple crayon color option.

Here is a background light in color.

Spot in color.

Well that's where i am with this. More to follow...