My Stiff Strongback.

My New Boat. By, Captain F. Michael O'Lary (Captain Fuzzy) no! really!

There seems to be a glitch in my mental software. For some reason it seems I am unable to keep straight in my mind whether this thing is called a Strongback or a Stiffback.So from here on out, no matter what I call this gizmo, you'll know that I'm talking about the thing in the pictures on this page. OK? The assembly was pretty straight forward once I figured the secret out. I'll share that with you, so that you don't have to do as much work. But first a little background is necessary. Michael loaned me some literature that described in detail how to build this thing. It was several pages long. The measuring and and aligning, and the remeasuring and realigning. The leveling and squaring, the line drawing, the width of the saw blade, the less than dimensional lumber, oh, and don't for get the crooked boards that have to be taken into account! Frankly, I found that all a pain in the rear. So I sat down and thought about it a while. Actually, quite a while. Then it came to me like a bolt out of the blue. The next day I couldn't wait to get started. What I figured out was that I could just build the darned box, then draw a bunch of straight lines on it. Yes, I'm just kidding. It really is not that hard to build, as long as you remember the intended outcome. The box needs to be the right length and flat along it's full length and width. But other than that you can use your imagination. I went to the hardware store and bought two sheets of finished on one side 3/4" plywood just like the instructions said. I got my saw and square, I got my string and my screws, I charged up the screwguns (Suzanne and I each have our own. I'm a Makita Man, she's a DeWalt Doll) and set to work. The pictures on this page obviously show the result of our labor. Yes guys, she helped - I'm really lucky to have a woman that loves to build stuff. Heck, she even runs the saw and sweeps the floor afterwards! I hope each and every one of you are eating your hearts out. The biggest reason you don't need to go crazy building THE flattest squarest stiffstrongback that has ever been built is because of these really really cool feet. Do you see they way they are made? that little piece in the middle of the foot is sandwiched between the two outer pieces, but it is not screwed to the outer pieces until the whole table is leveled and squared using shims or wedges. Tap that little piece down tight to the floor and screw it together. You can pull out the shims and as long as you don't move the table it will stay level. That my readers is way cool. I just wish I had thought of it first, but it came from one of those books I mentioned earlier. Where things start getting specific is when you screw down these mold mounting blocks to the strongstiffback thing. This is what makes all your molds square to the planet so be careful here. If the top of your box is flat and the block of wood is square making these things stick up at a right angle is a piece of cake. Once you get all the blocks screwed down every twelve inches you have what is perhaps the flattest squarest ladder ever made. Aren't you proud? As you can see, it is about time to start mounting the molds. This is getting exciting!

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