SWMBO bought me a beautiful little gimballed lantern for my birthday. It was a total surprise. I mean, I pointed it out to her, negotiated a better price with the sales dude, watched as they wrapped it and packaged it for us, and put it in the car, but I was really surprised when I got the lantern for my birthday.Anyway, last night I decided to put it on the boat so that at least one thing would come off the "to do" list.
I discovered that Lowes of all places stocks brass machine screws. This was huge since the chandleries want an arm and a leg for them. At Lowes its $0.68 for four! Wowzas! I bought 8, with the attendant nuts, washers, acorn nuts, and so on. Then I positioned the lantern on the wall, lined up the holes and went to work making holes in the boat.
Six holes in the bulkhead later, I was committed to the project. Just put the screws through the mounting holes in the lantern, and - What the??!!?? The holes in the mounting plate are all different sizes! Well, brass is a soft metal. With drill in hand, I re-drilled the holes. Now things should go better.
Just put the screws through the holes, and - Dammit! The screws are all way too long, they'll catch on whatever we hang in the hanging locker! And the holes in the smoke shield aren't countersunk!
Tonight its back to Lowes to get 6 more screws. 3 short oval headed machine screws, and 3 short pan headed machine screws. Why is nothing simple!!
Anyway, here is how the lantern looks with its temporary mount:
Pretty! And useful :)
ReplyDeleteJ