[Bob La Londe]

NOT!!!


I spent all day yesterday designing and cutting an encoder cover out of aluminum for my big mill. I had already tried vacuum forming one out of Polystyrene, and that was way to brittle. Then I tried .02 PETG which was a little flimsy, and finally .060 PETG. It worked, and would have fit nicely, but it looked like crap due to poor technique on my part. I gave up and cut an aluminum cover on one of the little machines instead.

After wasting most of the day I decided I NEEDED to go fishing so I spooled up a couple spinning rods with fresh line, grabbed a small box of club-os, and headed for the canal bank. By the time I got to my first spot the sun was already touching the horizon so I knew I didn't have much time. I picked a psot that had two or three key features and started fishing. The first couple features didn't do much, but then I got on some violent strikes. I had smallies tearing the tails off baits so fast I couldn't even drop the rod to let them take it. I finally landed one little small mouth around a pound and I started to get a feel for it. I retied, put on a fresh Club-O and tossed it to a hole I could see next to some floating cover. With the line still slack I saw a huge smallmouth come up and flash me a broadside is she dove with my Club-O. I cranked down and set the hook. For just a moment I felt the rush of knowing I connected... as the knot parted.

I retied, stuck on another Club-O, and hit that spot another dozen times. I had several small tailbiters, but that big smallie never came back to play again. I did catch a couple small largemouth after just ripping and deadsticking. I had several violent strikes when waking the Club-O back to the surface too. I also had two slashes at a popper just before it started to get really dark. I might have had more, but i was getting so many strikes on the Club-O that I didn't even think about trying a popper until it was almost time to go.

When I got back from fishing I cut the top part of the cover, but I was to tired to finish it. I'll do the manual drilling and tapping sometime today. I needed a minimum of 1.5" thick, and the thickest aluminum I had was 1" so I made it in two pieces.