Everyone is an ocean inside. Every individual walking the street. Everyone is a universe of thoughts, and insights, and feelings. But every person is crippled in his or her own way by our inability to truly present ourselves to the world.
Khaled Hosseini

I actually started the fabrication of this mount on July 15. That story is originally written on another blog of mine. I plan to move that story here today. I have time, today I took a big fall in my messy shop carrying an arm load of tools.

JULY 15:

I started the process. I actually started to work on the Starlink mount. I lasted 20 minutes, then my back gave out. So I will rest yet again and get back to it.

I was doing good till I looked at my grinder. I didn’t put it away the last time I used it, back way back when I needed the right attachment for cutting wheels. I got worried, it might be in a safe place. Safe from me. The days of a highly organized shop left the same time as my memory.

No dignity in getting older. I just heard a noise downstairs, I gotta check it out.

I found the things I needed to find. I didn’t stop to rest. I actually cut two bars for the mount, there was a lot of measuring before the fabbing.

Did I mention that I went out to the Starlink dishy to make a pattern? Braving mosquitoes in my flamed shorts and sleeveless shirt. Did I also mention that my back was in so much pain, it was begging me to stop?

For those of you that didn’t know, in 2014, I was in a bad car accident that left me with one dead dog. That little 40-pound beagle broke my neck and back as he was ejected out the side window. I am glad he didn’t suffer.

Porthos. Yes that Was Captain Archer’s dog’s name in Enterprise

I did what I was trained to do in the Military. I climbed out of my burning jeep with my cell phone and took charge. Although I did that while laying on the ice and snow.  My neck and back were broken, and I had to lie down, but I could still dial 911 And give the others some direction, people freeze up at accidents and don’t really know what to do. I have been trained for emergencies, Go Navy.

I just needed to cut two more mounts, just two more. One more, I had a piece of scrap left from the first piece. It was perfect. I only needed one 4-foot piece of box tubing.

I needed to spray paint 3 sides now, one later. The color of the day was white because I had white. I was a little concerned. That paint had wintered in a very cold shop. I had no idea if it would even dry after that. I guess we will see.

What was next? A lot of heavy-duty hole drilling. I was also making a new solar panel mount on the same bracket. I needed to drill holes in all the box tubing, and worse, I needed to drill 4 holes for u bolts in the thick metal bracket.

That had to be done before assembly since the u bolts would be under the Starlink mount.

I would need to fire up the drill press. To get to that, I needed to clear a path. Cats had gotten in there and knocked over dirt and stuff all over. My whole shop was a mess.

I just didn’t have the cycles needed to get it all done. Gone are the days I could work 12 hours a day on anything.

The good news, the paint seems to be drying.

Day Two Fabrication July 22

I managed to drill most of the holes with hand tools. They weren’t perfect, but it got done.

U bolts mounted for the future Solar panel mount. Bolts get tightened on final assembly, in case you were wondering.

While I was collecting more tools for this job, I tripped and took a bad fall. My fault, my shop is messy and needs a good clean-up. It never used to be like that.

Miracles do happen, somehow I managed to not get hurt badly. It was a very hard fall. I hit my jaw on the table saw cabinet, scraped my legs on some rusty angle iron, cut my hand and tweaked my back. No broken bones, no fractures, a little blood, and a few scrapes. There was a loud yahoooo later when I poured peroxide on the scrape.

I will be sore later. I kept working and felt that I got something accomplished. I went out to the Starlink and retrieved the mount. I got it in position to mark the final holes. One leg was short by a half inch. I could fix that by redrilling and moving that leg further out.

I was sure I measured everything correctly. I thought I did. Looking at the pictures. One leg was too long, one was too short. Did I have the legs on one side reversed? I was using existing holes in the mount meant for a BUD, they may not have been evenly drilled. See the picture for an explanation.

I might not finish today. I was starting to feel a little pain. I returned the Mount to the Starlink and came back inside. I went up and had breakfast. It was nearly 1 PM, it was time. Besides, I needed a tall Ice cold brew coffee with Oatmilk. I know that sounds a little froo froo, but it tastes really fawking good. Oops did I almost swear, my bad. That reminded me of a Bruce Campbell commercial, for him Old Spice, for me coffee.

so close

Looking at the pictures, it occurred to me that one leg was too short and one was too long. Could it be as simple as switching the two?

Done

This is the pole where the Starlink dish would sit. It was meant for a BUD (big ugly dish, that used to supply internet)

Unless we get seven feet of snow, it’s good.

I just slipped the EMT in the ubolts. Not tightened.

So why did I need to mount this on a pole? The dish has a snow melter function. It melts snow that turns to long icicles and can freeze the dish solid, not allowing it to move. This will mean fewer trips outside in the cold to remove those. Besides, I also needed a better way to mount my Solar panels. Yes, I know some ice will get on the solar panels, but with 4 hours of sunlight a day in Winter, it is really not an issue.  I haven’t finished the details for that yet. I mean besides the u bolts and the EMT that I have already purchased. EMT is a metal electrical conduit.

Update:

So exciting, I got to watch my Starlink search for a satellite from my bedroom window.

Yes, I did go back to work earlier. Switching the legs worked. I drilled the last few holes that needed drilling. Put bolts through, tightened everything down, and moved the pole to a better spot. Put the new mount up on the pole, and put the Dishy in the mount. Tightened 3 of the pole mounting bolts. I lost a nut in the tall grass.

I forgot to take a picture, I will do that tomorrow. I still need to tie down the cable.

I still need to find a way to secure it all from the wind. I have a few ideas but nothing solid yet. My mind works on these problems in the background, then suddenly I get an answer.

My next big problem? Figuring out how I am going to get my ass off the floor. I think I am sitting on a roll of wire. I am still sitting by the window watching my handiwork. The truth is, I just wanted to see the dish move again.

On the great news front. My 24V 100AH REDODO Lifepo4 battery is fully charged.  That took 3 days of charging with Gen. All I had to do now, is haul it back upstairs. Not today. I hurt.

It didn’t matter, my Bluetti blew through the tiny 200 wh in a few hours. I had to drag up the big battery and hook it up.

The second song is a lie, time is not on my side. That starts at about 3:15