# Hillbilly engineering saves the day!



## Whitewater Worthy Equip (Dec 11, 2013)

Perhaps better to say someone with skills fixed a problem that saved a trip than adding your judgments. Where there is a will...


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## Pinchecharlie (Jul 27, 2017)

Beer drinking saves the day...?
Drunk montana boys make it work?
Two bears, ten cases of beer and the can do spirit...?
Guns, beer, boats and moxie...?
Dudes wanna my closet friends I love him like family. Sorry for the bad title. He does however call himself, "the fat country kid" so if he had a computer (has a flip phone lol) he'd laugh at this.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

Just out of curiosity, what was his methodology? What are the steps he took to craft this replacement ? I absolutely love ingenuity, ******* engineering by a fat country kid that consumes too much ETOH LOL

So, do tell..


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## Pinchecharlie (Jul 27, 2017)

Said he used a baked bean can for "melt can" squished a good oar lock in the sand and drank beer and melted cans lol! Baked beans must be in a sturdy can? Dunno lol. Love that he thinks "melt can" is a vocabulary word lol.


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## zbaird (Oct 11, 2003)

Smelting! Gotta love it. If anyone ever here needs to repeat this or cast anything else, you need a ton of beer or lacroix drinkers on the trip and you need to save every can. You also need to bring at least one heavy duty soup can that fits crushed beer cans in it. Put the soup can in a HOT fire and add a beer can. Get it melting and add another. It'll take a shitload of cans to make something like an oarlock. While you're waiting for a can to melt, make your mold in well packed sand. When you know you have more than enough, pour the aluminum in the mold. I just bring a spare oarlock as it only weighs as much as a beer or two and takes less space, but certainly is less fun.


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## Ripper (Aug 29, 2012)

We had a guy bust an oar lock on Gates last season, and luckily someone had a spare in the group... When I got home I instantly added this spare part to the repair kit! 

This is awesome though, and I think I may try it at the house so when the opportunity arises I can be MacGyver saving the day, only to pull out the spare factory part upon project completion and a decent buzz!!!

That is sweet!!!


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## jeffro (Oct 13, 2003)

Nice work work.



Whitewater Worthy Equip said:


> Perhaps better to say someone with skills fixed a problem that saved a trip than adding your judgments. Where there is a will...


Maybe drunk hillbilly is an accurate description and you're the one attaching your judgements


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## Wallrat (Jan 19, 2021)

Whitewater Worthy Equip said:


> Perhaps better to say someone with skills fixed a problem that saved a trip than adding your judgments. Where there is a will...


How curious you would suggest he withhold his judgements, while you’re adding yours.


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## Pinchecharlie (Jul 27, 2017)

Oh come on...he's awesome and old school...I just meant like old time get er done drink some beer melt aluminum and don't be scared make a oar lock keep going. Not I have a spare or two and a inreach blah blah...he said someone tipped him off on this post and he's calling his lawyers


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

When lawyers get involved, the only people that win are the lawyers lol


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## NoCo (Jul 21, 2009)

zbaird said:


> Smelting! Gotta love it. If anyone ever here needs to repeat this or cast anything else, you need a ton of beer or lacroix drinkers on the trip and you need to save every can. You also need to bring at least one heavy duty soup can that fits crushed beer cans in it. Put the soup can in a HOT fire and add a beer can. Get it melting and add another. It'll take a shitload of cans to make something like an oarlock. While you're waiting for a can to melt, make your mold in well packed sand. When you know you have more than enough, pour the aluminum in the mold. I just bring a spare oarlock as it only weighs as much as a beer or two and takes less space, but certainly is less fun.


I always have sloppy joe mix in a drybox waiting for a cooler disaster to mess up dinner. And with my friends, we could probably go into business selling cast aluminum oar locks by day 2.


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## zbaird (Oct 11, 2003)

You will not recoup beer money selling the locks, and you may get Parkinson's from huffing all the aluminum fumes, so there's that.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

NoCo said:


> I always have sloppy joe mix in a drybox waiting for a cooler disaster to mess up dinner. And with my friends, we could probably go into business selling cast aluminum oar locks by day 2.


This is not a problem if one rows with the superior pins and clips system..


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## jeffro (Oct 13, 2003)

zbaird said:


> You will not recoup beer money selling the locks, and you may get Parkinson's from huffing all the aluminum fumes, so there's that.


I'm not going to take my medical advice from the guy who huffs solvents professionally.


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## NightFloater (Oct 17, 2018)

MNichols said:


> This is not a problem if one rows with the superior pins and clips system..


With all due respect to the pins and clips folks, they are training wheels for dinosaurs...so there's that


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## zbaird (Oct 11, 2003)

Good call.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

NightFloater said:


> With all due respect to the pins and clips folks, they are training wheels for dinosaurs...so there's that


We weren't talking about oar rights ?!?!?!?


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## NightFloater (Oct 17, 2018)

MNichols said:


> We weren't talking about oar rights ?!?!?!?


Oar Wrongs are training wheels for new schoolers, just sayin


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## MeetOutside (Jul 29, 2010)

“No shit there I was, knee deep in empty beer cans and down one oar lock...”


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## Lipripper60 (Jul 1, 2018)

Fantabulous. Ingenious. i Loved the read and the photo. But I’m way too chicken to float without a spare lock in my kit.


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## mttodd (Jan 29, 2009)

That’s pretty awesome. Cudos.


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## NoCo (Jul 21, 2009)

MNichols said:


> We weren't talking about oar rights ?!?!?!?


Its amazing how many people viciously defend their antiquated oar locks and dismiss pins and clips. Its not worth arguing. I just think of them as cannon fodder.


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## Hoomalimali (Aug 19, 2021)

Pinchecharlie said:


> So my buddy John the hillbilly was on a smith trip last week (somehow he goes twice a year) and his buddy broke an oar lock. Well John is a great guy but drinks alot. So he decides he'll cast him a new
> View attachment 66049
> View attachment 66048
> one but he'd have to drink alot of the guys beer to get enough aluminum for the job. They only had a day left so he wasn't to worried and we all know that's an easy stretch lol. Anyways John don't do the internet or like hippies but he likes proving to me that ,"you don't need all that fancy stuff!" He sent me these photos lol! Now I don't personally approve of drinking to much alcohol or shooting bears on the smith (yes they are in season and the fwp actually asked them to ) but this made me laugh and it got his buddy off the river and John got to drink all his beer. So funny! Love that guy!!


Hillbilly engineering often saves the day!


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## Village Lightsmith (Jul 14, 2021)

I doff my crown to this man! You, Sir, are the King of the Can-Do Shi-riggers!


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