A friend of mine, an old diver buddy, and one of the few people I can hang out with and do a little light drinking and have a good time, decided to get a new boat motor. He didn’t trade in his old motor, a 2012 Mercury, 4 stroke, 60hp. Well, he wound up making me an offer I couldn’t refuse. The boat motor is hanging from a hoist, dangling from a swingset I built years ago, which was built heavy duty enough to double as a motor puller.

Well, I can’t leave it there forever, and as I already have a 90 hp 2 stroke Mercury, sitting on the outboard stand I built a while back, I decided to build another stand, this time a quick, easy build, from plans on the net using 2×4’s and a 2×6″. So I drove my happy ass to the lumber shed in town and told the owner I wanted three 2×4″ and one 2×6″. He tallied it up and it came to $42 and change. I was incredulous! I asked him, did he get that right? Three 2×4″ and one 2×6″? He looked it over and told me yes, that was correct. I said… no. I’m not paying $42 and change, for 4 planks that not that long ago I could have bought for a twenty, and have enough left over for a Coke. So I got back in my truck and went home, not just a little miffed.

Well I did some inventory in the shop and I have some 1″ square tube steel, but nowhere near enough to build the stand from metal as I did the first one. So I drove to our closest metal supply/scrap yard and inquired how much would it cost me for three 8′ pieces of medium grade thickness, 1″ square tube steel. It came to $42.

So you can buy freaking steel for the same price as lumber right now apparently.

As I always do when I’m at the scrap yard, I poked around in the scrap and bought some pieces of flat steel and diamond plate, the kind of stuff that comes in handy when you have a welder and are prone to using it periodically. It all came to $51.

My new outboard stand is 90% done, I still have one piece to weld in, and I have the scrap piece of 2×6″ I found while digging in the shop, drilled and drying with its first coat of polyurethane. I typically use a product, it is a spray on bedliner in a rattle can, to protect my steel creations (Dupli-Color brand), but my local Auto Zone no longer carries it apparently, so I had to order 2 cans from Amazon. It’s always something.

Anyway, consider this fair warning. If you are planning a project that will be using lumber, and it’s that time of the year here in the states, be sitting down when you hear how much it will cost you!

Oh, I went back to the lumber shed to buy the hardware to complete the outboard stand, it cost me right around $10, for four 1/4-20 bolts, 3.5″ long, with washers and nylock nuts. And two 1/2″ bolts, 5″ long, with washers and nylock nuts.

If you happen to have a good supply of lumber, and a good supply of hardware right now, you might want to consider leaving it to the kids in the will! Things are getting to where stuff like that is heirloom material.

Just in case you are wondering, you know how some things just seem to be attracted to certain people? That’s my problem with boats and outboards… and guitars. Somehow they find me.