CHAPTER 7 - Judi Gets Involved
With no Steve available, I prevailed on Judi to assist. We did the first side with her bucking and me riveting. Judi quickly discovered that she did not have the necessary strength to hold the bucking bar in place while in a strange pose and unable to see where her hand was. As a result, the bar slipped a few times and I have a couple of dings on that side of the fin.
On the other side, I handed her the gun and took the bar. What a difference! I can attest that bucking in this manner is difficult, but I seem able to ignore my discomfort enough to keep the bar steady. Judi came up with the idea of taping some cloth at the corner of the skin (visible in the photo) to keep me from stabbing myself.
The other surprise is that Judi is a crack riveter. She seems less heavy-handed than I am, and is better able to keep the gun from walking. In any case, we managed to do a whole side with no errors and Judi was justifiably proud. Now she really feels involved in the project. And I discovered that switching roles can really pay off. Sure, we always assume that we will do the riveting and the spouse will do the bucking, but this turnabout has worked well in my favor, both in quality of product and in spousal relations.
By the way, I should not have been surprised. Judi had graduated from the
Well, we got all the riveting done, so now we could look forward to Spring and the absence of the jig that has been such a major presence in our living room for so long.