Quick project to mount some oars on a wall for decoration. It looks like the ‘normal’ way of doing this involves leather straps, brackets, spacers, etc. It gets messy relatively quickly and seemed like a lot to align/mount on the wall.I also wanted to leave the oars unmodified, so to avoid all these problems I made a custom steel mount. I first made a mock-up in CAD.
Next I found some steel tubing on the scrap pile that was the right size, cut it to length, and then cut a slot and welded on some tabs for a pinch bolt. The plan was to slide the tube over the handle side of the oar to the middle then tighten the bolt to clamp the oar in place. This didn’t work, because even though it’s not readily visible, the oars have a ~1/4″ taper from the handle end to the center. I had measured the center when sizing the tube, so it wouldn’t fit over the handle. I didn’t want the tube any bigger because it would look odd/oversized in place, so I began making a hinge that would allow the tube to flip open for installation. This effort failed, the tiny bit wandered in the long rod; hinge alignment wasn’t going to work. I then realized that the pinch bolt alone was strong enough to hold the tube halves together and abandoned the hinge idea – if it did need the strength, a bolt on either side would be much simpler.
I then made a mounting plate and drilled a hole in its center and the center of 3 of the 4 tube halves. This hole allowed everything to be bolted together temporarily and aligned prior to welding. It was then welded together, cleaned, and tested. The base was lag bolted into a stud.
All that’s left is to take it down and finish the mount – I will likely use a metal black solution and oil for a natural metal look. The inside of the tube shells will also get a layer of felt to hold the oars securely (The tube size left just enough gap to account for this)
