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You might be right Mike...
But the three "chicks" that matter most to me are the admiral and my two grown daughters who are all OK with the curtain as long as there is a mechanical means of keeping it closed when in use. And the admiral has a custom window treatment business and already knows how she plans to make it. So I guess I'm lucky this time.
I spent some time today making templates for the new bulkheads. So far they are just partial templates, I need to do some demo tomorrow to make the bottom part but tonight I want to start bandsawing the strong back. Here is a picture with the partial templates in place with the template for the strong back. I tried in the second picture to stitch two pictures together to get a more complete view of the whole area but it only "kind" of worked.
The layout did not work out quite like I thought it would. I tried to make the upper portion of the bulkhead slant parallel to the cabin side. And I wanted 10" of support under each side of the strong back. What you see is the result of those efforts.
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What a difference an inch makes...
I just was not happy with the look of the bulk heads yesterday so today I took another inch off both sides and I'm much happier with the look of the layout. See for yourself below.
My biggest concern is that now I have 2 more inches of unsupported distance between the bulkheads. The total distance unsupported is 35-3/4". I know the beam will be stronger when glassed to the deck tying it all together but I still feel the need to find some way to test the strength of the beam. I would like to see it capable of handling 2500 lbs. Do any of you have any suggestions?
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Well things never progress as fast as I want them to....
But progress is being made.
My plan is to paint the bulkhead plywood white and have the support beam and support timbers under it along with the mahogany trim on the edge of the bulkhead ( not installed yet...I'm waiting for glue to show up to do the laminate) accenting it. I'm fighting my tendancy for lots of natural wood because I don't want the cabin to be a dark hole when I go down there.
Aft of these bulkheads will be two cabinets. On the starboard side will be the sink cabinet. On the port side will be the stove cabinet. There will be a fold up counter top that will span between them to use when cooking. And the cover for the stove will fold back to create either more counter space or a chart table which will be supported by a drawer that I will pull out.
I worked out the location and support structure for the foot pump that will supply water to the sink. I also have the base almost completed for the thru-hull for the sink drain. I will show that progress later.
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I was anxious to get a feel for the sink cabinet...
So I spent some time this week after work roughing out the parts I needed for that. This gives me a better feel for where it will end up.
I carried the aft side of the cabinet all the way up and it will also serve as the anchoring point for the aft lower shroud chain plate.
But alas I need to fall back and do more glass work before I can go much further on this part. I just don't enjoy doing the glass work as much as the woodworking so I tend to put it off until I need to deal with it.
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A wee bit more work has been done
I've had lots of things pulling me away from working on the boat recently but I have managed to get a bit more done.
First I tabbed in the top half of the main bulkheads on the aft side. Now I need to fair it out and then I can paint the bulkhead itself. This will allow me to install my sink cabinet and the mahogany trim on the edge of the bulkhead.
I glued up two layers of 3/4" MDF and layed out my glueing jig for the first piece of trim that will go on the edge of the main bulkheads. And last night glued it up and then this morning I popped it out of the jig. Now I need to clean it up, size it to the final size and then I can do the radius on the edges and the dado in the back that will allow the bulkhead to recess into it. The strips of mahogany had to be only 1/16" thick in order to take the bend without breaking.
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Working on the sink cabinet
I've been working some on the sink cabinet in my shop. I had bought some 1/4" thick corian from a cabinet guy that had a back yard full of scraps to use for my woodworking jigs. But I had enough of the grey stuff that I could use it for the counter tops in the boat. I don't have the fiddles attached in this mock up but you can get an idea of how the cabinet will look.
Seems like reasonable prices....
Well, I decided to go with the Meranti BS1088 for my new rudder. And since I used up all of the marine 1/2" plywood I currently have for the sink cabinet and putting the v-birth back together again I figured I would find some BS1088 Meranti to use for the stove cabinet and the rudder. I found World Panel Products, Inc. in Riviera Beach, Florida 33404.
Tell me do these prices seem reasonable to you guys?
12MM 4 x 8 sheet Meranti BS1088 cost is $89.10 per sheet.
1/4" teak and holly plywood cabin floor unfinished 4 x 8 sheet = $175.5
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Well I have not posted updates much lately but I have been busy....
I built back in the v-birth that had to be cut back to install the new bulkheads. Then I installed the new thru hull and seacock for the sink drain and plumbed in the sink. The first picture shows the sink plumbed in to the new thru hull.
Then I designed and built in my stove cabinet. I'm trying to make everything do at least double duty and this cabinet I think met my goals. My goal was to not loose counter space when using the stove, to make the stove safe and convenient to use, to have a place to store cookware and last but not least a place for my chart books.
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A peek at what Destiny's DC fuse panel will look like...
I took the time (when I really should have been doing other things) to work on Destiny's electric panel area this weekend. I have always disliked how boat builders put the smallest fuse panel in that they can get away with on boats. Today we have a lot more electronics than we used to in addition to the normal stuff like lights and power outlets. In addition I like dedicated breakers for each electrical item. With this setup I should be able to have dedicated breakers for everything and and 3 or 4 left over for spares.
The panel is hinged to allow easy access. To the left of the panel is where a 110VAC outlet will be available for use when at the dock in plugged into shore power.
The two frames I made for the panel I made as mortise and tennon frames as you can see in the first picture.
The second picture is a mock up of how it will look later.
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What a differance a 1/32" makes
For my DC panel sides I had cut some scrap pieces of meranti 12MM plywood to enclose it with. I used the same for the enclosure for the 110VAC outlet. I did not want to paint these sides white but they just didn't look good with the Phillipine mahogany finished with varnish. Then I remembered I had bought a small packet of quartered mahogany veneer at a wood working show a couple of years ago and never used it. So I veneered the faces of the sides that will show and you can judge for yourselves if it was worth the 1/2 hour it took me to do it. The small piece at the top is meranti with varnish on it and the other two are the ones I veneered.
The second picture is the latest batch of parts getting finished.
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Oh boy wrong again unfortunately...
I have a moisture meter for wood. The way the meter works is you input the specific gravity for a species of wood and then when you lay the meter on the wood it will tell you the moisture content of the wood.
So today after doing some fillets down below I decided to start tackling the deck issue. I looked up the specific gravity level of balsa and it was .17. My meter only goes down to .30 so I set it at the lowest setting and thought I would give it a try anyway on the deck. Well the meter read 20% moisture everywhere I placed it on Destiny's starboard deck near the cockpit so I though it would not work correctly on balsa.
Then I started drilling holes in the deck and as soon as I would reach the bottom of the top skin with the drill bit it would fall through and bounce of the bottom skin. Oh NO!!!! Well I started cutting it open and here is what I found.
Let the games begin. :(
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Thermometer says it's 92 degrees out there and I'm burning up so
I guess I'll take a break for a few hours and let it cool back down some before I grind the edges of the cutout down to a bevel. I got the first section this far and found some not so rotten balsa. So I'll do this section complete and move onto the next section. I get in and out of the boat here so I want this area solid again as soon as possible.