Saturday 11 August 2012

Where did the day go?

Richard spent most of the morning trimming the face to the locker that will be installed above our bed.  I didn’t take a photo of it because my plan is to show it with the locker doors hinged and the face assembled.  We then started on the “tube” lining for the porthole.  The easy way would have been to create the half circle face on the front of the locker and build a rectangular box behind. 
Richard wanted to take the more difficult path and make a “half tube” lining that extends from behind the face of the locker to the porthole liner.  The liner was made from three layers of flexible plywood.  However the first job was to make a mould the shape of the tube.
The three layers of flexible plywood were then bent over the mould with a layer of glue between each.  Once we had them all in place the plywood was strapped to the mould.
After the glue had set the straps and mould were removed to reveal our “tube”.
Now things started to get rather complex.  The front of the locker is vertical so cutting the front edge off the tube wasn’t too complex.  However the rear edge is a two dimensional curve.  The Tumblehome on the wall means the wall “leans in” towards the centreline.  Additionally the sides of the boat curve inwards towards the bow.  After a considerable amount of thinking, measuring, cutting, re-cutting, re-measuring and re-cutting the tube now fits inside the skeleton of the locker.  The last task for the day was to use contact adhesive and apply a layer of oak veneer to the inner and outer surfaces.
Meanwhile Andy had been busy installing the bow thruster. 
The isolation switch, fuses and sealed batteries are now installed and wired.  All that is outstanding is the wiring of the control cable.  I’ll probably look at making a shelf from Hexi-panel to go above the batteries.  This will provide further protection for the batteries and the terminal connections.  It will also provide a relatively long storage compartment.  Perhaps the folding chairs will fit in  it (or Jan’s shopping trolley).

No comments :