Back to Bed

Another day mostly spent working with Richard on the construction of our cross-over double bed.  The sides have now been battened out and the base cut from a sheet of ¾” plywood.  Richard and I then scribed the front of the bed from a length of ply.  This was then levelled and the edges routered so they will join to the quarter moulding.

The entire front edge will be made from the one piece of plywood.  Richard is doing this to ensure the grain on the face of the drawers that will go under the bed actually match the grain of the timber across the face of the bed.  It’s little details like this that remind me he is a craftsman rather than a tradesman.

Whilst he went back to the workshop to cut out the drawer openings and trim the holes in solid oak I carried on with another task given to me by Andy.

He wanted me to cut the hole in the ceiling and roof for the Lockgate Refleks stove.  The first thing to do was move the stove to the boat and position it centrally on the hearth.  Andy then marked the centre of the hole on the ceiling.  The hole inside the boat was to be 6” diameter and the hole through the steel roof to be 4”.  The reason for the larger hole in the ceiling is to ensure there is no combustable material (eg, timber) near the stainless steel flue. 

My planned technique was to drill a small pilot hole from inside the boat and then use a circular 4” hole saw to cut a hole through the roof from the outside.  This would enable me to check if there were any electrical wires between the spray foam and the ceiling lining.  Unfortunately none of the 4” saw blades was sufficiently sharp to cut a hole.  It would need to be cut with a jigsaw and steel blade.  Consequentially I had to cut the 6” inside hole first.  “Murphy’s Law”….. There was a wire behind the ceiling lining and I shredded it with the saw!!!  After cleaning the 6” diameter hole of spray foam I drilled a larger hole in the roof and used a jigsaw to cut out the circular hole.

Can you see the shredded cable in the photo?  I now have to somehow replace it! <grrrr>

Andy doesn’t want any self-tapping screws in the shell as he believes they work loose.  The top of the flue is secured to the roof with five 8mm stainless steel machine screws.

My technique was to position the flue and mark the first hole.  This was then drilled with three HSS bits to create a 7mm hole.  I then threaded the hole with an 8mm Tap. Each hole was individually drilled and tapped in sequence to ensure I had all the holes in the right location.

Finally, I applied a layer of “Sticks like Sh*t” adhesive to the underside of the flue and screwed it securely to the roof.  All the surplus adhesive was then removed with white spirits.

Meanwhile Andy had run the last of the gas line into the gas locker via the fitting I had drilled and fitted the previous week.

Back to bed making…….  I suppose you will want a photo of my hospital corners