April 2, 2021

Lively Heels Phase 3-39

Friday

In a short workday, I completed small jobs and next steps for several of the ongoing projects to help advance things through the weekend and bring these various loose ends closer to final readiness.

I started with the cherry woodbox, which I lightly sanded then applied a second coat of gloss base varnish to continue the buildup.

In the head, before I forgot, I cut off the excess bolt length from the through bolts securing the woodstove and heat shield to the bulkhead.

Now that the paint I’d applied to the smoke pipe trim ring had had a few days to cure, I decided to install it and thus be ready for final chimney installation sooner than later.  I planned to epoxy the trim ring to the deck, which would ensure a watertight interface and give the stainless steel vent cap a solid mounting base.  To prepare the deck itself, I used a multitool to remove the nonskid paint and primers beneath, exposing the original gelcoat which would be a fine substrate for epoxy bonding.  I stayed just within the masking tape perimeter with the sanding to avoid damaging the tape or the exposed deck.

After masking over the trim ring to protect the paint, I installed it in a bed of thick epoxy adhesive, applying an abundant quantity to ensure that I could press the trim ring tightly into the adhesive all around while keeping it level across the top.  Afterwards, I cleaned up the excess epoxy and removed the masking tape, leaving behind clean surfaces.

Earlier, during the installation of the heat shielding in the cabin, I’d removed a strip of overhead trim at the bulkhead to make room for the vertical heat shield and a circular interior trim ring that would cover and ventilate the opening through the deck.  To leave room for this trim ring, I’d marked and cut the wooden overhead trim to accommodate the shape of the trim ring, and now I reinstalled the modified trim.  The stainless steel trim ring is only tacked in place with masking tape here for illustrative purposes; in the final install it was to be secured with screws overhead.

To round out the catch-up work for the day, I applied a second coat of paint to the inside of the new deck boxes and lids.

Total time billed on this job today:  1.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  Mostly cloudy, 23°.    Forecast for the day:   Becoming sunny, 43°