| Bolero
Project |
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 With the interior construction now well underway, it was time to think ahead to the time when I'd be ready to install the coachroof. To that end, I spent part of the morning preparing a laminating jig for the cabin beams that would eventually support the coachroof, and milling strips of mahogany for the laminated beams. I covered a long, narrow scrap of MDF
with plastic and traced the shape of my cabin beam mold onto the
plastic. Then, I installed a series of wooden blocks, also
protected with plastic, to allow me to clamp the mahogany strips into
place against the desired curvature. To allow for potential
springback, I slightly overcurved the mold so that the ends were about
1/4" beyond the actual shape; past experience indicated that it was
unlikely the finished beams would spring back much at all, but the
slight extra curvature would provide a bit of insurance that the beams
were not less curved than intended. |
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I milled a series of mahogany strips 1/4" thick and 1-1/8" wide, five strips for each of four planned beams. Then, with the clamping mold complete and all the strips ready to go, I cleaned up the mold and the first five strips, applied epoxy adhesive to the strips, and clamped them into position in the mold, using a hammer and block of wood to ensure that the edges remained even after clamping. I left this to cure the rest of the day and overnight; each day, I'd glue up one beam, so by the end of the week I'd have all my beams laminated up and ready for installation whenever I was ready for them. |
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Back on the boat, I washed and sanded the new fiberglass from last Friday, and then cleaned up the resulting dust. I had a few tasks remaining in the interior, including boxing in the chainplate knees to hide them (while still allowing access for inspection and maintenance in the future), and installing a wooden hull ceiling. Since the chainplate box needed to be in place before I could install all the ceiling support stringers on the hull, I started on that first. Before doing that, however, I decided to drill the bolt holes for the chainplates, since it'd be impossible to get a drill into the space once I'd boxed it in. So, with a drill and jigsaw, I re-opened the chainplate slots, which I'd glassed over from underneath during the knee installation, and then drilled all the mounting holes for the four chainplates. As planned, I held the pin center 1" above deck level to accommodate the deck cover plates. |
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For the chainplate boxes, I began with some basic layout. Considering the lengths of the chainplate bolts needed, and allowing adequate space for wrenches and reasonable access, I marked a line 4" away from the chainplate knees on each side. Then, I cut some 3" wide mahogany into 14" lengths and scribed each of four pieces--two for each side of the boat--to match the hull profile in their respective locations. These pieces would be the mounting cleats for the actual box itself. After cutting along the scribe lines and checking the fit, I secured the cleats in place with epoxy adhesive, with a couple dabs of hot melt glue on each piece to hold them in position while the epoxy cured. I left these alone for now while the epoxy set up. |
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With nothing more to do on the chainplates right now, I turned my attention to the ceiling support stringers. I milled an appropriate number of 3/4" wide by 1/4" thick mahogany strips, each roughly 36" long, which I planned to secure to the hull as receptacles for the screws that would hold the ceiling strips in place later. My thought was to secure the strips--two thicknesses in most areas (for 1/2" total thickness)--to the hull with hot glue to start, and then permanently secure them with epoxy and fiberglass. With some fixed obstructions in place, namely the chainplate box, I laid out the basic spacing for the support stringers, keeping final aesthetics in mind since it was likely that I'd use exposed round-head screws to secure the strips later, and installed several of the pieces before time ran out at the end of the day. I had more work ahead on the ceiling for tomorrow. |
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