| Circe
| Thursday, December 17, 2009 The forward hatch frame was cured, so I clamped it in place on the deck above the hatch opening so I could scribe the deck shape onto the ends of the wooden frame. With the marks made, I shaped the bottom edge of the frame accordingly with saw, planer, and sander, after which it was a close fit to the camber of the deck on each end. |
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With the frame shaped, I laid out the radiused corners and cut the curves, then eased the top edges of the frame and sanded the entire thing smooth. To reinforce the corners, as well as fill in a large gap left between the radiused edge of the hatch spigot and the square inside corners of the frame, I glued in some small angled blocks and set the frame aside for the moment. |
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Continuing in the woodwork vein, I turned to the coamings: time to shape and sand. The rough, angular coaming return blocks required shaping to create pleasing curves and to even them off with the shape of the coaming, so I began with that. After sanding the top and bottom edges flush with the coaming, I laid out the curved shape on the top and bottom, roughed it out by removing material with a power planer, then sanded the new contour smooth. With the return blocks complete, I milled rounded edges on the top of the coaming, as well as the inside lower edge, and then spent quite a bit of time sanding the coamings smooth and suitable for varnishing, working through the grits on two separate sanding tools. |
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After cleaning up the coamings, I applied the sealer coat of varnish to both sides. |
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I also applied the 5th coat of varnish to the sea hood, and third coat to the companionway runner supports. |
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After sanding smooth the fiberglass I installed on the icebox countertop foam, I cut and installed small cleats inside the hatch opening to support the eventual icebox lid, and then test-fit the countertop in the boat. I found that the foam was too wide on one side--the after side--so I made some marks from inside the icebox so that I could cut away the excess foam width in that area, a task that I'd continue tomorrow, when I planned to finalize the countertop installation. |
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