Circe | Friday, October 9, 2009

With all the settee tabbing now complete, I took the opportunity to water-wash and lightly sand it all to remove rough edges and otherwise prepare the new material for eventual paint.  I sanded all areas by machine and by hand as needed, and upon completion cleaned up the resulting mess.

    
         



Next, I installed all the support cleats on the starboard side, which cleats I'd cut last yesterday afternoon.  I installed the cleats with glue and bronze screws, lining all edges of the plywood substructure.

    

The new tabbing on the starboard aft bulkhead changed the way the aft section of the settee top, which I'd cut previously, fit thanks to the thickness of the tabbing, so I made the necessary adjustments to get the piece to fit properly.  I made some reference marks at the forward end of the section for use while I laid out the large remaining section of the starboard settee, and then made additional reference marks so that I could lay out and cut an access hatch in the aft section, which I did next.
    
    

         

With the two existing settee sections down on the bench, I cut and installed with glue and screws the mahogany support cleats for the opening hatches.  I lined the openings, leaving 3/4" of the cleat exposed in the opening for the hatch to rest upon, and when the installation was complete I routed a chamfer on the inside edge of the cleats to remove the sharp corner that one might encounter when reaching into the hatches later.

    

    

Next, I cut another piece of plywood to rough size, and, over several trips up and down the ladder, scribed it to fit properly on the forward section of the starboard settee.  Once I had the piece trimmed to size, but with a slight overhang on the inboard edge (as with the other pieces I'd previously made), I temporarily secured all three sections in place and used a router to trim the edge flush with the front face of the settees.

         

Finally, I made marks on the new settee piece to demark the supports beneath, and laid out and cut three access hatches, one for each section.  After cleaning up the shop from the week's work, I was done for the day.

    


Total Time Billed on This Job Today:  8.25 hours

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