February 18, 2020

Scupper 244

Tuesday

I spent a good part of the day working on and around the overhead and compression post, a comprehensive set of chores including wiring and wood trim.

First, I laid out the longitudinal centerline trim required along the forward part of the overhead.  I’d pre-milled and finished this piece long ago, but since the compression post wasn’t in place at the time I just made the trim full-length.  Now, I needed to shorten it to fit, and at the same time I had to mark and cut slightly shorter several of the transverse trims where they overlapped the centerline piece.  With all the measurements and cuts made, I could install the trim pieces permanently.  I left space forward of the centerline trim to allow mounting of a light fixture.

I ran the remaining wires the rest of the way up the post, and drilled a hole through the aft side of the post to run wires to the final light fixture aboard:  a bicolor overhead light, which I installed just aft of the post above the table, just forward of the centerline trim on the overhead.  There was just enough space forward of the light fixture for the trim required around the top end of the compression post.

I cut a relief notch on the wire chase cover trim for the post, and led out the mast wiring before installing the trim on the post (oops, not shown).  I made up the mast wiring to a terminal block that I mounted to the overhead forward of the post, just aft of the wiring hole from abovedecks,  which I had just drilled out from above.  The hole saw fell out of the drill right at the end of the cut, causing the tearout to the overhead plywood, but that was OK since this whole area would soon be covered with a cosmetic box to hide all the wiring.

To secure the top of the compression post in place, I made up a simple U-shaped piece of trim that fit around the sides and aft end of the post.  The forward end of the post would be secured by the wiring box, which was next on the agenda.

At the base of the compression post, I made up a new piece of trim to replace the one I’d damaged during installation, and after a test-fit and final milling, I applied varnish to the new trim, along with the U-shaped upper trim.

I made the wiring box with ample room for the existing wiring, plus the wires from the mast when the time came.  Starting with a 6″ x 2″ transverse piece for the aft end of the box, which I clamped to the forward side of the compression post, I measured and cut the two sides to fit between the aft piece and the nearby bulkhead,  With the pieces rough-cut, I glued them into a box shape, and milled some cherry to 1/4″ thickness that I glued into a slim panel for the top (or in this case actually the bottom) of the box, finishing just before lunch.

After the break, the box frame was ready for final fitting, which included marking and cutting to length the two forward pieces of overhead trim to leave room for the wiring box between.  Then, I cut the new top panel to size, and glued it to the box frame.

With all the compression post-related jobs underway or complete, it was a good time to do some final work to the spreaders, which required one more round of sanding to clean and brighten the metal a final time, after which I made final preparations and with a small sprayer applied two coats of the same primer I’d used on the other spars earlier.

Total time billed on this job today:  7 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  10°, high clouds. Forecast for the day:  Light snow in the afternoon, 33°