March 11, 2019

Scupper 97

Monday

With the primer well-cured after the weekend, I spent the morning lightly sanding all areas with 220 grit, with subsequent vacuuming and solvent-washing.

I identified a few areas requiring some filler touch-up, mainly a few of the filled fastener holes in the paneling, along with an edge here and there on the fiberglass liner, so I applied the filler and then, after lunch, sanded it smooth and cleaned those areas again as needed.  This left the interior ready for finish paint coats, which I planned to apply the next morning when there was ample time.

When I primed the plywood locker lids, I’d not worried about setting the wet primer on the lids’ bottom sides on the stickers, but for the finish coats I’d need to do one side at a time, so to jump-start the process, I applied a coat of semi-gloss white enamel to the lids’ bottom sides.

I spent the rest of the day in the woodshop, where I milled enough cherry to use for the various fiddles throughout the boat:  berths and shelves, galley, and elsewhere. I’d purchased wood that was surfaced on three sides, which saved me from a long day at the planer, but I’d planned the time in and around the interior paintwork to mill and prepare most or all of the millwork.

With a short cut list detailing the various raw lengths I needed for the fiddles, I chose boards that would provide the rough dimensions required with the least waste, and as needed I straightened edges and milled the blanks to the correct width for the fiddles.  Afterwards, I used a router to mill rounded edges on three of the four corners of each board.

The final milling step for these pieces was a 1/4″ x 1″ dado on the inside lower edge of the boards, to allow the fiddles to cover and slightly hang down beneath the edges over which they’d be installed.  This brought me to the end of the day; next, all these fiddles would require sanding and sealing, and then there’d be other trim pieces to prepare.

Total time billed on this job today:  8 hours

0600 Weather observation:  32°, mainly clear with fog.  Forecast for the day:  Partly sunny, 45°