The big doors again

Over last weekend I sanded the front face of the drop in panel for the space under the cooker, then gave it a coat of primer/undercoat this was then followed up during the week with two coats of white gloss paint. Also over the weekend I made the edge trim pieces from the same hockey stick moulding that I used for the locker doors.

The first job on Monday morning was to put the first coat of wood dye on the edge trim pieces and while the first coat was drying I epoxied a wooden block at the top of the opening under the cooker for the fixed part of the latch for the drop in panel. I then started on trimming up the heads door openings most of the work involved trimming the laminate lining the bulkheads flush with the door openings also I got the two final coats of wood dye on the edge trim pieces.

On Wednesday I continued with the door openings this work is somewhat laborious as the laminate is 4mm thick on both sides of each bulkhead I found that the easiest way to remove the excess material was to use a tungsten carbide pull scraper it made much less dust than an angle grinder or power sander the stuff tends to come off in shavings rather than large amounts of dust, I finished off this morning.

Door openings all cleaned up

The door openings look as though they were originally hacked out with a jig saw and are a bit uneven so the new frames will be secured with screws and thickened epoxy to fill the gaps. To finish off today I pinned and glued the edge trim to the drop in panel, it just needs the latch fitting and a couple of coats of varnish on the edge trim which will be the first job next week. I know have a plan for the door frames and I will form the top semicircular section with several segments glued and screwed into place I just have to find some decent hardwood, I am going to try a source of recycled timber in Strood to start with.

Drop in panel ready for varnish

Back of drop in panel

The above picture is not so clear, sunshine through the hatch, the panel is secured at the bottom edge by the strip of timber with a rebate which hooks over the lower edge of the internal galley moulding, the top will be secured by a spring latch as the various locker doors.

 

The big doors

The first job this week was to fit the remaining door latches to the locker doors throughout the boat they have all been fitted and adjusted so that the doors are all complete. Over last weekend I glued up the drop in panel for the opening under the cooker and trial fitted it. I have primed the back but the front face required a little bit of filling and fairing, I have done the filling using epoxy thickened with lightweight filler as with the rest of the locker doors it just requires sanding which will be done this weekend.

Thoughts then turned to the two doors for the heads, I have been deliberating on making the door frames for some time, actually as long as I have had the boat, and each time the job has been put in the pending/too difficult tray much the same as that other well known project beginning with a B but I have now decided it is time to get on with it the main stumbling block is the semicircular top part of the two frames, my original plan was to steam bend them this would probably need some air dried white oak, it would then be necessary to make the rest of the frame from the same material and then dye it so I started thinking about plan 'B' which was to laminate the top part of the frame from hardwood using the same material for the rest of the frames. More recently I have been thinking of making the top part of the frame from sections of hardwood glued together and then cut to shape with a jigsaw, finally whichever method I choose I will need to source some suitable hardwood. Over this weekend I hope to come to a decision, I will almost certainly forget the steam bending for the reason previously stated plus it will be necessary to produce a steam box and a source of steam. While I have been thinking about the frames I started on the door openings, on both sides of the saloon bulkhead and the forward side of the forward heads bulkhead where the facing laminate stops well short of the bottom of the door openings.

Saloon bulkhead aft side

Saloon bulkhead forward side

The next job was to cut and fit some strips of laminate and glue them in place these pieces are mainly required to level up the bulkhead before fitting the door frames and the joints will be covered by the frames.

Saloon bulkhead aft side

Saloon bulkhead forward side

It will be noticed that the infill pieces do not extend right down to the bottom of the door openings this is because the doors will not extend that far as the original opening had been extended upwards, I assume that the original openings were a source of bruised heads, and when I reinstated the round top openings I decided to keep the top of the door at the same height and put in an infill piece at the bottom, from a head banging hazard to a trip hazard. The aim next week will be to trim up the laminate on the bulkheads and clean up the openings ready for the new frames and hopefully have a plan for the frames drawn up.

More doors

I started this week by pinning and glueing the edge trim to the steering gear compartment doors and then drilled the holes for attaching the hinges, once this was complete I masked off the white painted area and gave the edge trim on the remaining five doors a first coat of varnish I also put a second coat of varnish on the forward galley locker door.

The first job on Wednesday was to put a second coat of varnish on the remaining five doors followed by the first coat on the teak finger hole liners for these doors, the forward galley door was then put back into position and secured. As the varnish was touch dry on the remaining five doors I finished off the day by fitting the hinges.

First thing this morning I put a second coat of varnish on the teak finger hole liners and then went on to fit the aft galley door.

Galley locker doors fitted

I then moved on to fitting the locker doors in the heads it took a bit of fiddling about to get them lined up.

Heads locker doors

I did think afterwards that there is room for a drawer above the aft door but this would entail moving the switch for the shower drain pump, the black object above the forward door, so that I could fit a dummy drawer front to match the drawer, maybe a job for the future. I then went on to fit the doors to the steering gear compartment in the aft cabin.

Aft cabin doors

After fitting the aft cabin doors I did wonder if they would have been better painted grey, the head lining and the laminate on the top of the compartment is after all grey, the white looks fine in the galley and heads it maybe needs a bit more thought. The first job next week will be to fit the latches to the remaining five doors also the two doors in the aft cabin will require some sort of hold back device to stop them swinging about if the emergency tiller is required. While I am reasonably pleased with the various doors the dyed softwood edge trim is not a good match to the remainder of the hardwood trim used around the boat although it does come somewhere near the teak finger hole liners, which were supplied with the door latches, but even the colour of these does vary a bit they were made in Taiwan probably from odds and ends lying round the factory. 

Doors

I have had several distractions this week which means that I did not get as much done as I had planned I managed to finish cutting and fitting all the remaining edge trim for the doors over the weekend so the first job on Monday morning was to apply three coats of wood dye. The Colron wood dye is water soluble and dries ready for re coating in about an hour so that it could all be done in a day.

Edge trim after three coats of wood dye

I finished off what was going to be a short day by starting to fit the edge trim to the aft galley locker door.

First thing this morning I finished the edge trim to the aft galley door and drilled the holes for the hinge attachment screws it just needs the edge trim to be varnished.

Aft galley locker door

I then moved on to fitting the edge trim to the doors for the under sink locker in the heads these now just require some varnish before they can be fitted.

Heads locker doors

The two doors for the steering gear compartment have the liner for the finger hole fitted they just need the edge trim fitting which is all ready and will be the first job next week.

Aft cabin doors awaiting edge trim

While I was at home yesterday I cut some plywood to make a door for the space under the cooker, this will need to be made up from two thicknesses of plywood due to the step in the moulding, see photograph below.

Opening under the cooker

In the original fit out the step was infilled with plywood flush to the darker coloured area of the moulding. The door will be a drop in type with a latch at the top to match the other doors the plan is to rough out the door over the weekend for final fitting next week when hopefully all will be revealed.

I went to the Kent Boat Jumble last Sunday but due to the threatened wet weather few stall holders turned up it was so bad that the entry charge was reduced to £2 from the usual £4 I did find a decent length of octoplait to make up a second long mooring warp so not a totally wasted journey.

Still in the galley

I started off this week by putting a further coat of varnish on the edge trim on the drawer front panel and the adjacent dummy panel and whilst the varnish was drying I applied three coats of wood dye to the edge trim on the forward locker door. Once the varnish was dry I secured the dummy drawer front and put the drawer in place. I started on Wednesday by pinning and glueing the edge trim to the forward locker door this took a little bit of adjustment to the length of the trim pieces to get a snug fit all round when this was done I gave all the edge trim and the liner for the finger hole a coat of varnish. As it was a warm afternoon the varnish dried quite quickly so I was able to attach the door hinges.

Forward locker door

After attaching the hinges I realised that the 2mm stainless steel that I had planned to use for the packing pieces behind the hinges would not be thick enough so I made some from offcuts of the 4mm thick laminate which had been used to line the bulkheads.

The first job today was to fit the forward locker door I have used 5mm raised head countersunk machine screws with domed nuts on the inside then once the door was fitted and adjusted so that it closed properly I fitted the door catch, once I had adjusted it the door opens and closes quite easily.

Forward door in place

Inside view of door showing the catch

I spent the rest of the day adjusting the edge trim for the aft door before giving it the first coat of wood dye. The plan this weekend is to cut the edge trim for the remaining four doors, the hockey stick profile moulding is a little bit too deep for the 12mm thick doors so each piece requires planing down to suit. Also it is the Kent boat jumble this Sunday, it is not as good as it used to be however it has been a source of one or two gems for this project as they say one man's junk is another man's treasure and there is usually a fair bit of junk/treasure to be seen these days.