Continued Work on Cockpit Locker Hatches

October 21, 2017

I decided to continue working on the cockpit locker hatches given the progress made on both the starboard and port hatches - it was good to see them begin to take the simple yet familiar shape of the Cape Dory Typhoon seat locker hatch / lid.  I began by removing the cured glass that hung below what would eventually become the bottom dimension of the hatch itself.  I removed this material with an angle grinder and a cut-off wheel.  As a sidebar, and funny story, I had previously been working with an angle grinder on another boat and was tired - having worked several hours through the Florida heat and humidity.  I was working a piece of stubborn material that I needed to remove with one hand and in the other hand I held an angle grinder operating at high rpm.  A quick slip is all it took to introduce palm of left hand to angle grinder in right hand!  I snapped a photo of the wound and sent it over to a OBGYN friend of mine.  His recommendation was, "meet me at my office within the hour," so I closed the shop for the day and headed over to have my wound looked at.  Within a half-hour of arriving, my hand was sewed up in excellent fashion with a few stitches - I like to say that I've had an episiotomy performed on my hand.  I understand now why the delicate and precise hands of an OBGYN are required and differ from some other specialists.  One particular pre-cancerous area removed by my Dermatologist resembles more so a Captain Jack Sparrow-type scar than what is possible by a well-trained hand working the intimates of the female of the species.  Alas, I have the potential for a great story....similar to the scene in the galley of Orca on the first Jaws film! 

With the superfluity of material removed by the cut-off wheel, I switched to a flap wheel (40-grit sanding pad attached to the angle grinder), and proceeded to draw the dimension of the fiberglass in line with the dimension of the mold / template.

After removing that excess material and separating the molds from the cured fiberglass, I could not resist a test fit of the hatches...okay! I have something I can work with here!

The port-side cockpit seat locker hatch...

...and the starboard-side cockpit seat locker hatch.

After taking a few minutes to feel good about myself, I proceeded to water-wash the surface of the hatches and then sand them down with 80-grit paper to prepare the surface for the next steps.  I vacuumed the sanding residue and solvent-washed the surfaces.  I then painted out the underside outside perimeter and the entire top surface of both hatches, and then proceeded to apply thickened epoxy as a fairing compound to those same surfaces.  The next step will be to water-wash and sand, and then finish by laying a 6oz cloth across the top surfaces.  I will then fill and fair the weave of the 6oz cloth, while also glassing in supports from beneath.  More to come!

I took time also today to begin to address the hole in the companion hatch - the slide hatch.  I measured the laminate thickness to determine the measurement required for filling the hole with a fiberglass patch, as determined by the 12:1 ratio.  The hatch thickness was laid up to 1/8", and so using the 12:1 ratio, this meant I had to create a bevel of 1.5" around the circumference of the hole to be filled.  

The result for the top of the hatch...

...and for the underside of the hatch.  I will likely get started with filling this hole in the next work session.

Total Time Today: 5 hrs

Port Cockpit Locker Hatch

October 20, 2017

Home from a business trip, I decided to close out the Friday afternoon with laying up the port cockpit seat locker hatch.  As I had done with the starboard hatch (barely visible in the background), I prepared the template / mold by covering it with plastic film.  I then prepared the fiberglass: 11' of 6" 1708 biaxial tape and 3' of the 4" 1708 tape.  The glass was cut and the work surfaces set up so I moved forward with mixing epoxy.  Like I had done with the starboard side, I fully wet out two 6" pieces of glass, applied them to the mold, and then covered the seam with a 4" piece.

I progressed through another 4 pieces of 6" 1708 biaxial tape, or two layers, for a total of 3 layers of 1708 biaxial.  I will allow this to cure before coming back to water-wash, sand and prepare the surface for another couple layers of glass.  The 5 layers of glass will be further strengthened by supports that I will glass-in on the underbellies of each hatch.

Total Time Today: 1.75 hrs

Starboard Cockpit Locker Hatch

October 16, 2017

After my day job I decided to get some time in on the cockpit locker hatches, and to begin with I testing a scrap piece of foam on the router table.  Using the 1/2" radius bit, I ran the scrap piece along the fence to apply the desired cut.

The results were just what I was looking for on the eventual finished locker hatch.  With that successful test, I then turned to the templates for the same application.

After running all four sides of the tops of each template / mold across the router table's 1/2" radius bit I noticed that the alignment of the bit was not strictly perfect - leaving a bit of a hard transition line from the top to the radius surface, as can be seen in the picture below.  

I "softened" the transition line from top to side with the use of some very fine grit sandpaper that I had on hand.  The necessity of having a fair curve in the transition was not too important, but I did want to create a nice transition for the heavier fiberglass cloth to assume.  In addition, if there was any strange result in the layup, I would address with fairing compounds on what would be the underside of the hatch itself.  

With the top-to-side radius applied to all sides of both hatches, and with the smoothing completed with the fine grit sandpaper, I wrapped the starboard locker hatch with plastic and then hot-glued the template to a large would block.

I had laid a sheet of plastic down on my fiberglass wet-out board; on one end I had the template staged for work, and on the other end I would wet-out the fiberglass itself.  The picture below shows two lengths of 6" 1708 biaxial tape in a butt joint along the length of the template, with a length of 4" 1708 biaxial tape overlapping and also running the length of the template.

A close-up picture of the first layers of cloth applied.

Ultimately, I would finish the short work session with laying down 6 lengths of the 6" 1708 tape and the 1 length of 4" 1708 tape.  I essentially had 3 layers of 1708 glass on the template.  Since the work surface was generating a bit of heat as a result of the curing process, I decided to draw things to a close for the day.  I plan to water-wash the surface, sand to abrade the surface for a good mechanical bond, and then lay up an additional layer of 1708 and then finish with a lighter cloth prior to fairing the surface for primer and paint.  The material hanging below the template will be cut to create a finished bottom edge.

Total Time Today: 2.5 hrs