Fairing and Brightwork Fabrication

December 16, 2017

Halcyon days!  I slept in this morning until 10am.  I haven't done this in years, and enjoyed every minute of it.  When I finally roused to the day, I got to work water-washing the previous day's epoxy work - fairing the navigation light patches and the cabin top through-fittings.  

With the amine blush removed, I started a round of sanding (fairing) the cured epoxy.  I first brought the port cabin sides patch to fair...

...and then the starboard side.

I finished with the holes from the former cabin top through-fittings and their fasteners.

With the sanding work completed, I moved on to continue fabricating the brightwork.  I began with the aft cockpit trim.  I placed it on the teak stock I had selected for it, and transferred its dimensions.

Using the jig saw, I then removed the new aft cockpit trim to rough dimensions and set it aside.

The next pieces of trim would be the companionway slide hatch trim.  From the remaining section of teak stock used to pull the toe rails from, I lined up the starboard side and transferred its dimensions to the new teak. 

I then removed the starboard trim from the teak stock.

I repeated the steps for the port side of the companionway slide hatch trim.  The new piece of trim, like all others being fabricated, start as a rough cut, but will be fine tuned in their finished state.

With the all of the brightwork at least in a rough state, I decided to break out the "steam box", or tube rather.  I use the steam box to help form and shape pieces for their eventual installation.  In this case, I wanted to form the cockpit seat trim pieces and the companionway slide hatch exterior 'push' trim.  This 'push' piece of trim for the companionway slide hatch is not necessarily what one's hand would go to first, but it serves to secure an additional piece of trim to the underside of the slide hatch which a tang is attached to that slides through the top drop board to lock the cabin.  Got that?  Good!  Anyway, since the slide hatch has a convex top surface, I wanted to bend the new teak trim to allow for easier installation.  As the steam box was heating up, I started working on cutting the new teak trim as well as a form to clamp it to once out of the steam box.

I laid out the old trim onto a scrap piece of birch ply, marked and hot-glued small blocks of wood to follow the form of the old trim.  I then pre-drilled and drove a screw through  the underside of the plywood, thus securing the blocks in place.

With the steam box emitting a good amount of steam, I slid the cockpit seat trim and companionway slide hatch pieces into the box.  I plugged the open end with a wet rag to trap the steam inside the box for maximum effect.

As the pieces of trim were being treated, I started on a form for the seat trim.  Just as I had done for the companionway hatch trim, I repeated the process for cockpit seat trim.  Since this trim was a bit taller in dimension, I came back and installed another small block onto the original one.  Also, since I planned to clamp both pieces to the same form, I wanted to ensure I had a robust form to clamp onto.

At this point, I decided to change directions.  I thought about still needing to shape the cockpit seat trim to the final aesthetically pleasing dimensions, and so pulled these two pieces from the team box and leaving the companionway hatch trim inside.  So, while the companionway hatch trim limbered up, I looked at layout of the motor mount.

In the coming days, I will need to over-drill the holes for the motor mount plate and fill with epoxy, followed by drilling and taping for bronze screws.  While I like the location - outboard of center line - I thought I should orient the motor mount in a more parallel position to the center line.  More to come here...

I returned to the steam box, pulled the companionway hatch trim from the gaseous environs of the steam box and set it on the form with clamps.  I used scrap pieces to protect the new trim from the clamps, and then set it aside to cool and set.

I returned to the cockpit seat trim to continue shaping them so that I could steam bend them to final form.  Using a combination of the hand plane as well as the jointer, I brought the 'rough' pieces of trim to their final dimensions.  I did run out of time for the day, but would soon round the edges on the router table and then fire of the steam box one more time!

Total Time Today: 4.25 hrs

Fabricating Toe & Rub Rails, Spot Filling & Fairing

December 15, 2017

Having the entire day to work on Joule was nice, and meant that I could tackle more time-consuming projects requiring a fresh mind and body, as well as plenty of daylight hours.  I attended to the morning conference calls, per usual, and then got to work on filling the old fastener holes on the cabin top.  These deck plates were through-fittings for the mast wiring.  Joule's owners were looking to make a fresh start with her electrical system, and so were looking to return her deck to a 'blank canvas' of sorts.

I tapered the holes, vacuumed up the debris and thoroughly cleaned the surfaces with acetone.  I taped off the exit holes in the cabin's overhead, after also tapering and cleaning with a solvent.  I then mixed up a thickened batch of epoxy, leaving the consistency less viscous than I would for vertical or overhead application.  I worked the material down in the through holes, and then filled the fastener holes that secured the through-fitting to the deck.

The night before, I had sanded the patches for the old navigation lights, and was now ready to apply a layer of fairing compound.  I also thoroughly cleaned the port and starboard patches with solvent, and mixed up a more viscous batch of thickened epoxy.  

Starting with the port side, I applied the fairing compound with a squeegee, ensuring that the application was standing slightly proud to the surrounding surfaces and extending beyond the patch itself.

I then repeated for the starboard side.

Straightforward.  I will come back tomorrow to begin fairing the surface out to blend with the balance of the cabin sides. 

With work completed on Joule for now, I returned to the wood shop to begin fabricating the rails.  Given the length of the teak stock I would be working with, I had to position the table saw near the shop's doors and on an angle so that I had enough space behind the saw to line up the stock to enter the blade.  I also switched out the blade on the saw for a finer cut.

I grabbed the teak board selected for the rub rails, and set it on top of the table saw to help me determine where to position an out-feed "shelf" to support the board as I moved it across the blade of the saw - you can see the supports just in the background of the photo below.  I also took the opportunity to decide how to remove the individual rails from the 6" wide by just over 10' in length piece of teak.  It wasn't so much as how, but which side of the board to begin removing lengths of rail.  The decision was due to a short section of sap wood on one end of the teak.  Having decided a path forward, I cut the teak board into 5 rails at just over 10' in length.  I set one of the rails (the one with the short section of sap wood) onto the lumber rack, thinking it could be a go-to piece in the event of a catastrophic failure of one of the rails!  The rub rails have a 3/4" base, and are roughly 13/16" in height. 

Next, I took the four rails and decide the pairings - two for each rub rail.  The two rails for port and the two rails for the starboard side would be joined by a 12:1 scarf joint, installed and then trimmed on the aft portion as it extended beyond the transom.  I thoroughly reviewed each piece, paying attention to overall aesthetics, potential problem areas in the wood as it took the shape of Joule's sheer line, and taking into account defects that would be removed through the scarfing process.

Happy with the rub rail pairings (port and starboard), and determining which board of the pairings would be forward and which would be aft, I took out my scarfing sled - built for Alva Anne's restoration.  The scarf sled would give me a 12:1 joint, and was the recommended 12" length for a 1" thick piece to be joined with another.  I ran a test pass with a scrap piece of wood (shown below).

Satisfied with the results, I started with the port rub rail...and worked through all four lengths of material.  

I marked the pieces and bundled them together with tape for future work.

Next, I grabbed the teak board selected for the toe rails.  I also determined which side of the board to begin with removing the lengths of toe rails.  This board would also produce the new companionway hatch slide rails; since my focus was on the quality of wood for the toe rails, I determined the choice material for the four toe rails and began ripping the length of stock to that end.

Just as I did for the rub rails, I used various criteria for the selection of boards to make pairs with and also how to orient them as the "forward" board and the "aft" board.  With the pairing and orientation finished, I proceed to cut the scarfing joints for each board; again, a 12:1 cut ratio.

As I did for the rub rails, I paired and bundled them with tape to set aside for later work.  The next steps on the rails, both toe and rub rails, will be to cut a rabbet on the underside (the side adjoining the hull or deck) to allow for a layer of polysulfide sealant.  I will also need to glue (epoxy) the two pieces together at their scarf joints, and then mark and drill for fasteners.

With the toe rails and the rub rails well on their way, I got back aboard Joule to address the cockpit drain hoses and through-hull valves.  The valves were from a hardware, or big box, store and were of the brass persuasion.  The valves were to be replaced, and in the process, the hoses and hose clamps would also be freshened up.  I removed the valves, hose clamps and hoses with relative ease.

The last item for the day was to sand the area around the through-hulls, followed by a pass with the vacuum.

Total Time Today: 5 hrs

Sanding Interior, Exterior and Navigation Light Patches

December 14, 2017

With more vacation days than I have work days left in the year to burn, I decided to take the afternoon off.  Once I arrived home from an afternoon workout, I had lunch and then prepared to get back onto Joule.  I wanted to at least get the previous fill work sanded, so as to be ready for a full day's work tomorrow addressing a few different items, but primarily continued brightwork fabrication.

I started off by water-washing the previous fill work, now cured, and this included the navigation light patches on the cabin sides.  I had pinholes in several areas across the deck and cockpit.  These pinholes suddenly became obvious after getting the first coat of primer on the deck and cockpit surfaces.  I also had some fill work yet to sand on the interior v-berth and overhead liners.  With the amine blush removed, I outfitted the RO sander with 120-grit pads and got to work.

I worked around the exterior of the Joule (deck and cockpit), and then went below for the numerous filled old fastener holes.  Because some of the filled areas were in relatively tight spots (in corners, adjacent to the overhead liner, etc.), I also used the oscillating tool outfitted with 80-grit pads.  For those areas in which I used the oscillating tool, I came back with 180-grit sheets and sanded by hand.  Sorry, no pictures of the interior sanding.  After closing up Joule for the day, I remembered a few more areas that were filled and required sanding; these areas were beneath the cockpit well, in the location of the through hulls.

The starboard side navigation light opening: patched, sanded and ready for a fairing application.

The sport side navigation light opening: patched, sanded and ready for a fairing application.

Total Time Today: 1.75 hrs