Epoxy in the head

     Yesterday I installed the back piece for the head.  It took some sanding to get everything to fit just perfect before screwing it in place, but not much.  I also cut out a spot on the bottom for the sanitation hose to run through on its way from the pump out connection to the holding tank.  Once I got everything screwed in place I was a little disappointed with how flimsy it seemed, mostly where the three pieces joined each other.  Enter the epoxy.  If you look at the picture you can see wetness where the pieces join up and along the edges.  I also did along the bottom edge because I had a little left over and figured why not.  The spot with the most epoxy is on the bottom left corner near the seacock.  I tried to make this a smooth of a seam as possible when I did the cut out, but...

     The plan for today was to cut out a replacement piece for the front of the hanging locker box, but it is pretty miserable out right now.  The rain is holding me back from getting the saw out of the barn for now.  Hopefully it will clear out later this afternoon and I get a chance to make the cuts.  I was also hoping to get a coat of primer in the head, but I think the chilly temperatures are slowing down the cure rate on the epoxy.  I should give it another day or two to finish curing.

     The good part about not going outside today is it allows time to cook up Thanksgiving dinner part 2.  While at the grocery store the other day we picked up a bunch of on sale items, including a 12 pound turkey for $0.54/lb.  Not too shabby.  It has spent the last couple of days in the fridge thawing and is finishing up in the sink right now.  Guess I need to get off this site and figure out how to cook a turkey.  Happy Thansgiving (2) everyone!

Second Coat

     The wife took a work from home day today and I had a appointment with my oral surgeon, so my time was pretty limited today.  I did manage to sneak out for a little bit though, and put a second coat of primer on the backs of the pieces for the head shelving area.  That was my compromise between leaving it as is (was) and painting it with the Bilgekote.

     Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  I'll be at work, but it looks like it will be quite the feast.

Head progress

     Not the best of pictures, but hopefully it gets the point across.  This was taken while I was sanding down the pieces trying to get them to fit properly.  The gap on top of the frame looks a little weird, but it is level; the boat is acually crooked, not the frame.  As you can probably imagine, all the wood on the inside of the frame is going to be cut out to leave a nice pretty hole.  I actually already did that, but can't seem to find the picture, so you get one mid work.  I also had to cut out little blocks of wood for the screws because it doesn't take much to go through 1/4" of plywood.

     After getting the fit good enough to satisfy me, I removed everything and cut out the inside scrap.  After that I sanded down all the edges and primed the back side of everything, including my little wood "washers".  I haven't decided if I am going to paint the backs with the BilgeKote or just leave them primed.  You won't be able to see it anyways, and that stuff is expensive!

     Before putting it all back together I still need to figure out where the sanitation hose is going to run through and make a cut out for it.  I'm thinking about getting more 2" PVC to hide it on the outside over to the forward bulkhead.  That should keep everything looking cleaner and a little more professional.  Once everything is permanently installed I will be adding fiddles to the front edge of both shelves that match the frame and priming/painting the bare wood.

Painted shelves

     I started off the day by making more cardboard templates for the front of the shelves in the head and the front piece of the hanging locker "box".  After that I tackled the second coat of paint in these areas.  I cheated a little bit and skipped the bottom of the shelves.  They looked pretty good already, they won't be getting a lot of wear, and I am running low on paint.  Everything looks pretty good, now it's time to close 'em up.

     There wasn't much I could do with the wet paint without messing it up, so I headed home.  I cut out the pieces I need.  I used 1/4" plywood for the head, and 3/8" for the locker to add a little extra strength.  Unfortunately I didn't have a large enough piece of 1/4" so I had to split it into three pieces that I will put together in place.  I'm not sure if I could have fit one large piece in there anyways, so it wasn't something I am upset about.

Gloomy Day

     Today is a pretty gloomy day.  Grey and raining non stop.  Between that and my jaw still aching it doesn't feel much like a day to work on the boat, so I'm not going to.  Instead I'm making some ale braised short ribs for dinner and curling up with a book.  If only I had a fireplace and a bear skin rug.

     Tomorrow I will go out and put on the second coat of paint and if you are lucky I'll take a couple of pictures.

Back at it

     It's been over a week since I did any work on the boat and i was starting to feel antsy.  Life has been a little hectic lately but today I ignored my swollen face and carved out some time.  I didn't get a whole lot done, but it felt good to do something.  I got the first coat of white BilgeKote on the shelving in the locker and the head.  It is going to need at least two coats, but I'm off to a good start.

No news

     No news as far as working on the boat goes.  Monday I didn't do anything because I had (I thought) an appointment to get a wisdom tooth pulled.  The wife took the day off work to drive me, but it turned out the appointment was only for a consult.  Sigh...another week of putting up with this tooth crap is going to suck.  I'm too old for this.  Anyways, because the wife was home we spent the day together doing non boat stuff.

     Today and Friday are both being spent at the academy taking my EMT refresher course.  Not exactly fun, but at least I'm getting paid for it.  Pretty easy overtime.

     Wednesday and Saturday are both work days, so nothing is going to happen then.  Thursday is my only available time, but I never seem to get much done the day after a 24 hour shift, especially at my new station.

     If I do get out there the plan is to get a coat of paint on the shelves and areas I won't be able to reach later in the head and the hanging locker.  Not very exciting, but it should be an easy enough day that I'll be able to work myself up to getting out there and doing it before coming home and taking a nice long nap.

Shelving, still

     I started off today at the hardware store looking for the pieces I wanted to run the sanitation hose through.  I found what I needed, but it was more expensive than I thought it should be and it got me thinking.  The hose is pretty ugly and seems to accumulate grime pretty easy, so why not hide the whole thing?  It turns out that it fits very nicely in 2" PVC pipe.  It was a pain in the butt to get everything lined up properly and cut out but I think it turned out pretty well.  It is just sitting in place in the picture held up with the friction from the well sized holes in the shelves.  Once I have the hose run through I will figure out a way to semi-permanently hold it up.

     Before cutting the holes for the PVC I stepped back to admire my handy work when I discovered the two shelves were uneven by about 3/4".  It sucked having to adjust everything to get it in line, but I sure am glad I figured it out before cutting anything to install the pipe.

     The shelves in the head area as well as the hanging locker are all screwed in place and primed up.  The next step is to get a couple of coats of bilgecoat paint on everything before working on the front covers.  Much easier to do now with so much open space.  Hopefully it will be warm enough next week to make that possible.

     At some point I am also going to need to drill a couple of smaller holes in the shelves to run the holding tank vent hose through.  I wish I would have thought of this before putting everything together.  It is such a tight fit that I actually have to remove the cleats in order to get the shelves in place.  I'm not sure if I am going to take it all apart and do this before painting or figure out a way to do it later.

Shelving

     I got all five of the shelves cut out this morning before running some errands.  When I got out to the boat I was surprised at how well the ones for the hanging locker fit, and how poorly the ones for the head fit.  With the grinder and sander I got everything to fit and cleaned up.  I primed all the bare wood I wouldn't be able to reach later and then installed the ones in the locker.  The picture looks a little distorted, but i think that is because of the angle I took the picture from.  The bottom area will eventually have a front piece but I haven't worked on that yet. I'm planning on using some 1/4" hardwood plywood so I can stain it up nice and pretty.  The front of the two top shelves will have a fiddle installed as well as the rear of the bottom one.  I am waiting to get everything painted before installing them though.

     I also got the two shelves for the head fitted and primed, but I didn't install them yet.  I need to size out and cut a circular hole in the middle of them to run the sanitation hose through.  I took a little piece of the hose home with me so I can take it to the hardware store later.  I want to try to find a PVC fitting or something similar that I can install for the hose to run through.  This should clean it up as far as looks go and also provide a bit of chafe protection.  I will have to see what I can find.