Small Items

              

                                                Small autumn items 2013

Weather has not been so good and I have been occupied with my daily work so I have not been able to start with bigger projects.

Cable Tray in the Steering Cabin:

What disturbed me when I bought the boat were the loose wires hanging in front of the steering cabin windows for the window wipers.

As well as that the window wipers switches were mounted on big blocks against the top window frame, further cabling was for the search light, cables for the solar panels and a console light.

Looking for a solution to wrap these cables in a kind of a cable tray and to make sure that the cable tray in future would be accessible I came up with a construction of a mahogany cable tray against the top side of the window frame.

First job was to drill out all the old screw holes and plug them with mahogany plugs.

Plugs were glued in with colored two component epoxy trying to prevent any color difference between the plug and the window frame. As can be seen over the years a lot of screws entered the window frame.

Next step was to sand the plugs flush with the window frame and varnish in two coats the window frame.

The actual cable tray is made of two pieces a square 10 X 10 mahogany piece which is crewed against the window frame, due to the small seize and cutting the wood with the right grain it was possible to follow the curve of the top of the window frame.

About 12 mm was kept as a width for placing the cables in, so the actually cable tray will be 12 X 10 which is just enough to place the required cables in my case.

For the window wipers I do use a multicore cable easier to insert in the cable tray.

The cable tray comes down on port side and will run into the direction of the steering console.

The cable tray is closed with a flat piece of wood which cover the square support and touches against the white ceiling.

This is a flat piece of mahogany of only around 4 mm thick; due to the limited thickness I was able to bend this also in the curve of the window frame.

It is a bit under pressure but not that much that the screws do not hold.

Next picture shows the starboard side of the finished cable tray, at a later point the complete cable tray will be closed when all wires are pulled.

The strip in the middle of the ceiling which covers the sides of the soft ceiling tops was loose and did not completely cover both sides anymore.

Since this did not look very nice and since I needed a cable for the search light I made mahogany strip from forward to aft in the center of the ceiling which can hold two flat wires.

Next picture show the loose hanging strip in the middle,

I took a flat as possible piece of mahogany trip sanded the sides round made with a router two grooves on the inside, one for the cable for the search light which comes out fairly at the beginning and one for a future purpose for example a light in the steering cabin.

The cables were glued into the grooves.

Next picture shows the removed original strip as can be seen there is space available for placing a wire between the two soft ceiling panels, one has of course to be careful with screws of nails for not penetrating the cables.

In my case the two grooves for the cables were left and right of the center line of the wooden strip and therefore there was no chance of penetrating the cables.

Before the trip was installed it was twice varnished inside and outside to protect the wood against the weather it was than installed with brass screws against the ceiling.

At the front of the plank the two wires are coming out and will be guided in a later stage properly into the cable tray.

Next picture shows the finished strip screwed against the ceiling.

Main Cabin Ceiling Light

Originally the cabin ceiling light was round and as I can imagine the light might not have been very effective to read or to have a nice dinner, not enough light above the table.

Over the years before I bought the boat the round light has been replaced by a block of wood with 3 halogen lights, this block is rather large and in my opinion does not fit into the interior of the boat.

The above mentioned construction was removed and a new construction of mahogany was made which is thinner and smaller also in this piece of varnished mahogany 3 halogen lights were positioned above the table.

I think the new construction fits more into the interior of a classic wooden boat.

Fixed window installation

  I’m still busy finding a method to make the sliding windows water tight but in the meantime all fixed windows have been removed and have been re-installed

 I'm aware that an easy solution is to remove all windows and replace them with a new window frame and new windows but since I do want to keep the boat as original as possible and due to funds available I decided to install the old windows and find a solution for the sliding windows, therefore this part only explains the fixed windows and the sliding windows will be another chapter in this blog.

The first thing done to remove the windows, which were still as it looked to me fitted with their original white plastic stapled window cord.

Which that at one point I presume due to water leakage was tried to top with silicone.

As can be seen from the next pictures this did not stop the water ingress since the window is discolored with algae.

The pictures used for this blog have been taken from different fixed windows’.

The next steps was to clean the wood where the window fits in and remove all earlier applied varnish and protect the wood with two component epoxy two layers.

The first window I made the mistake, created a lot of extra work for myself by not properly placing tape on all areas where one does not want to have silicone.

For the first window installed I only taped the wood and nothing else, this was the mistake since it was impossible to get straight lines of silicone following the rims of the wood inside and outside.

After the first window installation I did follow the following steps.

Placing tape on the wood on the outside following the window frame taking time also to follow the round curves/corners of the wood.

Than the inside window frame was covered with tape although it is a small rim by not taping this piece of wood one has to clean the silicone of the wood while it is still wet, messy job or clean the silicone from the wood when it is dry with the chance of damaging the wood and the coating as well as scratching the window glass.

Than the window glass was placed into the window frame making sure that there was space between the glass and the wood for expansion/shrinking of the wood around the glass.

When the glass was in the correct position the glass was taped on the outside following the wooden rim on the inside this was when the silicone will be applied one will never look against silicone from the inside to outside.

Also take was placed on the inside of the window against the wood rim.

Then when all was taped and degreased with acetone wooden window frame and the actual glass the fun part starts actual installation.

A small layer of silicone is placed onto the wooden window frame where the glass will be fitted in, the amount must be such that when one pushed the glass into the silicone that between the glass and the wooden frame, inside, 100 % coverage is, in short everywhere between the glass and the wood silicone needs to come out.

When I was satisfied about the above, one or two windows I needed to remove due to not adding enough silicone, the silicone on the outside was installed.

To get a nice finish I used a plastic tool designed for this job.

When the silicone looks nice the area looks like the following picture.

Next is to remove the tape inside as well as outside to get a nice straight line of the silicone this needs to be done carefully by perverting to touch the silicone which needs to remain in place.

The tape is removed when the silicon is still wet to make sure that when the silicone dries it sticks to the window and the wood. When the tape is removed when the silicone is dry, this is possible without extra effort, I have noticed that there is a chance that where the silicone overlapped the tape that a minor gap is visible between the glass and the silicone. 

I waited than 1 or 2 days and the excess of silicone on the window was removed with a razor blade being careful for not touching the actual silicone which holds the window in place.

I did had some challenges with the front and rear windows.

The main reason was the new wood installed at the bottom window frames although this was done carefully the window glass did not fit 100% in the wooden frame.

Although the next picture looks not professional by placing some wood and a strap over the window I was able to get a tight fit between the glass and the wooden window frame.

Letting the silicone dry for over 2 days a then removing the pressure from the glass resulted that the glass stayed in place and was well glued with the silicone against the window frame.

For the aft windows I used some nails by placing them against the glass I got a tight fit between the glass and the window frame.

Two days drying time and I removed the nails, the area without silicone was degreased again and a bit cut from the already installed silicone and fresh silicone was applied where the nails were installed.

The question is why I used black silicone instead of white which was original installed for holding the glass in place.

Main reason white window glass silicone is not UV protected resulting in discoloring to yellow as well as deteriorating over time.

Further I think the black silicone does not look too bad against the mahogany and the black color comes back in the deck caulking.

See also next picture.

Toe Rail and Rubbing stroke

                                       Rubbing stroke and Toe Rail

   Before I removed the rubbing stroke and the Toe rails detailed pictures and measurement were taken this since I was aware that none of the removed wood could be saved nor re installed again.

Unfortunately with these repairs some pictures are missing due to a failure of my camera.

The wood for the rubbing stroke was cut from a larger plank and sanded and inside where it is mounted against the hull it was protected with two component epoxy.

The next step was to clean the hull where the plank would be mounted against and check if the area was a straight area so that a flush contact would exist between the plank and the hull.

Next pictures show before and after sanding.

The straight sides are not too difficult but for the bow which is round and slight curves up it are more difficult.

The same as with the beam under decks of the bow a template of carton was made.

Then from a plank with the same thickness the plank for the rubbing stroke was cut and was kept larger since I have seen in the past that when a perfect piece was made from a carton template that when the actual piece was installed on the boat that the wood was cut to small.

The plank was mounted with screws in the final position.

The next step was cut the top of the plank which was sticking out above the deck to make it flush with the deck biggest part was cut off with a multi-tool and then sanded.

Plank was removed again and cut with a small circular saw on the correct width.

Both bow rubbing stroke plank were fabricated the same way.

All planks were removed slightly sanded on the inside and glued with epoxy glue and screwed as well against the ship’s hull.

All was than sanded on the outside protected with epoxy and several layers of two component varnish,

Next step was to install a new toe rail on top of the deck.

Toe rails were cut with a circular saw to the right dimensions and the correct angle, measurement were taken from an old piece of toe rail.

I worked from aft to forward by installing the toe rail in the correct position on top of the deck.

Toe rails were screwed temporary into the correct position with stainless steel screws.

The length of the planks I used was 5 meter so the second part of the toe rail starts around mid-ships. With a strap and some tension was the toe rail put in position on top of the deck and screwed in place.

To be able to use this method the toe rail should be cut in the correct way from a plank with the grain of the wood following the toe rail otherwise it will be very difficult to bend the wood as well as that it will split.

It is impossible to bend the wood all the way around the bow and as used original the toe rail for the bow was made of laminated planks, original 5 thin planks were used but I decided that it was possible to do the new toe rail out of 3 planks.

The same method was used with a carton template to decide the curve of the wood on the deck before the actual planks were cut to seize.

The method I used was to bend and glue the new toe rail in place. First step was to glue the first two planks and then the next day the third plank.

Deck was protected with tape to prevent that epoxy glue would stick between the deck and the to be glued toe rail.

Then blocks were screwed onto the deck slightly in a curve which was larger than the curve of the deck where the toe rail would be mounted onto. The reason for this extra curve is that would glue together will try to come back into the original straight plank form.

As can be seen from the next pictures a lot of clamps have been used to glue both planks together and to hold the planks in the correct place.

The next day the third plank was glued to the first two planks as expected the glued plank would straighten a bit and were outside the original curve of the bow.

The third plank was glued against the first two planks but between the flanks and the wooden distance blocks on the deck an extra piece of wood was placed of different thickness to give the glued planks an extra curve so that when the glue was dry and the planks were removed and would bend back a bit they still would follow the curve of the bow.

When all was set and glue dried the bow toe rail was cut and sanded into the right form with angels and the correct height.

First step in this process was to sand the bottom of the toe rail flush and check if it was also with a flush contact with the deck before the rest of the toe rail would be shaped.

When all was prepared complete toe rail from stern to bow with the toe rail in place both side of the toe rail was tape placed onto the deck and the rubbing stroke.

This was done to prevent that epoxy glue would come onto the sanded deck and rubbing stroke.

The rubbing strokes were removed all was cleaned and the rubbing stroke was than glued with epoxy glue onto the deck as well as screwed in position.

An excess of colored epoxy glue was used to make sure that there was a 100% contact between the glue deck and rubbing stroke as can be seen for the next picture glue is coming out everywhere.

Since it is very difficult to remove the dried epoxy glue the next day and to shape it the glue was removed after the toe rail was screwed onto the deck, this was done with a tool as can be seen from the next picture to create a small curve between the toe rail and the deck and toe rail and rubbing stroke to prevent that water will enter between the two.

Next step is to remove the tape before the epoxy dries.

As can be seen from the next picture there is always a little epoxy creeping under the tape but since this is such a thin layer it can easily be removed by hand with some sand paper.

This is done at the same time that the toe rail will be final sanded.

Last step of the toe rail is the installation of the plugs which were glued in with colored epoxy glue as well.

Next to the entrance of the steering cabin is the position of the mounting plate for the railing.

When removing this plate I noticed that there was a gap between the wood and the top side of this plate.

Since I would like to have full contact between the two I made the position of this plate slightly higher to prevent in the first place that there would be a gap between the two but also to prevent that the support would rest onto the deck which prevents future maintenance to the wood.

The area under the stainless steel support is protected with epoxy and two component UV varnish

Last step was to sand all and protect the wood; this was done for the toe rail with Owatrol D1 and D2

What was left now is the toe rail/rubbing stroke of the stern.

This part is curved as well as that it is round.

I have tried to make this piece out of one piece but unfortunately my carpenter skills failed so I was left with the same procedure as used for the bow toe rail to build it up from different pieces of wood.

Actually I used 4 pieces these were cut from one piece.

The same as with the toe rail the boat was protected with tape to prevent that epoxy would get onto the teak deck and the stern.

Then the first piece was screwed against the stern in such a way that it would follow the shape of the stern.

First piece was with epoxy glued against this fixed plank.

When the glue was dry all was removed and sanded clean excess of epoxy.

Since this was the base for the rest of this plank it was glued with epoxy glue and screwed against the stern.

Same as with the rubbing stroke planks the stern was sanded flush where the new plank would be fitted against.

The plank as now glued with colored epoxy glue and screwed against the stern.

The next step was to screw and glue the next plank against the mounted plank onto the stern.

It was made sure since these screw holes with plugs are visible that the distance between them were the same.

Last plank to finish the complete structure was glued against the first 3.

All was sanded and protected with epoxy and last but not least protected against UV with two component varnish, 3 coats.

Finished installation of the two pieces of wood.