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.
