Thursday 25 November 2010

Portholes and More

The portholes are slowly being replaced,-(finished yesterday!) the system I'm using/used is to replace the aluminium framed units with pieces of 6mm dark grey acrylic cut to shape and glued and bolted to the outside of the deck using Sika 259Uv adhesive. - it gets everywhere, with the added bonus of the black primer melting my gloves - I now have a couple of very attractive black fingers...

It's a bit fiddly doing without help, one large porthole means at least 20 trips down below to move the nut clamps - a compulsory step aerobic class.
The end result looks ok- I think almost as good as the original and the boat now has sunglasses.

The inside is moving along, with the first coating of varnish, now applied, the next section of the refit is the upper bulkhead (ceiling), we are covering it with wood (tongue and grove), this will cover the fittings, wiring and hold the insulation and LED lights in place.

The next challenge will to be to sort out the wiring, although the switchboard was completely demolished in the fire, all the wiring which was below chest level is ok, if a bit messy in parts, being sprinkled with sticky melted vinyl.

Monday 15 November 2010

Woodworker

I was trying to decide how I was going to cut the new curved sections that go on the ends of the bulkheads and doors (hatches) and had decided to ask the local joiner if they would be able to cut them out of the timber that I would supply.
No problem, in fact they let me do it myself using the equipment in the factory - it's nice living in a small village.
The boss said come back anytime if I needed to use any of the equipment.