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Week 58

Sunday

We made it! We - that's the royal We, for it was only the fitter - went to the boat after all this time. We set out from home around 9.15am for the thirty minute journey, but is was after 10am by the time everything had been unloaded and carried to the boat.

We opened the rear doors of the boat, clambered inside, closing said doors and hatch behind us. We switched on the 12v supply and the Mastervolt and then the boiler - we might as well have a bit of warmth now we have the facilities! Then we unlocked and opened the front doors and carried the first load into the boat. Six trips between car and boat later and everything was on board (and the radiators nice and warm).

The first task was to wander round to the dry store and get the Workmate. We also got one of the pairs of sawhorses while we were there, as these need to be taken home. Now, with no need to go outside for a while - at least not until teatime, we closed and drew one bolt on the front doors as it was very breezy outside and the doors had already been banging and blowing open.

Next we checked the distance between the face of the plywood wall panels and the inner face of the portholes so that we know how deep to trim the liners. Three measure approx 50mm and the fourth very slightly deeper. At least now we can trim the liner on the lathe to the desired depth and remove it from the lathe to make way for the next one.

Whilst we were taking measurements in the engine room we noticed that the control cable for the bow thruster still needed its plug re-fitting. As this was only a very quick job - honest, we decided to do it there and then to remove the risk of the loose connector getting lost.

One of the things that had delayed our departure from home was the time spent unsuccessfully trying to locate the packets of nails for the nailer so, whilst we were at the rear of the boat we looked in the two toolboxes that we've temporarily placed under the bed and found the nails. We've left them there, even though we've taken the nailer back home again!

We popped into the toilet compartment to open the curtains, as we'd done throughout the rest of the boat, to let some light in. We were pleased to note that, after three weeks, the seal on the flap seems to be holding and the clean water flushed into the pan was still there. It hadn't even evaporated.

We plan to do some work on the boat and the only space to do that is in the lounge so the fitter rolled up the carpet and put it face down on the bed which, in turn, is already covered with an old sheet to try to keep the worst of any dirt off the duvet cover. At least we won't feel so guilty when we start sawing in the lounge or if we place anything on the bed whilst we're working in that area.

As we expect to be restricted to how often we can visit the boat for a few weeks, we're trying to sort out a few jobs that we can do at home. We can usually grab the odd hour at home, even after a day in London, but finding enough time to make a trip to the boat worthwhile is liable to be much more difficult. So the next job was to measure the windows. We still have to decide finally how we're going to surround them but, at present, we're thinking of plywood against the cabin side because we can keep the grain horizontal easier that way - Ash would probably split quite easily as the width to be covered is only about 25mm. We'll then have a narrow piece of Ash at right angles to the plywood, and a further piece of Ash at right angles to that to disguise the join and cover the screws that secure the cabin wall panels to the wall battens. We intend to make some templates out of either plain plywood or MDF and use these to cut the veneered plywood to shape. We're hoping that we can use up some of our offcuts of the veneered plywood for this purpose but the template has to come first and be checked for fit.

We have two window sizes. They are twenty one inches deep and are either twenty four or thirty six inches wide - having measured them all, we're pretty certain that they're are imperial and not the metric equivalent, where we'd expect to see the measurements rounded to the nearest 5mm. We'll make a template for the five larger windows and try that for size on a future visit. Then, when we've finished with the larger windows, we'll cut the template down and use it for the smaller windows. At least that's the current thinking.

It is amazing, we've done all this and it isn't even tea time yet, so we got stuck in and removed the wardrobe door as we reckon this will make working on the drawers a lot easier, giving us the benefit from the extra lights in the engine room. With the door off, we got the shelf that will go over the drawers. We knew that we'd have to trim this to size as the width is slightly less at the back than at the front. And so it proved.

Alas, it was at this point that we realised that we'd forgotten to bring a plane with us. We'd thought of it before we left home but hadn't gone and gotten one there and then and that's why we forgot it. In fact, we think that we were laid in bed when we thought of it, which probably accounts for why we didn't go and get one.

With a mix of chisels and fairly coarse abrasive we trimmed the shelf so that it would slide into place. Although it now fits along the sides, there is a 4mm gap at the back in one corner - tapering to nothing in the other corner, and a 2mm overhang in one corner at the front and 6mm in the other. Obviously (but not surprisingly), whilst the sides are parallel to their opposite number, the wardrobe is not square. The initial thought was to trim the back first and then bring a plane so that we could trim one side until the shelf fitted, possibly and subsequently adding a piece of Ash as an infill if needed. Then we thought about trimming the front edge, which is lipped with Ash trim. Finally, and probably the way we'll go, unless we think of anything else, we can trim the back to remove the gap. This will move the shelf backwards by 4mm. As we believe that the front corners of the shelf are at right angles, the drawer mounts must be slightly out of square. Consequently, by using the shelf as a guide and repositioning the side panels, we can bring the shelves back square.

Things came to a halt then for morning tea, an excuse to have a rest, although we didn't plan on it being for thirty minutes! After tea we picked up the four drawer fronts from where we'd left them at the front of the boat and took them astern, intent on rough positioning them to see how they looked. We shouldn't have bothered!

They were too narrow and, as we found when we then stood them one on top of the other, they were too deep - not that we now needed to worry too much about this. We think that we forgot to allow for the trim when we worked out the depth of each front but we have no idea how they ended up about 35mm too narrow. Subsequently, and we have yet to check, we wonder whether when we cut the plywood into two, we picked up what was intended as the offcut and used that to make the drawer fronts, leaving the piece that we really wanted behind. Fortunately the left over is still in the garage at home and can be checked later. However, just to be on the safe side, before we left, we went over to the dry store and claimed what is probably the only remaining piece of a suitable size, and have taken that home.

With any further work on the drawer fronts now not possible, we started on the trim around the shower facia's bare plywood edge.

Each piece of trim was around 1.4 metres in length, the size of the board they were cut from. Although we could slip the trim over the edge to be covered near the ceiling, the trim was too long to get even the roughest idea of an approximate length. First we had to square off the end near the ceiling. We say square advisedly, because we mean that across the width, but as the ceiling is curved, the depth had to be cut at an angle. The fitter had had the foresight to take a plastic protractor with him and was thus able to ascertain that the angle between facia edge and ceiling was about 15°.

We cut this angle and then decided that the only way that we'd be able to accurately cut the other end would be to cut the trim to an approximate length and then cut the offcut into two and shape the ends of each piece to ensure they met properly. When they did, draw a line on the facia and then measure the length between ceiling and mark and cut the trim to that length. We'd already calculated, with the aid of a sliding bevel and the protractor that the overall angle was 160°, so we cut the ends of the two offcuts to 80° Fortunately, because we were using offcuts from the two vertical pieces of trim the grove was wide enough to fit over the Corian and not be restricted by the panel edge that was overhanging where the narrower grooved piece of trim would ultimately go.

We marked the facia, measured the distance from ceiling to mark and took the plunge and cut the trim. Phew! it fitted. We offered up the offcut to make sure all was still well and it was, almost. There was a slight discrepancy where the edge of the Corian was proud of the edge of the plywood, but with a careful bit of trim trimming we got the fit that we wanted. It was time for the next piece.

The next piece of trim and the subsequent two were only required to cover the thickness of two pieces of plywood and the skin of the bath. However, to avoid using different widths for the trim, which would leave an exposed edge, all the trim was the same width with the groove width being varied to keep everything looking neat and tidy. We knew the angle for the end of this new piece of trim so we cut that straight away. We then calculated the joint angles that we'd need at the other end and cut that angle on the other ends of our previous two offcut pieces. Again, once we were happy that we'd got angle and position right, we marked the facia, measured between the marks and cut the trim to the right length.

We knew that this latest piece of trim wouldn't fit straight away because we'd need to open out the groove at one end to accommodate the excess Corian. However, we got a surprise when we tried the initial test fit. The groove was too wide. It didn't take too many seconds to work out what had happened. Regular readers may recall that we'd had a few problems with the router when we were cutting the grooves in the trim. One of those problems was when we'd put the fence in the wrong place and the router had all but snatched the wood out of our hands because we were attempting to cut on the wrong side of the cutter. We'd realised our mistake, made a mental calculation, moved the fence and not bothered to check the resultant groove. The consequence of this was that the groove was about 3mm too wide. Luckily this was better than being too narrow as far as fitting there and then were concerned, but we'll need to take the trim back home and glue in a 3mm wide filler piece before we ultimately fit the trim.

This error had one further advantage. We had 3mm worth of wood that we didn't need to cut out to make the trim fit around the Corian. We gradually pared the excess wood away, test fitting every so often until we were happy that we'd got a decent fit.

The other three pieces followed the same pattern, try the offcuts for positioning, mark the facia, measure between the marks and then cut the trim to length and angle. We did get one mitre angle reversed, but we'd cut the piece too long, so reversing the cut made the wood the right length. We also cut one mitre a little too close to the end of the piece of Ash with the result that the saw wandered and the cut wasn't square. We had to take the chisel and carefully trim off the excess to correct that problem.

Eventually we had the five pieces of trim all cut to the right lengths. We'd have taken a picture but we'd left the camera at home. We removed the trim and put it to one side to take home to varnish and add the filler piece. We'll probably only give the trim one coat of varnish at home. A further couple of coats will be applied once it has been glued in place so that we can seal the end mitre joins to stop water penetrating into the end grain.

A fair amount of this work had been taking place over the lunch period. Although the fitter initially stopped to eat he then decided to crack on whilst he waited for his soup to cool a little. He then got so carried away that he was eating sandwiches and cutting mitres almost simultaneously. In fact he got so engrossed that it was nearly 3pm before he finished eating and only a short while after he was packing up ready to go home.

The weather had broken again with some heavy and squally showers. This didn't encourage the fitter to stay too long and he wanted to get home reasonably early anyway. Before he went, and conscious that it may be a while before he gets to the boat again for a day, he decided to try to make the template of the rounded bottom corner of the windows so that he could take it home and make up a full window template, possibly even making his first cover panel using the plywood that he has at home.

He carefully taped a piece of paper to the bottom corner of one window and then used a mix of finger nail pressure and pencil to draw an outline on the paper. The piece of paper was then transferred to a piece of thin plywood brought from home specifically for the purpose and the plywood was marked. Some measurements were taken and the fitter decided that the radius of the curve was either 80mm or 75mm or possibly three inches. He opted for 80mm, drew an arc of that radius on the plywood and cut it out using the jigsaw. He sanded to the line and tried it against the widow. The fit wasn't too bad, but wasn't as good as it should have been. He tried again in another corner of the plywood, with the radius set to 75mm. The fit was a lot better and for the time being, will be what we work to. Whether we'll notice the difference if we were to cut to 76.2mm, the metric equivalent of three inches, we don't know. We might try it before we start to make the final template.

The other jobs that the fitter had intended to do were to fit trim around the windows in the front doors and to fit some trim across the front of the shower's facia to disguise the recently cut access panel. Neither of these were going to be quick jobs and the shower one couldn't be completely finished until the edging trim was in place.

As it was now after 3pm, the fitter decided to pack up and go home, rather than start anything else. He took the first load to the car and just managed to get back to the boat as the heavens opened once again. He stayed on the boat, ready to run to the car at the first sign of easement. This procedure was repeated four times before the car was finally loaded and he was able to lock the boat and head for home.

He unloaded the car when he got home and found that there'd been no rain worth speaking of while he'd been away. Later in the evening, having written up much of these notes, he checked the plywood in the garage and found that he had done as he'd thought, for there was a piece of 9mm plywood, just the right width to make the wardrobe drawer fronts from.

Monday

Off to London again for the first of probably three and maybe four visits this week. There wasn't time for any boat related woodwork when the fitter got home, but he was able to spend an hour or so finishing off the notes of Sunday's antics.

Tuesday

Back to London again. A morning meeting ended earlier than planned but a telephone call immediately thereafter stopped the fitter heading for home earlier than planned. By the time he did get home he had amassed a wealth of paperwork and this was to keep him busy all evening.

Wednesday

With a nephew and family due on Saturday, the fitter had hoped to be able to spend the day in the garage, trimming the porthole liner to length and then converting the rest of the piece of Ash into a fruit bowl, which his niece had requested. Alas, Tuesday's pile of paperwork, coupled with the need to do the weekly domestic shop, followed by an hour or so mending a friend's computer, completely scuppered any attempt to get into the garage. In fact, these notes are being written just before 10pm and the pile of unattended to paperwork is still quite high.

Thursday

The third, and definitely not final trip to London this week followed, during the evening by a social engagement that included a meal.

Friday

The fourth trip to London this week. Arrival home was later than usual by two hours and was followed by an evening with the paperwork amassed during the day.

Saturday

The family visit didn't materialise for several reasons. Consequently the fitter spent the morning on the PC writing up a resume of the year's events that will go out with the Christmas cards to family and friends that we don't see too regularly. The PC work lasted until just after lunch, after which the fitter found time to dive into the garage to try to progress some boat work.

With no firm plan he turned on the lathe, intent on cutting the liner to size and removing it from the lathe, possibly making a start on the bowl that he intended to turn from the remaining wood. He was surprised to find that the unattended wood had moved quite considerably and the liner was certainly no longer completely round. Whilst the distortion was noticeable on the lathe, it won't really notice once the liner is on the boat, although there is a worry that the wood might move further given the variations in temperature and humidity that will be found on the boat in the course of a year.

The fitter carefully marked the liner and then proceeded to slowly cut into the wood with a parting tool. This took some while because the wood had moved and the liner wasn't round, so the tool was bouncing on the wood as it went round. Furthermore, the wood was cut across the tree with the heartwood very much present. This also caused problems and made getting a clean cut difficult. Eventually, after numerous stops to check, the fitter cut through the wood in a few places and this was the signal to stop and separate the liner from the remains of the block with a saw.

The liner was then reversed onto an extended scroll chuck and the underside of the liner cleared up. Again, the irregularity of the shape made this quite difficult and there are some sanding marks that simply will not disappear. The liner was then put to one side, to go to the boat the next time we go over. Hopefully the wood won't move again.

All this had taken a couple of hours so the fitter decided that he only had time to fit the filler on the trim for the shower's facia. He took a suitable sized offcut, cut it to approximate thickness on the bandsaw and then planed the cut edge smooth, during which process the strip broke into two parts. Luckily, the parts were still of suitable sizes to be used. He then applied glue to one side of the filler strip, created a rubbed joint between filler strip and trim and then wedged the filler piece in place and left it for the glue to dry. The process was repeated with the other two pieces of trim to bring the time in the garage to an end for the day.

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