3605Hrs – Me And My Bright Ideas

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but working on a project like this is all consuming. The hours I’ve logged might equate to nearly two years of working a 40 hour week but there’s actually much more time than this that’s spent away from the build when you are thinking about the job, planning, researching, sourcing, ordering etc.

I often ‘work’ on the boat when I’m asleep as well. I drift off pondering some technical challenge and at some point hand it over to the ‘night shift’ which usually comes up with a possible idea or a solution. These ideas aren’t always brilliant though and muggins here still has to make them work using two caggy hands and a small brain.

Today has been a good example, I drifted off last night wondering how I could manufacture a curved end for the wash stand in the heads. I’d made a pattern using grooved back hardboard but I wanted to do the same with the fibreglass faced ply I’d made the top from. The ‘night shift’ came up with the bright idea of using the table saw to cut grooves in the back of the ply so that it would bend but it turned out to be not quite as easy as that.

After cutting the ply to the right shape I spent about half an hour on the table saw cutting the grooves and then tried to bend it…. no chance, it was still way too stiff. I sat down with a cuppa and pondered some more, I figured the only way it would bend would be to remove all the wood in the bent area so that just the fibreglass was left. The big router was the only way to do it accurately so that’s what I used.  It was a horrible job, loads of fibreglass and wood dust flying everywhere and despite covering up as well as I could I still ended up itching for the rest of the day.

It worked though and after some final adjustments and juggling with many clamps I was able to epoxy it in place. I can’t show you what it looks like yet because I forgot to take a photo, but I think it’ll do. Was it a worthwhile use of most of the day? Maybe not, but on the other hand I’ll be looking at it for years to come and smiling when I remember what it took to make it.

Once I’d glued it in place I needed to vacate the compartment so as to avoid disturbing anything so I moved into the main cabin to start on the water tank fitting. I cut a big hole in the bunk floor and then made and glued a support floor for the tank to sit on. The photo shows the view looking straight down through the deck hatch above.

Looks like paid work is going to interrupt proceedings for a few days, back at you soon though.