Boat Work in Tight Spaces (Replacing our Rotten Quarter Berths) - Free Range Sailing Ep 145
Hi guys. I'm in the final stages, here of cleaning, up, and. Sanding, and just prepping this space because this, is our all-new, court of birth. But it wasn't always like this. So let us take you back in time to two months ago, when we first started fixing these things up. Welcome to free range sailing. For those of you that are new here our boat marulle, is a clansmen, 30.. She's a fiberglass, 30-foot, masthead, sloop built in new south wales, in 1969.. Troy bought her seven years ago in cairns, and sailed her around the top of australia, all the way to perth. Three and a half years ago we sailed north from perth to circumnavigate. The australian, continent, together. Filming our cruising adventures. And attending to any essential maintenance, along the way. We are currently in lockdown in tasmania. The southernmost, part of the continent. Where we've decided, to carry out a long overdue, refit. If you want to be notified, of all our weekly refit videos over the coming months, make sure you subscribe, to our channel and hit the bell button. Previously, on free-range, sailing, we showed you the state of our rotten plywood, and water damaged lockers, in our quarterbacks. Last week as part of the overall demolition, process. Troy removed the rotten fly using a multi-tool. Keeping a nice inch wide fiberglass, lip, ready for us to place the new floors in. With the old ply removed there was more room for us to work. The next step was to transfer the line of the hull onto a strip of mdf, in order to get the correct shape for our new quarter birth floor. Here troy is using a compass with the arm set at the width of the greatest gap, so the needle is following the contour, with the pencil recording the path. That line, gave us an accurate guide to cut out the thin sheet of mdf. To the contour, of the hull. The final touches and shaping, were done with 80 grit sandpaper. As long as the corners, of each, side of these. Are in the corners where i want them. Then this, only has to register, against that surface, and these take care of the other corners, which is fine. So we'll just make that. 700. Using a right angle to cut that was totally unnecessary. The corners are already sorted out here, so all, i need to do is put that down. So that it contacts. And lines, up. With the corners here. And there. Just so that line is continuous. And there's our template. Hot glue is a quick and convenient, tool for making templates, from mdf. This, this mdf, it didn't come as, sheets like this it was like, that long. But. 60 centimeters, or 600, wide. And our friend peter was, gracious, enough to allow me to use his table saw so i just ran a whole bunch of these little strips. So we'll be able to do this, and i'll be able to make a template. To. Determine. The size of the plywood, cutouts that are going into here. And then i'll be able to make them in the hatches, that open. Away from the boat, i'll be able to take these templates, and they'll all be really great. Once i'm done with that, i don't need to throw these away, i can. Undo the hot glue with a. You know like a, paint scraper or a chisel. Undo it all and then use it again for when we're. Making our. Cabinetry. Mdf. Is medium density, fiberboard, so it's not cardboard. It's made out of wood pulp, but it's very dimensionally, stable. And it's easy to cut and it's easy to sand so it's really ideal for making these templates. So, rather than thinking of templates, as like a solid, shape. Um exactly like the finished product. If we think that we only just need the outline. You can just get away with these strips. Of course, when it's all made i'm going to just need a few bracing, strips across. All right, to make it a little bit solid, to so it's easy to transport. And this stuff is really great because you can make notes all over it as well and, we'll be doing that, okay.
Once This is all glued up then we'll write a whole bunch of notes and we'll see if we can get this out in one piece. So there's. Basically, a. Quick way of. Just making up a template so now i know that that. When it's cut out on the bandsaw, on a bit of plywood. Will all be accurate, this bit here i just need to cut that off, i just wanted to make that relatively, square. And it was relatively, easy, and we didn't have to depend. Very much on measurements. So. Remember back in the old days of carpentry, a lot of carpenters. They didn't use numbers and a lot of them were illiterate. So they used story, sticks they actually put marks on a stick and carried that and cut everything to pieces, so. This is sort of a modern variation, on the theme. We're laying out these. Just purely to trace the outline. And then we can take this off and we can't can cut it into our expensive, marine ploy this is cheap stuff. Make all your mistakes on the jeep. Stuff. We've made our plywood, templates, they look a bit rough at the moment don't they because i had to fold them to get into that great little hatchback we've been given, and, while we're on the theme of people helping us out. We don't want to give him too much camera, camera shock at the moment. But um. This is a great workshop, you've. Made available, to us and we really appreciate, it that's okay. So you've you've set all this up um yourself, over time. Add to it when you can yeah over several years and. Keep the gumtree alerts. Active. And then when something comes up that we've been been looking for and at a good price we snap it up you'll have a whole bunch of people on gum training. Yeah yeah that's right. Lance's woodwork, shop is comprehensive. Well laid out and all of the machines have been meticulously. Set up which took a lot of the challenge out of doing a reasonable, job. You can see the ply is not long enough for the stencil. But we have a cunning scheme we've already cut one. Before. Where these. Where these quarter births will go, there's a little divider, that makes up, the various compartments. So we're going to. Just cut it where it rests on one of those dividers, and i'll be, i'll be putting a support in and they'll join, when we put some fiberglass, in there you'll never know. With the panels cut to the size of the compartments, we needed to make hatch openings for lock access. We've taken a measurement, of where each compartment's, bulkhead, was and we just transferred, that onto the ply to establish, where to cut. With the lines accurately, marked out, we plan to use two saws to make the cuts. Starting, on the straight cuts by plunge cutting with a circular saw. And then, the curved cuts using a jigsaw. With the first hatch lid cut it was time to quickly measure out and repeat the process, for the remaining three hatch lids. What i want is it the same in from each end not necessarily, the top. Instead of measuring, each time, i just find it's easier, to find something that i can.
Measure Once and adjust it and set it nice and firmly. And then just. Mark it off. What it, does. Is, it really it speeds your work up but it, avoids, errors creeping, in. I'd like to be able to just, the ultimate, of no errors at all would just be able to lay one straight on but they're two different things they're two different sides they're two different sizes, of a clansmen. Or the same clansmen, but everything is just totally different. Because what they did with the clansmen they built it of course in the mold and then they just put workers in there and said right, build it up they got ply and they just glassed it in. So depending on the sort of day they had, was how square everything is. We're having a great day so we'll try and make a bit squarer than they did. All i need now is something that's pretty straight. That side has bad sides so we use the other side. All right and i want the hatch to be 400, millimeters. It's an arbitrary, number, but, suffice, to say, that i'm going to find, where 400, is 40 centimeters, 400 millimeters. And rather than. Put that blunt side and just sort of, try and. Put it on that mark. If you've seen some of our videos before you'll know what i'm going to be on about, i prefer to put the 400, on the mark, where i'm measuring from, now i've got a nice. Hard, metal edge. That i can run a pencil on. It's probably going a little bit overboard, making some lockers for a. Boat. But if you try really hard to do the best you can, even if you screw up you'll probably just get good enough. Whereas if you just try and slap together some good enough job. It could be it could end up anywhere. There we go. So, the other thing that we want to do now is. Some nice, round. Corners. That does two things it's a nice smoother cut, it does three things it looks better. It's smoother, to cut. But also on a boat. Anytime, you have a sharp 90, degree corner, or even more acute. Stresses will concentrate, there and you'll get a crack leading off. And in fact if you, are on a steel boat or an aluminium, boat more particularly, if you see a crack leading what they'll do.
Is Stop that crack with a drill hole with a round hole and that. Distributes, the forces. I just want a 40 mil, radius. Bend going around there do you remember how to construct those sort of things. It's not hard. So we'll just go back for a visit back to primary school geography. We'll go to the apex, of the corner. And we'll mark out 40 ml on one leg. 40 ml on the other leg and that gives us a spot where we can draw arcs from and where they come inside. We can just put our compass. And draw in our round corner that we can follow with our saw. Is that geography, or geometry, geometry. I'm a sailor i need to know geography. Is that right. I've labeled it port up, you can't put enough labels. On things. You can uh you can look at that jumble there and get pretty confused so make sure you just scribble over everything it's going to be painted over to do our plunge cut what we need to do is get, a nice. This is, quite a fancy fence. Furniture, grade fence. And. I'm just going to set it up. Circular, saws. If you didn't know this one's been marked 40 millimeters, from the edge they usually have. A rounded. Figure, and it's usually known. And that means you can set a fence from a distance of a line you want to cut and run along get a nice straight cut. So, once again. We've got our. Things set for 40, and that means we can just lay it on there. And actually get something, firm, to. To butt the fence up against, yeah, rather than a pencil line that you just sort of get it. Once troy had made the cuts i cleaned things up using this belt sander. A really great refinement, was that lance had connected, a dust extractor, to all of his machines. Okay. Cuts are all. Done. So now what we're going to do is just. Cut some strips. That are, 60 millimeters, wide. By 300, long. We cut the supporting strips on the table and drop saws and then rounded over the edges on the router table. Back at the boat we did a bit of custom fitting, and measured up the support piece for filleting, into the locker bulkhead, so when we were talking about where i was going to brace it. And incidentally, join these panels. This is where. There's that divider, there. So it's a half inch down. It will be resting, on there. And that will, make that a solid connection. Yeah, so. That can be screwed down and glassed. In. And then when those go on top of there, it will join it all up, and, it will support it and it'll be a very strong. Strong quarterback. Now these pieces here that we're using for the lip. Are. 60 millimeters. So i'm marking, in. 20 from here. And i'm marking, in 20 from here and this line is where i'm going to be putting, screw holes. And this line is to line up. With the lip. So what that'll end up is one third will be sticking out. And then, halfway, between the two bits. That are in there is where the screws will be so there'll be plenty of meat in, there. So just setting up my verniers, as 20 just it just speeds up the layout really well what's that tool for. That's a little center punch. Normally um. A spring-loaded, center punch like that you would use in steel work. But i've backed it right off, just for plyer. But when you hear that little crack, you know that it's made. A little. Hole in the timber and that little hole in the timber makes it really easy just to locate, the drill bit see it doesn't go anywhere. So now that i've got those layout lines all i have to do is match up that middle line, which is the middle of this piece, with that middle line which is the middle of that gap. And i know that if i have that line there matched with that edge, then this line here will be in the middle. So i'm just pre-drilling. All of these. Now. Because later on when i assemble it i'll be giving everything a smear with epoxy, glue. And then i'll be screwing it together with some eight gauge, three and a quarter screws. This bit even though it's getting a bit blunt now as it drills, it countersinks, ready for screws. Just to. Make it a bit quicker for lining up. I've also got my drill bit. And i'll just drop it down one of the holes. Oh and you put the bit in underneath, that to hold it. Yeah so it makes it makes life just easy, easy to definitely. Absolutely, line up yeah. But what i'll do first is just. Stick some of our nice thickened epoxy, on. There. When we returned to the house troy got busy giving the panels a coat of polyester, resin, all the layouts being done we've constructed, them pretty much and now i'm just. Before we go on they're getting a coat. Of polyester, resin it's cheaper than epoxy. And the adhesion on timbers should be pretty good, so we're just sealing the timber.
Making It, sort of watertight. Before, installation. And paint. Before we install the newly resin quarterback, floors and locker lids, i gave the insides, of the lockers a thorough sanding, and wash, and then applied a couple of coats of outlet enamel primer, and top coat. Now the quarter birth timber it's all been cut and glued and screwed into. Place. Underneath, this timber lip, uh you know the timber, quarterback, that we put in, obviously i didn't paint that before i put it in and the reason being is because. We. Used. Two-part, epoxy, to not only screw it but glue it down, to this. Fiberglass. Tab here. And that's where a lot of the strength was there's like a there's an inch thick fillet underneath it it's really strong. So we've secured, this down. But there is going to be a little gap, here. So what i've done is gone and just got that. Um. Expanding, polyurethane. Foam that's in a can, and just. Squirt it in the gap here. I've done that because i just want a lightweight, and quick way to fill that gap without using too much epoxy, because. The strength has come from the already. You know the already existing, tab. So this is just to fare it and, give it a nice, lead into the hull, so it makes the repair, more or less, invisible. So this is what we've got after i've cut it with the knife. So i've just finished. Standing, in the wall here of our quarterback. Uh we didn't, film it on camera but we we glassed, in the edges here that troy had filled in with that foam so we put a. Strips, of, fiberglass. And thicken epoxy, over it, and i've also been sanding that, uh using the orbital sander. But also, using, the multi tool with the sanding attachment which is really fantastic, it's a little triangle, attachment. So using that just to. Fare back the floors of these quarter births so that the join's, sort of seamless. Ready for the first coat of primer, of alken enamel, primer.
And Then. A coat of top coat i think actually i might do two coats of primer and two coats of top coat just so it's, really tough, we've actually already painted. The wall on this side, a bit earlier. And that way troy could install some conduit, in there so that the wiring, runs and everything that goes back to the stern. So that's mainly like our solar wiring, and also autopilot. And. Deck light. So that could run back in a nice, neat clean finish so i'm here right aft. And you can see where our new flooring, has gone in our new really thick piece of marine ply. And we've put, thickened epoxy. In here, and some layers of glass. And more thickened epoxy. And i fed that back with the multi tool and the orbital, sander. Ready for paint it's not. Like, it's not a perfectly, smooth finish. But. It is the quarterback, and it is going to have a mattress sitting on top of it so. I mean and the rest of the boat the finish of the boat is rough anyway so we're not going crazy. Getting all pedantic, about faring this perfectly. But yeah you can see, the rise there so. She's nice and strong now she's not going anywhere. And i'm lying on top of one of the hatch clips, and there's another hatchling, behind. Me. Really hope you enjoyed the, episode, this week and if you did it really helps us out if you give it a big thumbs up, it kind of gives us exposure, to a broader audience, and like-minded, people also. And if you haven't already. Please, subscribe to our channel that really helps us out too, and you'll get if you hit the bell button you'll get notifications. To, keep up to date with everything that we're up to and our new releases. I'd also like to say a massive thank you to lance, and his family for letting us use the workshop, space. We're going to be going back there a lot over the coming weeks as we. Fix up and do the interior of our sailboat so there's lots to look forward to on free-range, sailing, i'm really excited, to share with you guys. The transformation. Of the inside of our sailboat, it's been a really amazing, journey, so stick with us. More coming your way, also, a massive shout out and a. Massive, thank you to all of those of you who've. Supported, us on patreon, and paypal, we couldn't have done this refit without you so from the bottom of our hearts, we are really grateful. Thank you and see you next. Week. You.
2020-09-08 05:29
