Sunday, February 13th, I found myself back in the delightful surroundings of The Pine Cottage - a place of endless possibilities: requiring one to introduce hand to material, tap into imagination, and coax art from board feet of earthly beauty. Plus, I just smile walking into a place with so many tools! What a fine bunch of craftsmen and women here; with customers throughout the eastern US. If you are in need of high-quality, custom-made furniture, then give Paul Clements a call.
But my pursuit was not fine kitchen cabinetry, I had more of a marine mind bent this day: reshape toe rails, and begin construction of the forward hatch. I had originally designed a toe rail that proved a little too beefy for the Sea Sprite 23. The amount of freeboard, and just overall size of Froonie, caused the proportions to be a bit awkward with the toe rail I initially cut. So I decided to reduce the height of the rail by about 1/2" - ending up with a rail that was 1 1/4" at the base and 3/4" in height. In addition to being more pleasing to the eye, the new rail was far easier to bend, and would make for a generally pleasing installation process :) ...pictured below: first cut (right), adjustment (left).
After spending time running the 'new' toe rails across the router table for the 1/4" round-overs, and sanding the surfaces with first 80 grit then 120 grit, I turned to assist Glenn with the construction of the forward hatch. Glenn is a furniture maker here at The Pine Cottage, and is quite an artisan. While I was working the toe rails, Glenn was preparing the stock for which we would use in the construction of the hatch. He ripped boards from a couple slabs of teak I was keeping at the shop: ripping on the table saw, and then running through the joiner and then the sander to create the "starting" pieces. When I arrived at the shop in the morning, Glenn and I poured over my measurements and notes while warming up on coffee. After a good discussion of my general idea, Glenn proceeded to build a plan for the hatch in his head!! The final design would require no screws, bolts, or nails. The hatch would be constructed of just joinery work! It will be a piece of furniture setting atop the foredeck!
It will be rather difficult for me to explain fully what is taking place here, as I am learning wood-working, but I think you will get the idea through my scant descriptions along with good pics. Below are the ripped pieces from the teak slabs - ready to begin!
As I mentioned previously, the hatch will come together with epoxy applied to as much surface area as possible - meaning the use of splines. The picture below shows grooves cut into the frame boards, with a spline to be used in the epoxy process. The spline creates more surface area for the epoxy to set-up on, avoiding being limited to just end-grain mating surfaces - not the best. The stair-stepped frame board shown in the picture below will hold the acrylic panel (top notch / rabbit), and then the teak slates across the top of the acrylic (bottom notch / rabbit).
Here is a picture (below) showing the splines being run through the rather expensive SCMI sanding machine - three belts working per pass of material, 100, 120, and 150 grit.
Finally, here is a crude picture of the mock-up of the forward hatch. This view would be from the bottom looking up through the hatch. The acrylic panel will rest in the rabbit just on top of (in this view) the teak slats. The finishing stages will obviously offer a better idea of the completed hatch...yeah, I can't wait either! Glenn, thanks again for the skill and artistic prowess!
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