Fifth Phase of Hatch Build

     Over the course of a couple days in late March (27th and 28th), Glenn and I created a jig at the shop - see The Pine Cottage - and cut channels in the corners to accept essentially what are biscuits.   The biscuits provide yet additional glue surface area offering an incredible strong construction.  The fact that the hatch has no fasteners throughout its construction offers great aesthetic appeal but required joinery work that promoted a durable construction.  The biscuits are cut from lyptus, a hybrid species of Eucalyptus grown in Brazil primarily and used often as an alternative to mahogany.  The thought behind the use of lyptus was to offer a dense wood that would stand up to the marine environment, but also to offer a wood species that gave some color distinction for the joinery work.  I failed to take photos of running the glued up hatch over the table saw to cut the biscuit channels...but you get the idea.

    The dry-run picture above provides a great chance to see the unique characteristics of the teak and lyptus...next, I would glue them up.

     As I had done with the previous epoxy work with the teak, I wiped all surfaces to be glued with acetone to remove the natural oils from the wood itself.  I then mixed a batch of 'neat' epoxy, and painted all surfaces to be glued.  Secondly, I mixed a batch of epoxy thickened with the West System 403 Microfibers and proceeded to apply to all surfaces and installed the lyptus biscuits.

Another shot of the biscuits glued in...is that Biden throwing curve balls?

     After the epoxy cured, I trimmed the protruding edges of the biscuits with a Japanese saw and smoothed the rough surface with 150 grit paper.  More sanding will be required just prior to the first application of thinned varnish, but the picture provides an idea of how the hatch is coming together.  On a recent paint day on location at Froonie, I took the opportunity to place the hatch on the foredeck for a look-see.  Not bad!