Day 281 Foam, aft entry
Foam insulating is fun!! Well sorta. Cutting the excess is a bit of work. After having done this twice before the excess was kept to a minimum and only took a couple of hours between us to remove. The remaining tanks from the aft section were just enough to do the pilot house. Next comes the rubbery coating "blue stuff". We had a hard time finding it this time. It may be going off of the market we're not sure. There are other foundation coats available though.
I have been ordered by the capt'n to complete the companionway doors before winter so off I went.

I have been thinking about this design for a while.

The entry consists of 3 elements. The lower door, upper door, and top hatch. Each former must be overlapped by the latter, giving it a measure of security as well as practicality.

  
Animation of lower door assembly
Unfortunately, this ,makes designing somewhat complex and dimensionally dependant. The animation shows some 3/4" SS angle notched and bent to create a good seal edge. Then the outer edge is fabricated from a piece of 3/8" rod.
These two will form a seating for the gasket and protect it from wear when the door is open. The rod gives it a soft edge to prevent injury while bumping into it etc.

This inset shows 5 notches sufficed. The welds on the notches need to be smoothed off before the rod is welded on or the seating for the gasket won't be even.
The top edge of the SS plate is pre-bent for whatever these were in a previous life. ( Gena found several at the scrap yard ) The lip is perfect for the 3/4" angle by coincidence.

The "box" that has been created will be facing toward the interior and will be filled with wood ( or that new plastic deck wood ) for looks and functionality.

This door will flip down into the cockpit and will be stepped on a lot. If we get tired of this while at anchor it can be easily removed. It can also be mounted off of the steering pedestal to become a small cockpit table!

 
Last order of the day was to apply some blue stuff to the new foam. It will take a while to dry, even with the heater going as the temps have fallen to below zero already. Luckily we're taking a few days off to go to work ( he he ) so it'll have some time.

Day 281:
6.5 hours: Made bottom cockpit door. Foam insulated, Blue stuffed it!

 


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