Day 302

There's something to be said about facing all the cupboards in oak. Edges can be rounded in high wear areas, no worry about veneer peeling ( Stripping used to hide plywood or particle board edges ) and a good solid look. It is a little hard to work with as it's cheapest in its' rough form, and requires trimming uneven edges and sanding or sometimes planing of the mill marks.

The top of the dash has been something I have been meaning to do. The top edge that overhangs the angled face of the dash panel should ( in my opinion ) be wood. The top photo to the right shows a smoothed board being held in place. 7/8" oak board doesn't bend easy so a test was done first.

Time lapsed 2 days into the future ( I delayed updating this page for this! ) the photo lower right shows the end result of routing and smoothing after 3 coats. The forward edge was cut in 3/8" to reduce the apparent height and add to rigidity.

I thought of cutting cup holders into it but not a good place for anything liquid, straight above all the electronics! ( I have learned this from having repaired many "coffee doused" commercial radios. Anything with sugar in it can tear a PC board apart from the inside out from sugar crystallization! Colas are even worse, the acid eats components.)

As we work inside the boat, everything that was thawing refreezes. This makes for extremely slippery deck conditions, but a cool looking icicle array down the hull. ( Photo below )

My main project for the day was to add the curve and support strip to the front of my desk.

The straight edge is ok, but not very boat-like! A sweeping curve always looks nicer to me, and as it's going to be my desk and music studio, it's going to have a curve.

Below left shows a length of 1/2" quarter-round being used as a curve pattern. I laid it out, held in place with finishing nails, until it met with what I wanted. The idea I have is to allow edges on each end to line up with sets of drawers beneath. Because of the shape of the hull coming in, they can be parallel but not even. This should remedy that uneven look somewhat. ( I hope!)

Day 302:
8 hours - Made dash top, Vanity surface and face, Desk curve and surface finish


I could have designed it to have the drawers parallel to the hull but that would move the back away from the bulkhead on one end, resulting in added framing etc, and a filler on the other end, a waste of space! Above the curve can be seen. A 3/4" x 1 1/2" length of oak follows the curve ( more of less...) It resisted quite a bit, but after a bit of coaxing ( and the belt sander ) everything smoothed off. We chose some arborite for my desk top, that will also be for the vanity top that was cut from the same piece of 3/4" plywood. ( Actually, I chose hehe! ) The dark color is a pleasant change from all the whites, and is more "studio-like" when there's lots of electronic music stuff. I'll need to get a better picture of that. ( below left )
*The view of finished desk top*	Gena kept busy finishing of the face of the vanity (Top page photo) and planning where all the pipes will go. I'm glad she has some knowledge about pipes from several house building experiences, as I'm useless at it. I haven't a clue about all those threads and sizes and fittings!