Day 317 Nice doors! Sliders /septic sys
The 2nd door into the head was a bit more of the challenge as the cockpit cupboard edge is slightly off square ( a result of the welding of the poopdeck before frames were attached mistake! ) with the top and bottom edges.
 
The logical thing to do was just make the whole door off square on one side, but leave the edge to meet evenly with the other door. It's about 1/2" but not noticeable at all. The panels in the center were cut to a slight angle (estimated to save time) and the door adjusted in place before the glue was dry. The above photo shows it before the stain, as I ran out of time.

Because the edge of the cockpit is round, the door is routed out ( photo left ) to match. It looks elegant but I wouldn't do it again hehe.

The photo to the right shows a panel set into a frame and a 5/16" baseboard cut off for the join. I think this will make it stronger than a routed tongue because the grain is strong edge. One could argue that the cross pieces' grain is going that way anyway, to which I would respond, "It's easier to line up this way!"

My next job is to start on the tracks for sliding doors that will be under the port side pilot house. Sliding doors seem like maybe a bad idea on a boat, especially the way we are going to do it with rollers, but if they are firmly latched closed there shouldn't be a problem.

 


Track inset into oak frame routed to make flush
The real problem is how to make the doors not fall out in the even of a knock down? Most sliding doors are place on to the track by lifting them into the top track ( some what deeper for this ) then moved into position on lowered into the bottom track.

I have solved this by making the bottom track removable. The plastic track has been recessed into a wide piece of oak. As only the outer tracks will be used, the attaching screws can be in the inner tracks.

I even got fancy and routed out a 1/8" inset 1/3 of the way in to allow for carpet insertion. The outer edges were routed round to make them "knee friendly".

Because the deck to pilothouse join has a curve, the real challenge was getting the oak to follow the curve. I thought about bending the oak, but 1" x 3" oak doesn't like to bend much on the hard edge!
As the curve was only 3/4" I decided to actually cut the curve into it. This worked well. ( photo left )
 
The doors won't be affected by this curve as they don't actually ride in the track, just the rollers at each end will.


 The curve looks kind of ugly (above photo) from the edge but was what was required to make it even for the face board to be equally distant from the door frames.
After putting on a couple of end frames, the whole thing has started to look finished. Only the face board remains to be added. The logical way to put 3 sliding doors in here is to have the center door forward. This way, the latch handle on the center door won't interfere with the end doors sliding. The end doors' handles will be on the outside ends of course.



Fittings ready to be placed on septic tank

 While at work I became artistic during a slow moment. We have acquired a load of plastic vents for cheap, but they are all white. This is ok for putting on panel but no good for wood. The solution was to paint them with acrylic to look like wood!

I think they do in the photo, don't you? They all look slightly different in both tone and color, which makes them even more authentic looking ha ha!

These will be mounted on cupboards and some doors etc. The white ones will be put anywhere there is white panel. Ventilation s important on a boat and these should allow enough for all areas. Under the aft berth we plan to put a small fan on one to allow air to flow from all of the back stowage areas, under the berth and out.

Now that I have greedily taken most of the page, I must mention what Gena was doing today. She has prepared the septic tank for all of the many fittings that are needed, as well as ran the drain pipes from the head, tub, and sink aft. Of course the holes were too small and had to be drilled out with a big hole saw which was a big job.
The top of the tank ( not in view ) will have very little open real estate once all of these fittings are on. They are as follows:

-a pump out tube to bottom of tank for manual pump
-a pump out tube to bottom of tank for marina suction
-the fill line and T fitting from fore and aft
-a hand pump for manual pumping out
-a vent hose fitting
-a level indicator tube to bottom and fittings ( this is custom built, more on it soon! )
-an access panel for cleaning ( I shudder at the thought! )

The "pipe" isn't really pipe per sae, it's actually reinforced hose. Pipe would have been impossible to deal with in such tight quarters.
Gena blue stuffed the top and once dry, all of the fittings will be mounted. Even though we have bags and bags of fittings, somehow we need more! Fittings aren't very expensive, but add them all up and they start to be a consideration money-wise. I think a fair number of those fittings will never be used and were purchased as a result of not knowing if this would work or that would work.....

Day 317:
10 hours: Made track for doors in pilot house, tested septic system fittings, ran drain pipe, finished 2nd door and mounted.


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