Cabin molding

This job kind of deserves it's own post since the cabin molding or eyebrow is rather time consuming and is the last woodworking job on the exterior other than the rudder and tiller. I'll add more pictures as the molding gets finished in the coming days...

Here is fitting the corner pieces. They are the first step and rather fussy as the cabin ends curve around the corner to the sides but not on a vertical plane as the cabin sides have 3 degrees ( I think)  of tumble home. The fit was further complicated by the fact that my glassing job left the corners ever so slightly rounded...that is not perfectly flat...sigh...I'm not much for glass work 

Once the fussy step of fitting to the corner is done then I can saw out the rest of the shape...

Then shape it to the pencil lines on the sander. (This simple sander was a college group project and has served me very well for years now)

Here the corner piece is finished except for final shaping. Three more to go...

Fitting the pieces in between the corners now. Once fit shaping can take place.

Fitting the cabin front molding.

Shaped and fit to the corners. Once all the sides are fit the corners will get shaped and blended it.

All the pieces are dry fit here and ready for final shaping and then gluing. The shaping is mainly done with round-over router bits but then the rest of the shaping has to be done with block planes and spokeshave and sandpaper to get a nice round shape. In order to avoid chip-out I start with a 3/8" round-over (r/o) and then 1/2" r/o and finally 3/4" r/o. That leaves a nice round radius and only a slight flat spot that gets sanded out. The corners are done entirely with rasp, file and sandpaper.

Yesterday I finally received the bronze carriage bolts that were caught up in the Canadian Postal Strike so I can install the boomkin and gallows permanently.

The cabin molding got glued on after masking it off and also with some plastic around the cabin to avoid 3M5200 from potentially getting on the teak cabin sides.. The joints at the corners are glued with epoxy: When I do this I drill some very shallow small holes with a tapered bit into the end grain of each joining piece. I figure the thickened epoxy can key into the mating holes that way. All in all I think it went well. The molding is waiting for an evening of sanding.

Another selection of pictures. Here the holes for the dinghy chocks are getting tapped into the epoxy plugs with a bottoming tap.  



The dinghy chock mounts installed

I thought I ought to include a picture of the finished drop boards. Finished thickness is 1 1/16".

The sliding hatch came out of the finishing room long enough for fitting the drop boards...

Here the samson post cap and brass corner rubbing strips are getting fitted

Ready for paint

The lazarette coaming and hatch finally had enough coats of paint on them to ínstall the hardware. The hinges had to be mounted on little shaped silver bali bases in order to fit the coved coaming. I will reluctantly admit that it was one of those quiet morning jobs that I thought I would start the day off with and needless to say it took longer than anticipated

As mentioned before the lazarette hatch was built so it opens in the centre. This way it is easier to access with the tiller in the way. I also used the Murray snap-apart hinges so is is easy to remove the hatch in order to get them out of the way. The gasket has a double hollow chamber and easily squishes under the hatches own weight for hopefully a good seal.