Master Cabin Bed

I'm working on the bed in the master cabin, and I feel as if I'm making some good progress.

The face frames for the drawers ( 12 drawers) is complete as is the panel foot board. I used plywood for the center partition on the bed so I'd have a place to hang the drawer guide off of. I framed the mattress support out of 1 3/4" stock using pocket screws. While the bed is becoming a stout piece of furniture, everything about the bed is modular and able to be taken apart in relatively large pieces. I could probably dis-assemble the whole thing in about 1/2 of an hour.

The mattress support and bed rail are cantilever over the chest of drawers by about 4". This has proven to be a nice detail as it lets you get right against the bed while not having your toes hit the drawers. It just makes the room feel more comfortable. The cantilever also made the bed/drawers attachment much easier along with fabricating the radius. Because I now have wires in the head board, it would not be too difficult to incorporate some small LED lights in the cantilever to illuminate the drawers if the lighting needed to be improved to see into the drawers.

The outside rail for the bed finished out at 5" tall. I used pocket screws to assemble the two bent laminated pieces to the rail sections and I'm extremely happy with how the joints look. Ignoring the difference in the grain, one would be hard pressed to see the joint itself. I used three pocket screws per joint, and I also applied a little glue to each piece. The bed rail is extremely rigid, and while one would have to be careful if it ever had to be removed, the piece would fit through either the engine room door, or the door to the head and into the guest cabin.

I held the bed rail down 3/4 " below the mattress support framing. I've always figured on using an 8" foam mattress, but sitting on the rail, and looking at how other things are fitting together, I could probably get away with a 6" tall mattress.

I incorporated a book shelf of sorts into the head board, along with a place to have two LED reading lights. Instead of robbing the natural light from the port lights, we decided to not have a top shelf on the book case/headboard so light would have an easier time getting past the book case. I fabricated a fiddle to the base of the book case, and one rail across the front to hold in whatever gets put on the shelf. The reading lights, with their 3" base, will fit between the fiddle and the rail.

The reading lights were originally going to be installed on the hull liner above the book case shelf. I ordered some lights with a long flexible neck, and after putting them up on the liner, I felt that the looked like crap. I scrapped that design, and had to come up with a better location. Putting the lights on the head board would have made them too close to the pillow, so I built three mini columns for a place to install the lights. The mini columns turned into a support bracket for the book case rail, so this is how the book case came to be. I had to fix my screw up with the wire location, so I cut a dado in some stock, and made a wire chase that I screwed to the hull liner. The wood wire chase's look OK, and was a much better alternative to removing the hull liner and pulling new wire.

Building of all the drawers that will reside in the master cabin is the next item on the to do list.

Bending wood

I'm still doing wood work in the master cabin, and I've been focusing in the bed.

The bed sits on a chest of drawers ( twelve drawers in total). Because our sink is in the master cabin, the walking path between the bed and sink needed to be "just so" in order for me to feel comfortable walking between the two. I moved the bed aft off the center line about 7 inches. The other design feature I wanted to build into the bed was having radius corners at the foot board to help navigate between the sink and the bed. It's amazing how more comfortable it is to walk past a radius corner vs a right angle corner. This, like other projects on the boat, is a fight for inches.

My first inclination was to cut multiple kerfs in the radius pieces to achieve the bend. Because one will see those kerf cuts, I decided not to go that route. I decided to laminate multiple pieces together and bend them around a form.

I re sawed stock into 1/8" staves to get the pieces I would need to do the laminating. I had problems cold bending the staves so I decided to steam bend them with a thrown together steamer and steam box.

I built the steamer out of a piece of square tubing witch I fabricated a base, a lid, and a nipple to accept a piece of radiator hose. The steam box was built out of duct tape and some old 2" rigid insulation I had laying around. I drilled some 1/4" holes in the side of the box to insert welding rods to make shelves for the lumber to sit on. My wife's meat thermometer put a high tech look to the whole contraption.

Once the box got up to 212 degrees, it only took about 20 minutes for the wood to act like a piece of rubber. I had to work quick to get the glue on then get the pieces bent around the form. Another person sure would have been handy, but I managed to pull it off.

Port Light Trim

Making the trim rings for the port lights was a fun job. A few design issues on how best to cover the plywood paneling with the trim ring was the only real snafu on this project, but once the bugs were figured out, they went together pretty quickly.

I had to do a little searching to find some 10" wide stock to make the trim ring or else I'd be faced with having to edge glue some boards together to get the width I wanted.

The first step was to make a template of the trim ring. I made the template out of some 1/2" Cherry scrap plywood.







I used the template to mark the stock, then rough cut the ring on my band saw.


I then screwed the rough trim ring to the template, and routed it to match the template with a flush trimming bit.

Since the trim ring is screwed to the plywood paneling, I had to hide the edge of the plywood by extending the inner form of the trim ring by 1/2". I cut some pieces to shape on the band saw, glued them to the trim ring, then used the router to cut them flush once the glue cured.










The next step was to round everything over with a 3/8 radius rounding bit

Before I had installed the plywood paneling I had glued a closed cell gasket to the port light frame to prevent sweating. Once the paneling was in place, the paneling compressed the gasket against the port light frame. Now that the trim ring is installed, the trim ring also compresses the gasket due to the 1/2" ring extension I glued to the inner form of the trim ring. I feel that condensation on the port light frames will be a non issue.










In this last picture you can see how I laminated the extension piece on to the trim ring to hide the plywood edge. The last piece of the port light window frame condensation issue will be pretty straight forward I think. I'll need to find a piece of rubber channel to fit over the 3/16" frame edge prior to me installing the glass. Once that last edge ( witch you can see in the last picture) is covered, I doubt very much I'll get any condensation on the window frame. I might get some sweating on the glass, but none on the frame. The last thing I want is staining on the wood from sweating metal. The trim ring will come off when Install the glass witch should be later this Winter. I like not having the glass in so I can hear the radio I have down in the shop.

Home Grown

Every time I do a clearing job and have the ability to take some Cherry trees, I bring them to my neighbor, and he saws them into lumber for me. I have two stacks this size of Cherry that's been air drying in the loft of the shop for a few years , and it's time I finally get to use some of it.

If I were to guess, I'd guess that I have well over a thousand board feet stashed away in the barn. It's a good feeling to finally be able to use some of this fine lumber and get on with some finish wood working.

Even though this is not perfectly clear lumber one might find in a wood workers supply house, I do get quite a bit of interesting looking grain including curly and birds eye. I try to be keep a close eye on things when I'm pulling a piece out of the pile, but until you run it through the planer, its always a mystery how it will look once planed. I love the straight grained clear lumber, but I also love the wild crotch grain or the funky look you get from the birds eye grain. Cherry has always been my favorite wood to work with. It machines well, glues and holds a screw great, and I love how it darkens with age.

Going the rough sawn lumber route is a little more work for me, but the price is right. I love not having to head off to the lumber supply house and I for sure love the fact that I'm keeping more cash in my pocket.

Finish lumber

I got a decent start this weekend on getting some finish lumber installed in the master cabin. I'm using Cherry veneer plywood for the hull sides and partitions in the master cabin, and a lesser quality ( maybe Birch) for the head, hallway, and kids bunk room.

While I still think the engine room's steel door jamb could have been a few shades lighter, I'm happy as to how it looks vs the white I had initially painted the jamb. Looking at in in this picture, I must say I think it works fine.

I'm using #12 1 1/2" brass wood screw to fasten all the plywood. I have a Fuller tapered drill set that does a nice job countersinking for the screw and boring for the wood bung all in one pass. I've used some cheaper tools for this type of work, and in my opinion the cheaper stuff is junk and not worth ones time messing with. If I'd have to guess, I'd guess I've used 150 screws to install the master cabin panels, and most of those will have to be plugged with bungs. I'll cut the bungs from scrap Cherry lumber, then part them on the table saw. I'll probably use a sharp chisel to pare the bung down close, then finish sand the bung with a DA sander to get it flush. I'm a little worried about glue stains, but I think if I wipe each bung after tapping it home with a damp cloth, I should keep glue staining to a minimum. I'm using a 1/4" x 1 1/4" batten to cover all the butt joints, so I won't have to bung those screws.

I scribed then I belt sanded to the scribe line on all the panels are perpendicular to another panel. I'm happy with how the fit and finish has turned out as a playing card wont' fit in any of those perpendicular joints.

I used a lower grad plywood where the bed is going because I thought I might be a sheet short. Turns out I was fine on how much material I used, but I'm not complaining as you won't see any of the cheaper plywood as it's behind the headboard of the bed.

Now that the master cabin space is defined, and the foam is disappearing behind that nice Cherry plywood I will now start laying out for the bed, and the various cabinets I'm going to have in the cabin. I chose to have a sink in each cabin, vs a one sink in the head. The size of the master cabin and the size of the bed make installing the cabinet for the sink the next order of business. I started looking at some layout tonight, and I might end up moving the bed aft a few inches to make the pathway between the bed and the sink more comfortable. Either way, I'll buy a sink this week and mock up a cabinet install to see how it fits in relation to the bed and being able to walk past the bed. It's important for me to feel comfortable as I walk around the cabin, and two or three inches in the right spot can make all the difference in how the room feels ( in my amateur opinion).

I think I'm going to do some cabinet building in the master cabin before I begin paneling the rest of the hull ( kids bunk room, head, and hallway). I had thought I'd not be able to bung one panel on the engine room bulkhead as I might have had to remove it to get my engine control cables from the wheel house to the engine. Now I think I'll route the cables a little different than planned and won't have to remove the panel.

The devil's in the detail

I thought I was pretty much wrapped up with the wiring and plumbing to the point of where I could begin installing the Cherry plywood on the hull sides and partitions.

I was looking at the route of one of my water tank fill lines on the starboard side, and started to get concerned that I was making things a little too tight in regard to the fill lines and the lines for my future air conditioning unit. I decided to re route one of the water tank fill line to give me, what I consider, barely enough room to route the two cooling lines for my AC unit. Out comes the hole saw so I can create an 1 1/2" bore through frame #8. Hole sawing complete, so now I have to de-burr the hole, put a couple of layers of epoxy primer, give the primer a day to set up, then top coat with a couple layers of acrylic enamel. That little hole slowed things up a minimum of one day.

I also was looking at the steel door jamb of the engine room door, and somehow the bright white door jamb was not going to look so good next to the ever darkening Cherry interior. I decided to paint the door jamb brown to make things "flow" a little smoother as far as the eye was concerned. I had some left over acrylic urethane from another project, and while it could have been a little lighter in shade, I have formally called it good enough.

I picked up a few hundred #12 1 1/2 brass wood screws from Fastenal today, and barring any more nit picking, I should begin some finishing work after the holiday weekend.

Water tanks: fill pipes, vent lines, and manifolds

I have eight water tanks under the sole of the forward cabins. The total capacity of the tanks is about 380 gallons. I guess I'll find out for sure what the capacity is once I fill all of them and begin using water. But for right now, I'm sticking with the story of 380 gallons in eight stainless steel tanks.

Because I have 8 tanks I decided to connect all the tanks together via the supply line feeding the fresh water pump. I installed a gate valve at each tank giving me the ability to isolate any one of the eight tanks. I would hate to have a water leak in one tank, and have that leak drain all the tanks. If I do develop a tank problem, I want to be able to isolate it quickly then deal with it on my terms and time. In order to totally isolate the tanks on the suction side, I had to be able to isolate them on the vent and fill side too. Manifolds were the easiest way I could think to accomplish what I had to do.

My deck fill line is 1 1/2" that manifolds to 1" that will fill each tank. I used 1" PVC ball valves and pressure fittings to build the manifolds.

My vent lines are 1/2" leaving the tank, then bush up to 3/4" tube witch goes into 3/4 ball valves, then into a 1" manifold. 1" stainless steel welded into the deck with a goose neck completes the vent. Again, I used PVC ball valves and pressure fittings for all the fittings.

My suction line feeding my pump is 3/4" wire reinforced tube rated for food service. All the ball valves on the suction line are 3/4" brass.

For the vent lines I welded 1" stainless steel into the the hull, then welded a goose neck on the vent above the deck. I epoxied 1" PVC couplers on to the 1" stainless thru hull, then bushed down to my 1" PVC manifold, bushed down to 3/4" slip x thread ball valves, threaded in 3/4" x 1/2" barbs, then went to the each tank with 1/2" tube.

The deck fill is 1 1/2" stainless deck fill bolted the the deck going into a 1 1/2" flexible PVC tubing, that leads to the 1 1/2" sch. 40 manifold.

I had to position the fill manifold ball valves so they would be flush behind the hull liner. The valve handles are easy to operate even though one is turned facing the hull sheathing. I'll have an easy to get to access port in the hull liner behind a cabinet to operate the valves if the need happens.

In some of the pictures, you can see the 1 1/2" bilge pump discharge lines plumbed next to the fill manifold. I have two 1 1/2" bilge pump discharge lines on each side of the hull. More on that later.

All my "behind the wall" construction is done regarding my water tank fill and vent. For that matter all the work under the sole concerning the water tanks is also complete. I'm getting pretty close to start installing the finished hull liner material.