The Arctic Tern Project

Volume 5                           Issue No. 11                      November 2008

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And More Cockpit Work

Ok, this month was spent forging ahead with the cockpit.  Specifically, the coaming caps and winch pads.

Coaming Caps and Winch Pads

First step was to final dry-fit the coaming caps and make sure I was all happy with their shape.  The forward end of the cap has a divot taken out of it accidentally by the router.  This will be filled later with thickened epoxy.

 

 

While I’m fitting the caps I’m also continuing to laminate the winch pads.  The winches themselves are from Denmark and call for either 6mm or ¼” fasteners.  The only machine screws available that are long enough (4”) for what I want to do are the ¼” variety so I go with that despite the fact that they really don’t fit that well in the countersinks (I have to shave down the heads to clear a roller bearing race on the winch.  I want to embed a nut in the winch pad for the machine screws so I go ahead and do that.

 

 Once the epoxy cures I try to get the machine screws out.  Despite the fact that I’ve coated them with oil I still have a heck of a time getting them out and have to use vice grips on the exposed ends to break the bond and then cut off the exposed end with a hack saw thereby ruining all 12 4” stainless machine screws.

 

 

About this time I do another coat of epoxy on the cockpit seats and locker lids.

 

 

Then I mark out the position of the winch pads and drill a hole for the 3/8” bronze lag bolt that’ll fastening them down from under the side deck where I’ve double up the thickness with an additional piece of 18mm back when I laid the decks.

 

 

The blocks are also fastened with 4 #10 x 2” stainless screws through the coaming.

 

Next, I round off the corners of the winch pads using a rasp and sandpaper.  The lid to my travel-mug seems like an ideal radius for the corners.

 

 

Then I do a little test mount.

 

And trim up the coaming cap to clear the winch pad.

 

 

And trim the coaming cap to clear the winch base.

 

At this time I glue on the final lamination on the bottom of the winch pads.  I need to reinsert new machine screws (I buy another dozen ¼” machine screws at $2 a pop ) so epoxy won’t fill the holes.  I take this opportunity to add more epoxy to the holes so I get a tighter fit but when it comes time to take out the machine screws again I manage to break off two of them inside the winch pad!  Egad.  I drill out through the underside, get a nut on the exposed end, flatten the threads so the nut won’t come off and then back it out using a socket.  What a save!

 

 

On this picture you can see how I’ve had to reduce the diameter of the heads by putting the fasteners in the drill press and filling the edge.

 

About this time I’m getting a little disgruntled with the ¼” fasteners.  They don’t really fit that well in the winch.  Not only is the head diameter incorrect but it seems the angle of the countersink is different as well.  I find a spare 6mm machine screw that I have around and this fits much better.  I decide to abandon the ¼” fasteners and order up a dozen 6mm fasteners instead.  This means I need to drill out and remove the ¼” nuts that I’ve embedded in the winch pads.  This is actually pretty easy to do.  I just drill down to the nut and then put some threaded in there to pull them out.

 

Ok, so I manage to do the conversion to 6mm fasteners but I still need to shave the heads a bit because I got allen head machine screws instead of Phillips (because I like them better and they were longer) and it turns out they have a larger diameter head.  At least the countersink angle seems correct.  Anyway, the winch pads finally get glued in place and fastened down and so do the coaming caps.

 

After the epoxy cures I’ve got a bunch of fiddly cleanup to do around the edges.

 

 

I’m also still trying to figure out what to do in this area here in back of the coaming blocks.

 

I’m not happy with what that looks like so I decide to mould a cove all the way down.  I use a sheet of plastic and then roll a 5/16” diameter dowel back and forth to get the shape.  Once it cures I peel off the plastic (already peeled off in the pictures below).

 

 

Then I scrape and sand.

 

I also add some fill to this area where I over-sanded (good thing this will all be painted eventually).

 

 

Then I round off the cap ends slightly.

 

And apply a coat of epoxy to the whole mess.

 

 

And another coat.

 

 

And another.

 

Next Time

Companionway sliding hatch (yeah!).