Thursday, September 11, 2014

Cabin roof installed

With the cabin sides installed and the cleats attached and beveled, the next step was to install the cabin roof.  I had been a bit apprehensive about this because of the difficulty of clamping.  

I put a couple boards across the roof and used two web straps to pull the roof to the curve of the supports.  The front strap is attached to the building jig under the hull, and the rear strap goes through the portholes and hooks into the hatch cutouts in the front face of bulkhead 4.


The straps pulled the top into the general position, but it was clear I'd have to do better to keep the top from bowing up, and to get the edges down tight to the cleat.  I decided to use screws for clamps, since it appeared to be the only option.  

To hold down the center I prepared a couple sticks and predrilled the screw holes.  For the edge of the roof I prepared a bunch of blocks to spread the pressure out.   I planed both the sticks and the blocks to the correct thickness to ensure the screws penetrated an appropriate depth. 

I applied thickened epoxy to the supports and screwed down the center of the roof, then bent the roof down with the web straps and screwed the blocks along the edge.


The blocks pulled down the edge real nice, and only one screw stripped out its hole.


 While the epoxy was curing I took the opportunity to spread the first coat of epoxy over the deck and cabin sides.


After the epoxy cured, I removed the straps and the blocks and was happy to find that nothing went 'sproing'.


I planed the edges flush with the cleats and filled the screw holes with fillet mixture. 


At the same time I filleted all the joints underneath between the roof, bulkheads, cabin beams, and sides.  Working through the bulkhead 3 hatch openings I could reach all the joints in that area also.


After the epoxy cured I scraped the nail holes flush and sanded the roof in preparation for fiberglass.  But before that is applied I will attach doublers to the front and rear edges of the roof and round over the front and back edges of the cleats.

I'm glad to have this part installed.  This boat is really starting to look like a SCAMP now.

3 comments:

  1. Dave, You are cruising dude! Lots of effort here! I'm amazed how much you have gotten done.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it's fun to get big pieces done. But between times there's a lot of work on things that don't show, like filleting under the deck, or painting in hidden places...

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  2. Dave,

    I should have read this again before my cabin top installation. You have some good ideas here that I failed to follow. Always good to re-read before moving forward. I like the way you accomplished this.

    Brent

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