Day 98 - More bulkhead work

Today was a continuation of the work on the forward bulkhead from yesterday. However, there was an unplanned trip to Home Depot. Yesterday, right at the end of the evening, my skilsaw blew out its' bearings. Not quite physically, but literally. I was making my last cut of the night when a huge noise and shaking came from the saw when the bearings self destructed. Most disconcerting! Anyways, I think I'm going to like the new saw, it has a really nice gauge for setting the saw angle in actual single digit increments instead of the five degrees increments on my old saw. This will be much faster to use than my wooden block that has multiple angles drawn on it. I also bought more hinges and a latch.

I took the forward piece of plywood out and started cutting. Not only did I cut out the hole for the doorway, but I also cut a hatch for access to the electrical stuff. I built it just like the one in the rope locker with a backer piece, two hinges and a latch. I made it as big as reasonably possible to allow for maximum access. I learned this from my dads boat. His access panel is way too small and that makes it a pain to work on anything.

Then I pulled both pieces of the bulkhead out of the boat and attached them together. I marked a 1/16" line on the forward panels where the sides will go and got to work with the sander. This 1/16" reflects the curvature of the hull I was talking about yesterday.

Last, I took the pieces apart and painted the insides with Rustoleum white enamel paint.

There will be no exposed wood in this boat. It will either be painted with an oil based paint or epoxied and painted. There are two keys to keeping a boat like this in good condition; preventing the build up of moisture and humidity with good air circulation, and two, providing quality moisture barriers. Ironically enough, epoxy is not a great moisture barrier. Epoxied wood left in the presence of still-air humidity will absorb that moisture. Gotta keep the air either dry or moving.

The bulkhead has several things left to do on it before it can be permanently installed. I will be installing PVC conduits between the forward bulkhead and the rear bulkhead, between the forward bulkhead and the stern, and between the rear bulkhead and the stern. These conduits will run outside the stringers below the decks and will be used for electrical wiring, hydraulic lines and fuel lines. Vent holes need to be cut and vents installed near the top of the bulkhead panels (the bottom will not be sealed closed). A conduit needs to be installed from one side of the bulkhead to the other in the chase at the bottom of the doorway. Another coat of paint needs to be applied to the inside. The blocking between the stringers and outboard of the stringers needs to be installed.

Then the bulkhead can be finalized. One thing that you haven't seen in the pictures is how the front and rear panels of the bulkhead neatly fit on either side of the vertical framing for the sides. You might remember how much grief those gave me when I installed them and they didn't look straight. Well, they were and still are ;-), and they've nicely lined up exactly where I need them to be. Yay!

5 Hours