Showing posts with label Cabin Upgrades. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cabin Upgrades. Show all posts

Monday, December 7, 2020

Cabin Cushions Update

 Updating the Cabin Cushions

I'm pretty sure that the boat cabin cushions are all original, that means they are 33 years old. Some of them even have the original markings on the back from the Catalina factory in 1987. The V-berth cushions are in good shape, compared to the saloon cushions, they are hardly used. Same goes for the Aft berth cushions. The cushions are also a dark blue with a grey dot pattern and buttons to create a surface shape that is not particularly effective.  Time for an update.

The original cushions were used even though the raised starboard cabin seats were a slightly different shape. The cushions are very worn and have little support, it's a bit like sitting on a plank of wood.

This picture of the starboard fore seat shows that there is no seat back, so the occupant (it's Peggy's seat for meals) has to suffer leaning against the hard wood bulkhead.

That also makes the cabin dark, off of that dark blue and the, seemingly, large bulkhead at the front end of the main cabin.


So, as usual, it takes a bit of planning.


To figure out the amount of cushion foam I would need, I used Google Draw.
The process was pretty simple:- Start a new Draw project, set the page to a Custom size the same as the size of a sheet of foam. I chose National Foam Products with is 10 minutes away from our house. No shipping charges and they have everything I would need for the foam in stock.
So now I have a google draw that has a page dimension of 82x55 
Next I created a rectangle for each cushion piece measured to the nearest inch and moved that round the page. With all of the pieces displayed and maneuvered on the page to fit, some were left over and I simply copied them onto a second draw page. I ended up with 4 google draw pages.
#1 Cabin Seat Foam 4"
#2 Cabin Seat Foam 4"
#3 Cabin Seat Foam 2"
#3 Cabin Seat Foam 1"

This method worked so well that I decided to use the same technique to determine how much material I would need.
I created a new Google draw page 54 x 288 (that's 54 to match the material width and 288 was my initial guess of 8 yards (8 * 36)

Same process, I calculated the size of the seat top plates then added a rectangle to the page to scale, repeated that for all of the cushions. Then did the same for the cushion end plates (or boxing) and it turns out the best fit was 8 yards - good guesstimate.

I have plenty of Phifertex to use for the seat backing and the 'stretchers' used to create the Knee Risers at the front edge of each cushion.

Then it was time to place the orders:
Eversoft Vinyl Fabric Cushion Cover Material

8 Yards of Silver (it's a shade of grey) EverSoft textured vinyl from Sailrite, they really do have the best choices.
Then High Density Polyurethane Foam from National Foam Products in Pompano Beach Florida.
2 82 x 55 sheets of 4"  
1 82 x 55 sheet of 2" 
1 82 x 55 sheet of 1" 
and a couple of cans of Foam Glue, they were cheaper at Sailrite, but no shipping from NFP.



Total cost for the 9 pieces (seats and backs) is less than $800, just imagine how much it would cost to have them made! And that includes getting glue and a foam cutter.

Fabric is on it's way, Foam company confirmed the price of that part too. Should have everything to start in about 10 days. Making progress 👍

Of course, if the weather & tides allow us to go sailing, then perhaps we'll see you on the water.






Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Cabin Upgrades (Part iv)

 Cabin Table Upgrade - Practice

The weather in South Florida has finally cooled off, it is 69ºF in my Garage today - cool enough to start practicing the table finish process.


I mixed up 5oz of resin and gave it a good stir, not sure if I mixed it enough, I was worried about how quickly it would kick off.

As this is just a test piece where I hoped to learn how to apply the resins and to achieve the general look of the finish as well as the rudimentary things such as using the butane burner to eliminate bubbles and the Electric heat gun to manipulate the applied resin.






To mix the individual colors I decanted 1oz into the individual mixing cups, one for each color: White, 3 blues and one clear.




I mixed the black and copper pigments in order to obtain a sandy color, it worked out pretty good.

Each of the mixing cups got about 1/4 teaspoon of pigment except for the sandy mixture. I waited until completing the base coat of clear resin before mixing the black and copper into the remaining resin in that cup. Used just 1/8th teaspoon of both the balk and copper into the remainder of the clear resin after applying the initial cover coat.



Here's the 1st test piece, not bad for a first attempt.

Critique:-
  • Need to mix the resin for longer to ensure the cure is complete. After 1 and 1/2 hours, the resin was still not 'solid', firm enough that I could not pull the mixing spatulas out of the cups, but maybe it will take much longer to fully cure. I'll wait 24 hours.
  • Using my gloved fingers to eradicate the solid colors works, but need to make sure that it's not confined to a very small area as it shows in the finished product. 
  •  The test piece was just an offcut of a ply wood, no sanding or rounding of the edges. However, the resin did not flow over the sides as expected, I'll round the edges of the next test piece.
  • The 'cells' formed quite nicely and the 'waves' were pretty effective for a 1st try. 
Here's a view of the 1st test piece after 26 hours of cure time.

I tried to shave off the 'drips' from the underside with a freshly sharpened chisel. They would not come off!!! 

Note for 2nd test:- Scrape drips from the bottom as the resin is applied and before it cures.


For the 2nd test piece, I'll round over the top edges and apply a couple of coats of primer similar to that applied to the actual tabletop.

Lessons learned:- Baby powder is great to ease  putting on the vinyl gloves. Dust was not much of an issue but it's worth it to build a dust covered bench. The coloring pigments go a long way! I barely used 1/4 of a teaspoon and the resulting resin mix had a vibrant coloring. Making the sandy color using the copper and tiny amount of the black pigments worked our really well.  If I want the underside of the table sealed, it should be done prior to the top application of resin.

Ok, time to make the second test piece.


See you on the water, getting closer to having a new cabin table.


Friday, October 9, 2020

Cabin Upgrades (Part ii)

Upgrading the Cabin Table.

Hit the first snag this morning, having a hard time finding 1/2" Marine Ply. Lowes - none and no idea when it will be available. Home Depot - none. Now looking at specialty stores. I considered using Coosa board but it's over $200 for a single board of 8'x4' so more online searches. 

Found a Dixie Plywood and Lumber Co near Fort Lauderdale. Reached out to them and awaiting a reply - not hopeful as I have tried that with two other companies and no reply after 3 days. We'll see.

Found a vendor in Fort Lauderdale, will contact them in the morning - Saturday.

Weather looks grotty for the next week, if they have the plywood in the morning, I'll check the weather and head down there. But first I'll stop at Lowes to see if they have any suitable ply in stock, it doesn't have to be Marine Grade Ply as it's going to be covered in resin, just has to be decent laminations and glue. If lowes has it, then I'll see if the Fort Lauderdale has anything in stock better, and consider driving down there to check it out.

Have to call the Ford dealer in the morning, I scratched our truck, very gently, but we can see the scratch. Not sure if it's covered by our 'Ding' warrantee.

It wasn't :(

No luck with the Fort Lauderdale vendor. Heading up to Lowes.

Well, Lowes came through! 1/2-4-8 TC BLONDEWOOD PLYWOOD $37.99 and they cut it so that I have two 26.5" x 41" panels, and some left overs that I'm sure will come in handy somewhere/someday.

Of course, I get 5% off that price using my Lowes Card :)











Here's the two pieces I'll use for the Table with the Template sitting in front of them.

The Template was about 1.5" on the narrow side when we test fitted it on the boat, so this shows the correction.

Time to glue and brad the two pieces together. Then I'll cut out the Mast relief.








Both panels sanded (for gluing) and the top panel marked up from the Template.

The mast relief is about 1/4" oversized to allow for the resin thickness. Not sure how  thick it will be around the edges, but 1/4" should be plenty. Ideally the table will not touch the mast.

Charged up my nail gun and loaded with 1" finish nails.

Clamps all ready.

Lunch then let the gluing begin.








Wood glue applied, pretty sure  it would be enough.

Used a spatula to spread it over the whole surface and ensuring that the surface edges were covered.

I have the AC unit running in the garage as it gets pretty hot and humid without it.

Glue takes 24 hours to cure.











Panels attached to each other. Every clamp I own was holding it together.

Then my DeWalt finish nailer easily set 1" brads at 45º from the vertical just to make sure they did not penetrate  the top surface.

Now to wait the 24 hours for it to cure. 

Next step is to clean up all of the edges and cut out the mast relief.

Removed all of the Clamps and turned the top over, minor goof. Even though I used the nailer at 45º, the nails just showed on the top side :(  I didn't check that the nailer power was not on high. No biggy, I just used the wrong end of a nail punch to knock them back down. Sanded up just fine :)

Started sanding the edges flat where the two pieces were about 1/64" different in size. Took about an hour to sand them down.

Next step is to cut out the Mast Relief. Jig Saw and Sander should get that done.

Well, the Admiral (Peggy) had an idea. She asked if I could make the gap between the table and the mast slightly bigger so that it's easy to wipe the table down, including between it and the mast. Good Idea! Consider that done!


TraLa! New Table top woodwork complete.

After cutting the Mast Relief (oversized as requested) all of the edges were chamfered with my router, did have a minor issue.

I have two routers, one I use for hand routing and the other is fitted to a really nice Bosche Router Table, however the Router Table takes a while to setup and I thought this was a job for the hand router. Would have been except that it had broken and I didn't realize it. The clamp that locks the depth of the router bit had cracked. I did a test cut on a scrap of wood and that was fine. As soon as I started the cut on the bottom edge of the table, the router bit depth loosened and instead of a 3/16 cut, it was more like a 1/2" cut! Grrrrr. Fortunately, or because of past experience, I had started the cut on the underside of the tabletop and on the edge opposite from the mast relief. No harm no foul. So I pulled out my router table and we completed the job using that. 
Once the routing was finished, I sanded the edges, filled the divots and any (very few) voids between the plys. Then, once the filler (spackle) was dry, I sanded the whole thing down, looks pretty good.

Next:- Base paint with an Alkid paint, I'll roll on a pale base paint, sand that and apply a second coat before a light sanding.

Selecting the Resin

I have been researching the resin options, methods and suppliers for several weeks. Final choice was to use TotalBoat Tabletop Resin. They have been around a while and are great suppliers of all types of resins. I watch a lot of Boatworks Today videos on YouTube and he promotes TotalBoat products (and several other vendors, but the Resins he promotes are nearly always TotalBoat) .

After watching a lot of videos I figured out the method to use.
  • Prep the table top (the primer should be fine)
  • Setup a workstation with a drip tray to catch the surplus resin run off
  • Make a Tape Dam around the edges of the tabletop
  • Mix batch #1 of resin and makeup 3 cups of colors and 1 of clear resin
  • Apply 1st layer of colors and clear and style (arty bit) the top
  • Remove the tape dam and wet the edges to allow for overflow to carry the art over the edges
  • Eliminate any bubbles with heat gun (my heat gun should do the trick)
  • Allow to dry before adding 2nd or final coat of resin
  • Allow to cure for about 72 hours more is better.
I enquired about issues doing this in South Florida. TotalBoat responded: The resin work time would be reduced to about 10 minutes !!! 

That's Doable, but time really flies when it's fun. We would be better off waiting until the weather cools. The average low temp in South Florida in December is in the low 70s, and that gives more like 30 minutes till the resin 'kicks' and becomes unworkable.

That gives me about 6 weeks of delay time. But will also allow time to get all of the supplies ordered and on site (the workstation is my Garage)

Peggy did have an 'outside of the box' idea - we could rent a refrigerated truck! Or, we could head up the coast, around the Jupiter area where it gets cooler much sooner. Perhaps stay in a motel. The resin  I have chosen is VOC free, so we would just need to be really careful masking off the work area. Great ideas, but I would feel more comfortable working at home.

So, we're delaying work until it gets cooler. Meanwhile I'll order the supplies.

  • 1 Gallon Totalboat Tabletop Resin $65
  • 2 Quart Totalboat Tabletop Resin $50 (because 1 gallon is not enough)
  • Mica Black Diamond Pigment Set $18
  • Disposable Mixing cups $9
Total cost $150, this had better be good!

Stay tuned for progress reports. If you have done anything like this, please leave a comment with any suggestions. 



Saturday, September 26, 2020

Cabin Upgrades

 Time to update the Cabin of our Catalina 34

Our cabin layout is definitely different from every other Catalina 34 (Mk 1 Tall Rig Fin Keel) but it is dark! Not very uplifting.

Step 1 is to replace the cabin table. 
Current Cabin Style
Currently, the Cabin table has 2 fold down leafs and the forward inboard corner is an accident waiting to happen whenever anyone tries to climb up to get in the forward seat.

The bulkhead between the V-berth and the cabin is very dark as are the Cushions.




Mockup of bulkhead, table and cushion

Here's a quick mockup showing a grey background on the bulkhead and a simple blue reshaped table.

Also I've added a cushion to the lower part of the bulkhead.

We're thinking of some artwork or chart covered with a clear resin.




This mockup shows a resin tabletop with artistic beach breaking wave. Definitely adds richness to the cabin.

We'll change out the cushion fabric to a lighter color later on, but it's in the dream bucket.

Considering painting the cabinet fronts and definitely updating the window curtains. Oh, I also need a new bottle of Rum.

Here's the new template for the new table.
The template is 41" for-n-aft and 25" athwartships. 

The cut out for the mast is slightly deeper than the original table which will increase the overall width of the table. 
The length is about 4" shorter than the original which will increase the space available to stepup to the seating.

The template is made from 5/16" plywood.
I scribed the mast cutout onto a piece of paper on the boat and transferred that to the plywood. All straight edges were cut with a circular saw and the cut out as well as the rounded corners were cut with a portable jigsaw.

The actual table will be made from two layers of 5/8" marine ply, all corners cut using a router, both the top and bottom edges will be rounded with the router also. Then the top and edges will be artistically covered using resin. The artwork will either be like the mockup above or pieces of chart, boat pics and C34 logo. We'll see. Now it's down to the boat to see how the template fits.

Stay tuned. 

Paul


Saturday, June 22, 2019

Upgrading the Cabin Lighting

Upgrading Eximius' Cabin Lighting

We have a variety of lights in the Cabin, the result of units being replaced by a smorgasbord of fittings. During our New Year's Eve Cruise, the Galley Lamp failed and has to be replaced.
I prefer that they are common fittings so that replacement is easy.


  • Galley: 12" LED Strip  - 1 white, 1 red (Both New - replacing broken florescent) 
  • Table Reading light: LED lamp White - Blue night lite option. (New - replacing weak LED)
  • Nav Table: Red LED lamp (original)
  • Port Settee: 12" LED Strip - 1 white, 1 red (Both New - replacing original)
  • Stbd Settee: 12" LED Strip - 1 white, 1 red (Both New - replacing original)
  • Port Side: 8' LED Strip White - Installed over a year ago.
  • Deck nite lites: Low Power LED lamps (Installed about a year ago, white - to be painted with thin, Red, Nail Polish)
Later, when upgrading the V-Berth & Aft Cabins, we'll use the same types of fittings.

Here's what the new fittings look like.


The 12" LED Strips are Self Adhesive (3M VHB tape) from Amazon. they come in packs of 4 all the same color.

In each lighting set, will be 1 strip of white, 1 strip of red and 1 dual switch. I went with the simplicity of dual switches rather than On-Off-On switches.

The 'Sets' will be used at the Galley, V-Berth and Aft Berth and the Bathroom










These switches are small enough to fit on the Wooden battens in the Cabin, Aft Cabin and V-Berth.

One switch will operate the White LED Strips, the other will operate the Red LED Strips.

See the wiring diagram below.

These Reading lights do not require switches, they have a built in Touch Sensitive feature.

This does mean that they consume power when turned off, not much, but any 'always on' lamps will eventually drain an uncharged battery.

Our normal practice is to turn off all systems at the Electrical Control Panel, including the Cabin Lighting circuit, so this will not be a problem.

The 'Touch Sensor' is the thin ring near the top of the lamp (where the finger is pointing)
1st touch turns the Blue rings on, 
2nd touch turns the Reading lamp on Blue rings off
3rd touch turns Reading lamp off.

The Reading Lights will be used in the main cabin(2) and the Aft Cabin, the V-Berth is not really a reading area.

All of the new lamps will utilize the existing wiring, but the switches to lamp wiring will be new.

Amazon Links

Wiring Diagrams


Pics of Completed Installations

Red Light On
White Light On



Saturday, December 31, 2016

Please be seated

Cabin seat upgrade

The PO. had installed high level seating in the cabin, they provide a ton of storage beteew them and the original seats, but... the wooden supports were just plain ugly, sorry Deke.

I used some left over stainless tubing and some unused rail fittings.  20 mins work  on all done.