The Blue View - Refrigeration Redo pt. 2

Well, I've now removed the old refrigerator innards, leaving a big cavern and I've been prepping the inside of the cavern before installing the insulation. It involves lining the inside with two layers of epoxy impregnated glass cloth, then a layer of foil, followed by a layer of plastic to act as a vapor barrier.

This process requires copious amounts of epoxy. I'm not talking about those little tubes of epoxy you buy at the hardware store and mix with a toothpick. I'm talking about the better part of a gallon of the stuff. You start the process by carefully measuring and mixing the correct ratio of resin and hardener. If you mix too small an amount, you lose efficiency. If you mix too much, it will start to “kick” before you have a chance to use it all, at which point, within a few seconds, it turns into a very hot, solid blob. Once mixed, it has the consistency of corn syrup, and is about the same stickiness.

I know it will be messy, so I wear latex gloves and an old long sleeved shirt. I put waxed paper on the floor around the area I'm working in. Alcohol is a benign solvent for epoxy, so I pour some into a container and set it nearby in case of a spill. After placing a couple of rags in strategic locations and cutting the glass cloth, I begin.

I paint a coat of the epoxy onto the walls of the cavern and apply the glass cloth, followed by another coat of epoxy. This is repeated for the second layer of glass cloth. The aluminum foil is epoxied onto the cloth, and finally the plastic is epoxied to the foil. Sounds easy, and it actually isn't all that difficult. If this were a segment on This Old House, that's exactly how it would go, and the camera would now pan out, and the workers would be cracking open a cold brew.

In my world, it doesn't go exactly like this. To begin with, it's been hot, and I'm in a long sleeved t-shirt sweating like a pig. I'm applying the epoxy to vertical surfaces and the underside of a cabinet, so the epoxy has a tendency to run down the brush and onto my gloves. The wet glass cloth needs adjusting to get the wrinkles out and I use my hands to do that. Before long my gloves are coated with sticky epoxy. As I reach down into the cavern to apply epoxy, my sleeves brush against the epoxy-coated walls, and begin to get a bit sticky. Then I inadvertently rest my hand for a second on the teak shelf above, then my arm touches the adjoining wall. My glasses keep slipping down my sweaty nose and I push them back up. I smack my head on the bottom of the cabinet above, and as I'm dancing around swearing, I realize my hair is sticking to my glove as I rub the sore spot.

By now, I've dripped a bit of epoxy on the waxed paper, and the paper is sticking quite well to the bottoms of my shoes. As I'm trying to lift my foot without taking all the paper with it, I manage to knock over the container of alcohol. Not a big deal - I can wipe it up with one of those rags I had ready. I set the container of epoxy on the top of the cavern and kneel down to wipe up the epoxy just as a big powerboat is inconsiderate enough to pick that moment to depart the marina. Before I can grab it, about a cup of epoxy spills on the floor. Fortunately, the spilled alcohol and rags are right there, so I'm able to get most of the epoxy off the floor.

Did I mention this is a project best done while Marcie is away?

After five or six hours of this, I have quite an even distribution of epoxy on the galley cabinets ,and walls not to mention the floor. Parts of my sleeves are bonded to the hair on my arms, and most of the few remaining hairs on my head are semi-permanently epoxied to my scalp. But the cavern looks great, and hey – I was thinking that as long as Marcie's away, it might be a good time to refinish the galley cabinets and floor...

There's more, but give me a day or two to recover.

Days and Ways to Celebrate

A daily list of mostly obscure holidays and fun ways to celebrate them.

Lips Appreciation Day

Where would we be without them? Put on some lip gloss and pucker up!

The Blue View - Refrigeration Redo pt.1

In a previous blog, I talked about how inefficient our refrigerator/freezer is. Marcie has been asking about new countertops in the galley as well. It seemed like a good opportunity to tackle both projects while she is away.

On most sailboats, the refrigerator is built in. Much like the Franken-mattress project of a couple of months ago, you can't just go down to the nearest kitchen appliance store, buy a new fridge and slide it into place. On Nine of Cups, we have a 12-volt system. The condenser unit sits under the settee, copper tubing runs behind the galley sink and stove, then through the refrigerator to an evaporator in the freezer and this part of the system is working fine. It's the insulation that is the problem.

Our system has 2” to 3” of foam insulation surrounding it. When new, it was pretty marginal – now after 27 years it is pretty much useless. So all I have to do is remove the old countertop, remove the old fridge/freezer compartments and all the old insulation, re-insulate, build a new fridge/freezer compartment, and fabricate a new countertop.

I have Don Casey's book "This Old Boat" for guidance. What could possibly go wrong?

This is a project that has required demolishing the better part of the galley and covering every remaining horizontal surface on the boat with tools, supplies, refrigerator parts, insulation and everything that used to reside in the galley. I literally have two feet of one settee left to sit on and each night I'm able to clear enough of the bed to sleep on. I've been without a refrigerator for the duration, but I also had to disconnect the stove for a couple of days while I re-routed propane lines. I'll also have to remove the sink for a day or two while I build the new countertop. Did I mention this is a project best done while Marcie is away?

The first phase is the demolition part. In his book, Don devotes twelve words to this part of the project - “...extract the old ice chest. Remove all traces of the old insulation...”. It took me three days, but it is now done. A large cavern sits where the old refrigerator box was. The insulation was dripping water, and there were gaps between the foam sections. The insulation in an old Coleman cooler was more effective. There were only a couple of glitches. I wasn't able to extract the copper tubing without kinking it, so I had to cut it. I'll have to repair it with new couplings when I put it back together. And although I tried very hard, I wasn't able to remove all the teak trim pieces without cracking a couple of sections. Hopefully, I'll be able to repair them as well.

For me, this is the worst point in a project. I look at that big cavern and all that self doubt starts creeping in. What the hell was I thinking? I'll never get it all back together and working, and even if I do, it will look like crap. I'm sure I smell the scent of a big dragon lurking outside. Thoughts of burning Cups to the waterline to destroy the evidence start cropping up.

In the old days before Cups, I used to watch those home improvement shows like This Old House, and be amazed at how easy they made every project look. My projects usually turned out more like Tim Allen's in Home Improvement.

Stay tuned...

Days and Ways to Celebrate

A daily list of mostly obscure holidays and fun ways to celebrate them.

Ides of March

The day Marcus Brutus et all assassinated Julius Caesar. "Beware the Ides of March". Unless you're an Imperator, you probably don't need to worry, but it might be good to review your Roman history.

Buzzard Day

Well, Capistrano has its swallows and many cities celebrate the return of sandhill cranes. There are hummingbird festivals and bluebirds fests. Hinckley, Ohio celebrates the return of its buzzards (turkey vultures actually). They come back around this time every year and the folks in Hinckley thought it was worth a celebration. Learn more about buzzards through the Turkey Vulture Society (I kid you not!)