The Blue View - In My Mind's Eye

 

When I was a boy – maybe six or seven – I decided to build an airplane. This was not a model airplane, but a full scale small airliner. It would have two engines, all kinds of instruments, and plush upholstered seats. It would be a thing of beauty and carry me to all those exotic places the world had to offer.

There was an appliance store a few blocks away, and they were more than happy to let me cart off as many packing boxes and crates as I wanted. I used my grandfather's hand saw and hammer and lots of nails, and spent the summer building it. (I was undoubtedly way behind schedule even then.)

When I was finished, I'm sure I saw it for what it was – a cobbled together melange of cardboard and packing crates, but in my mind's eye, it turned out to be just as beautiful as I imagined. I had many a great adventure flying that sleek, shiny plane to Polynesia, the jungles of Peru and Australia.

The refrigeration project that has been consuming all my time for the last six or eight weeks is nowhere near as grandiose and elaborate as my airplane, but it has certainly taken longer to complete. I've made any number of mistakes and missteps that have delayed the project. For example, despite thinking about it and measuring everything half a dozen times, the cold plate ended up being about 1/2” too high and interfered with the lower seal of the freezer hatch. To lower the cold plate would require disconnecting all the wiring, cutting the refrigerant tubing and removing the entire inner compartment. The alternative was to shorten the frame and hatch I had just spent several days fabricating.

Now, as it is getting close to completion, I'm seeing all the little things that aren't as perfect as I would like. I wanted the edge of the laminate to align perfectly with the edge of the hatch frame, but there is a small gap on one side – maybe only 1/16 of an inch, but still noticeable.

One end of the teak trim doesn't quite abut against the bulkhead perfectly. The mortise around the latch is slightly oversized and a bit ragged. Most people probably won't even notice these imperfections, but I will see them every time I look at it. But in my mind's eye...

Come to think of it, I probably could have built an airplane in the time it's taken to get this refrigeration project done.

Days and Ways to Celebrate

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

Songkran

This is the beginning of the Thai New Year (Apr 13-17). The custom is to throw water!

The Blue View - A new bunkmate

 

I have a couple of photos of the main salon area. One was taken a few weeks ago and one yesterday - sort of a “Before and After” collage. Notice anything different? You undoubtedly observed that not only have the contents of the trash can changed, but the finish on the table has suffered a bit with the ongoing project.

With all this hammering, sawing and epoxying going on, I was worried about damaging the salon table, and a workbench would be so much more useful. So I removed the tabletop and replaced it with a hunk of plywood I keep around for the purpose.

The biggest dilemma was where to store the tabletop. Well, Marcie isn't using her half of the bunk, so...

My new bunk mate is a bit wider in the hips and more flat chested than I like, but, hey, “If you can't be with the one you love...”

Days and Ways to Celebrate

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

Tweed Day

Hmmm...couldn't find out if you were supposed to wear your tweed jacket and cap this day or celebrate political corruption, e.g. this is Boss Tweed's birthday.

World Pillow Fight Day

Better yet, grab a pillow and have a fight.

The Blue View - Making Slow Progress on the Fridge Redo

I am making progress each day on the refrigerator/freezer project, but I never seem to get as much done as I hope to. Much of it has to do with my age. As much as I hate to admit it, I don't move as fast as I did twenty years ago. Age aside, there are a few other contributing factors to my “slower than molasses in January” pace, however. One issue is that most of the work has to be done in the saloon. This is not a boatyard or cruiser's marina where the majority of owners live aboard and are working on projects. I would like to be a good neighbor here by keeping the dust and noise to a minimum, and it would be rude of me and in poor form to do my sawing, hammering and sanding on deck or on the dock. So I have a very small work area cluttered with large pieces of plywood, laminate and foam, not to mention all my tools and supplies stacked everywhere. It is difficult just to walk through the saloon, let alone try to cut a piece of wood. Today is even more annoying as there is a 25 knot wind in the marina, and Nine of Cups is rolling a bit. I can't lean a piece of wood against something or leave a power tool sitting on a counter without fear of it crashing down with the next big gust.

The biggest issue, however, is the odd shape of the refrigerator/freezer area. Life would be much simpler if the box were cube shaped. My box has only one right angle. The outer wall conforms to the shape of the hull, which curves in from top to bottom and forward to aft. The inner wall is vertical, but slants away from the outer wall. This makes cutting the various pieces of foam and wood a lot more time consuming.

A case in point is the divider which separates the freezer section from the fridge. It is merely a 2.5” piece of rigid foam, cut to shape, and with a piece of laminate bonded to each side. If I were working in a shop with space to work and making a divider for a normal box, I would budget an hour to make the divider, plus half hour to allow time for the contact adhesive to cure. Okay – add in the age factor and make it an even two hours.

On Cups, I must first make a cardboard pattern for one side of the divider. Since the sides form all sorts of obtuse and acute angles, I have to make another pattern for the other side of the divider. It takes a few minutes figuring out how to align the patterns on each side of the foam before tracing the outlines onto the block.

I use a hacksaw blade to make the cuts, carefully following the lines on each side of the block with the saw.

Then I clean up the mess, clear the workspace and bond and trim the laminate.

All done in a mere six hours and twenty minutes, a little over triple the time it should have taken.

Of course, another explanation is that it is more than just the angles that are obtuse here.

Days and Ways to Celebrate

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

Good Friday

Christian religious holiday and a day off for many folks in preparation for Easter weekend which is both religious and secular and signals the coming of Spring in the norther hemisphere. Spruce up your Easter bonnet. For downunders, it's time to think of autumnal things like cooler weather, less rain, no more cyclones.