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 - 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!