1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Transom Threshold Moldings

The aft deck is coming along very nicely, albeit slowly.

I’ve also been busy working on our 1968 Chris Craft Commander 42, getting it ready to put on the market as part of the big transition from a two-Chris Craft family to just one. One of the big success stories there was to bypass the OEM starboard engine oil cooler, which was a big cast iron thing that bolted up to the oil pan, and install an aftermarket one. The OEM one was restricting water flow and, I suspect, not doing a very good job actually cooling the oil. The aftermarket one actually came on the Super SeaMaster twin turbo and intercooled 534ci monsters that were in this Roamer when we got it. With the new cooler installed, the difference in water flow out the exhaust and temperature stability even when running on plane is pretty amazing.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about since we got the Commander, and finally started working on recently, was bringing the old Kohler 6.5kv genset back to life. It didn’t run when we bought the boat, and by the looks of things it hadn’t run in decades–the hour meter only shows 290 on the clock. One of the two previous owners had removed the carburetor, linkage, water pump drive belt and pulleys, and other bits, but none of those parts came with the boat. I’ve been slowly accumulating the parts necessary to put it back together, though not exactly to original condition. The carburetor, for example, is a side draft unit from a later model Kohler; I believe the original was an up-draft version.

But I also wanted to convert it from open, raw water cooling to a closed cooling system with a heat exchanger and antifreeze. I understand open cooling systems on trailer boats, where they get drained at the end of the day once they’re back on the trailer. But I can’t fathom why anybody would want that in a boat that stays in the water all the time, especially if it’s salt or brackish. Anyway, I’m just waiting on a few small parts, then I’ll be ready to fire it up.

Back to the Roamer. While I was working on the transom mahogany panels, I also made the moldings for the transom threshold/step-through.

The transom step-through threshold could look better

Note that, in the picture above, the wood and white painted aluminum aren’t the same height. The wood sits below or to the side of the painted, 3/16″ thick aluminum. So to make a pretty molding that covers that joint/step, the underside of  the molding will have to have a 3/16″ step to it as well. Keep that in mind as you read the rest.

Repurposing 50-year old OEM mahogany

I’m going to use this mahogany board that was originally one of the aft stateroom facia panels that Chris Craft painted white. I think my full-width, varnished mahogany ones look a lot better than the white originals did. I ran this one through the Dewalt thickness planer a few times to get rid of the white paint, but the serial number still remained.

Let the cutting begin!

Good initial fit

Route the ends to match the fillets on the transom

Nice!

Next, I marked off the curve of the plywood panel and cut off the excess.

ShopSmith bandsaw trims the curved edge to match the mahogany plywood

Oops

I had used my little Bosch router to remove excess material from the bottom side of this molding, where it will overlap the 3/16″ aluminum threshold. The next step was to round the top edge of the molding. But there was too little material left below for the guide roller to ride on. When the roller slipped past the edge (two inches from being finished!!!) the little Bosch very quickly turned this complex, nearly finished mahogany molding into scrap.

Deep breath…

Take-home lesson: leave the board thick while rounding an edge with a router bit that relies on a bearing guide, then remove the material from the underside.

So I made another molding…

Nice!

Great fit!

Bottom molding is done

Starboard molding is rough fitted

Little curved cuts on the bottom match the bottom molding

Port side molding is last

Nice!

Since these moldings are in a ‘rough service’ area, I decided to treat them as replaceable maintenance items. So instead of epoxying them permanently in place, I’ll use traditional screws, bungs, and caulk.

These are very complex pieces of mahogany

Done!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Varnishing and Installing More Aft Deck Mahogany

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Entryway Door Jamb

I’d like for my top priority to be splashing the boat and getting the bottom wet. This project would finish a lot faster if it was closer to my home port. But my Boatamalan* painter lives in Annapolis, and until his job is completely done I need to keep it closer to him. I decided years ago to use ICA catalyzed polyurethane varnish for the interior because that’s what they used at the Boatamalan’s former day job, Weaver Boatworks. I figure if it’s good enough for multi-million dollar sportfishermen toys for the top 1%, it’s good enough for a weekend warrior boat nog** like me.

* Boatamalan: portmanteau indicating highly skilled boat workers of Central American origin. They’re actually from Honduras, but Boatamalan rolls off the tongue better. 🙂

** Boat nog: A local term I picked up at a southern Maryland boatyard meaning “guy who spends every weekend working on a hopeless boat that’ll never see the water again.”

Thing is, ICA is a base coat/top coat system, and the top coat is a spray-only product. You can roll and tip it, but word has it the results are disastrous. When sprayed though….absolutely gorgeous.

So…the boat has to stay in the current marina until the ICA top coat I’ve already purchased has been sprayed. But before the Boatamalan can spray it, the headliner has to be installed. It seems backward, but as I understand it the topcoat is applied last to avoid it getting scratched when the headliner is installed. The V-berth headliner installation is started and looking great, and a few of the Whisper Wall headliner panels have been installed in the aft stateroom, too. But before the rest of the headliner can be installed in the aft stateroom, the aft stateroom head slider door box has to be finished. The bigger job, though, is squaring away the aft stateroom entryway.

Right side door jamb is a hot mess

We removed that door jamb part way back when we were doing demolition in December 2007. It’s been sitting in a pile of parts in my garage since then because I knew I’d need it as a pattern some day.

Man…was I an idiot. lol

A previous owner was very concerned with security

That cutout was for padlock hardware. Like…barn door padlock hardware. Galvanized steel. Very ‘work boat’ feel to it.

A bigger hot mess

Mr. Good-but-Slow strikes again!

Mr. Good-but-Slow was a guy who had very good customer reviews, but pretty much everything he did on my boat was a disaster. I had to replace the bulkhead on this side because it rotted out from water coming in through the teak deck-to-aluminum deck joint. There’s a major mahogany beam overhead here that had rotted out and then split from taking the load that the rotted out plywood bulkhead was no longer holding in place. Mr. Good-but-Slow did an OK job scarfing in a new section of beam, but he didn’t jack it up to the right height (~1/8″) before epoxying it in place. When I cut the bulkhead, I used the original as a pattern. When I installed it, I jacked the beam up to the OEM height, epoxied all of the joint surfaces, slid the bulkhead home and screwed it all in place. But because Mr. Good-but-Slow had epoxy-locked the beam in place in the ‘rotted bulkhead’ position, when I put the bulkhead in it was too tall. I didn’t notice because I was using a hydraulic jack to put the beam in place and everything seemed to fit just fine.

Fast forward to 2019 and I’m working on the aft stateroom doorjamb and that’s when I realized the bulkhead panel had been installed in compression. The panel, which should be flat, is instead curved. This is a problem because the door, the jamb, and everything else here will not be curved.

It’s always something…

So, I need to make a straight door jamb that fits a slightly curved bulkhead. No problem.

That’s ugly

Chris Craft and their freakin’ white painted mahogany

The least-horrible view

8/4 mahogany scrap left over from the toe rail

There’s always that question of whether or not to keep scraps. It turned out this one was a good keeper.

One pass down the table saw rough-cuts the height

I see potential here

Dewalt miter saw lops off the sharp ends

This is working out well so far

Run the lumber over my MiniMax 35 jointer back at the house

After jointing all four sides, I rounded the face edges with a router

Back at the boat, with each additional cut I get more nervous

It’s a funny thing: the first cut or two on a piece of nice lumber aren’t stressful at all. But as each piece of wood gets closer to its final form, I get more and more nervous about the next cut. I’ve spent a full day before machining a single piece of wood. On that last cut, if you blow it, that’s a whole day’s work gone. So far, things are going well.

First rabbet cut

Second rabbet cut

3rd rabbet cut

That’s not bad!

This is terrifying

Not bad!

Shopsmith bandsaw is a great tool

One final cut and the piece is rough cut

Next, I used a router to cut the curve in the outer rabbet to fit the curve in the bulkhead panel. That won’t be visible because the bulkhead is behind the salon entry stairs. The door jamb rabbet on the other side is straight, so it’ll align nicely with the lower door jamb. This was irritating, but overall it didn’t add much time to making the part. Where things get more time consuming is the next step.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Entryway Mahogany Panels

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Nice Score on a Dewalt DWS780 Miter Saw

Since thieves cleaned me out in May 2014, I’ve been replacing the tools that were stolen. One tool I lost was an older Dewalt compound miter saw. The Freud blade on it cost more than I paid for the saw when I bought it used off craigslist! Anyway, when installing the hydraulic steering, propellers, rudders, and other parts of the project I’ve been working on since May 2014, I haven’t needed a miter saw, so replacing it wasn’t a big priority. But I’ve been keeping an eye out for deals and also reading up on new and improved saws that have come on the market since 2008 when I bought my old one.

I’d been reading good things about the DeWalt sliding miter saws and had decided that a 12″ version would be better than the old 10″ one that was stolen. I also knew from experience that the ability to change the bevel from left to right without flipping the board is a nice feature. Some of the newer saws also have a pretty slick lighting feature that not only illuminates the immediate work area, it also throws a shadow of the blade onto the precise location it’s going to cut. Pretty slick, but pretty spendy, too: $599 at the local big box retail home improvement center. They can be had for a bit cheaper online, but returns can get messy if there’s a problem.

But then, on a whim last week, I checked ebay and — hello — there was a listing for a Dewalt saw priced at $169 or best offer. There was no model number in the ad title, but the pictures clearly showed a newish sliding, double-bevel model. Zooming in on the pictures, it sure looked to me like the blade still had yellow paint on the carbide teeth, reflecting very little use. The saw was in the original box, but under Condition in the ad it was listed as “Tested, but not working.” Shipping was $75, but — HELLO! — the seller, who specializes in computers, was only 15 miles away and the ad included his phone number! So I called and offered $150 cash with local pickup…SCORE! He took the offer!

When I got it home and plugged it in, the LED light turned on…good sign. But, sure enough, the saw didn’t turn on when I hit the switch.  After putting a meter on the switch and determining that juice was heading toward the motor, I dug in.

Right side brush looks fine

Not only does the right brush look good, there’s very little dust in the motor at all. This thing’s practically new!

Hmmm…something doesn’t look right

Clearly, somebody has been in here before. The left motor brush is broken where the wire should go in, so they flipped the brush around backwards and tried to use the brush spring to hold the wire in place. The insulation has also been pulled out of the crimp connector. I wouldn’t trust this hack job as a long-term fix, but a meter showed continuity from the brush holders through the brushes and to the armature, so the main problem isn’t here.  It must be deeper in the motor.

Gotcha! A broken connection on the field

What’s interesting about that broken connection is the little spot of silver solder on the brass at the red arrow. None of the other field terminals have solder on them. All of them are crimp connections, leading me to think that perhaps this machine had been repaired at the factory or by a refurbisher after very light use. Then, the solder repair failed shortly after the computer shop bought the saw. And I’d venture a guess that the computer shop guy broke the brush when he was trying to figure out what was wrong with his saw.

A big ol’ blob of solder fully encapsulates the wire now

Granted, it’s not an elegant repair, but then the original elegant solder job failed. I melted the solder onto a much larger area of brass, and by fully encapsulating the wire crimp it should hang on longer than the little dab of solder used in the original repair. After reassembling the saw, I ordered a new brush for $9, for a total investment of $159. WOOT! But rather than waiting for the parts to arrive, I put the hinky brush back in and gave it a whirl. Score! She works great!

A few days later…

New brush vs old but nearly new brush

VARROOOM!

The red miter gauge needle needs adjusting, but that’s not a problem

And the blade’s not square in the Z-axis, either

You can see the gap in the pic above between the blade and my engineer’s square. That’s close enough for house framers, but it’d make a mess out of my precious mahogany.

After squaring, the gap is gone

In the Y-axis, the blade was square out of the box

Zero the miter gauge to the middle of the mark

Ready to work

I really like that LED light (AKA the “XPS cross cut positioning system”).

The LED casts a shadow of the blade on the cut line

Good saw! Helluva score!

This DWS780 is belt driven, where my old one was direct drive. I’ve got to say, it’s a lot quieter than the old saw. The dust collection system also works very well, far better than the old one did.

Needless to say, I’m very happy with the new saw. I’ll have many chances to test out its cool features in the months ahead.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fitting the Aft Stateroom Walls