1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Moldings for the Aft Stateroom Head

When I last worked on the aft stateroom head early in the summer of 2015, the walls were fiberglassed and faired and I’d made the ceiling panels. Before I start the priming and painting, I need to make moldings for the door opening and the jamb for the sliding door. The door opening moldings will basically cap the ends of the 3/4″ mahogany plywood. Since I’ll be using that approach everywhere there are exposed plywood panel edges, I’ll set up my ShopSmith and run off several lengths of identical molding at the same time.

The original interior concept rendering

Detail-level pieces of the concept rendering

While my interior concept drawings work well as a guide, I need greater detail and also need to refine the measurements to match the real aft head walls before I start cutting wood. Planning out the corner piece/door jamb in Sketchup’s free CAD software also allows me to plan the order of operations I’ll need to take to make the piece. This stuff is probably second nature for professional woodworkers, but it’s all new to me. I may be a rank amateur, but I want to get it right.

I’ll start with a long hunk of rectangular mahogany

First cuts will make the panel attachment point

Second series of cuts will make the door jamb/pocket

Something like this…

Gotta make sure I get all the measurements right

I’ll use router bits in my ShopSmith to round the exposed corners

And in the end, it ought to look something like this

Relocate the ShopSmith outside and start setting it up

It sucks having to cut, route, and sand lots of wood in Tent Model X. There’s just no room. So I find it’s easiest to wrestle the ShopSmith outside, but since I’m in a boatyard with a gravel lot it’s not easy. Once outside, I set up the table saw and sliced off the strips I’ll use for panel end moldings. Then I brought out the bigger piece of lumber and made the cuts for the corner piece/door pocket. I  followed up with dado cuts to clear out material from the door jamb/pocket and moldings, and finally rounded the outside edges.

3/4″ plywood end cap moldings

First corner cuts for the corner piece

Another problem is that the ShopSmith is down on the gravel outside the tent but the corner piece I’m making goes inside the aft stateroom. After making the first cuts, I walked the piece inside the tent, up the ladder, across the aft deck, down the steps to the salon and down the steps to the aft stateroom…THEN I could check the fit and go back outside to make the next cuts. I suppose the exercise will keep me fit! 😉

Looks pretty much like the plan drawings!

Lop off some of the length for a perfect fit, height-wise

After sanding, all of the parts got coated with ICA base and top coat semi-gloss clear

This is the same approach I used with the corner pieces in the aft stateroom, in which I apply the finish before assembling the parts with epoxy thickened with wood flour and cabosil. Doing it this way avoids epoxy stains on the wood. It’s super easy cleaning up any epoxy that squeezes out from the joint using alcohol on a rag, leaving the urethane coating unaffected and beautiful.

Et voila! Beautiful mahogany moldings are ready to install

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wiring For The Aft Head Lights

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Cummins Engine Install — Spacers II

In my last article, I wrote about the second step in the process of  installing the Cummins engines into my Roamer. I came up with one plan for engine beds that didn’t work out at all, then cut up one of the beds to make spacers that should work just fine. But then I realized that the top of the stringer on one side isn’t square to the stringer upright, which complicates things just a bit. Just when I thought I’d worked around that problem, another one jumped out to bite me.

Up front, the vibration isolators are totally bottomed out

I even had to remove the locknut (lower left corner of the picture above) to lower the front of the engine far enough.

At the back, 1-1/2″ thick spacers put the engine at the right height

Perfect fit…zero gap at the couplers

But then, I checked the clearance under and around the engine…

There’s less than 1/8″ between the oil pan and one of the frames

There’s also zero clearance between the gear cooler and the top of the stringer. I need to move the engine out of the way and make some space.

Gotta love that gantry!

The gantry is absolutely the best tool I’ve ever made. Moving these one-ton engines around by a couple thousandths or a couple of feet is a one-man job.

Jigsaw makes quick work of the frame

That little wedge I cut out of the aluminum frame to make room for the oil pan will come in very handy in my next article.

Sharpie mark on the stringer marks the line for the fuel cooler

I need to cut the top of the stringer along the line I marked with a Sharpie so the fuel cooler bracket at the top of the pic above will fit between the stringers.  These coolers are notorious for causing installation headaches, and I’m experiencing that personally on my boat. Either way, it’s nothing that a gantry and jigsaw can’t fix.

Just like the front, the inner stringer isn’t square at the back

I’ll square that up the spacer when I finally install it in the next step.

The spacer is looking good…but..oh jeez.

I was so focused on the gear-to-prop shaft coupler gap, and centering the engine between the stringers, and trying to figure out what to do with the front motor mounts that are bottomed out, and the inner stringer that isn’t square to the upright frame that I totally missed the HUGE problem in the pic above.

The prop shaft coupler and gear coupler are perfectly mated, and the propeller is the exact distance it should be from the aft-most strut. But the 1/2″ bolt that will secure the rear vibration isolator to the stringer lands in the middle of the transverse frame behind the gear. That frame is welded to the engine-side of the upright stringer and the piece of aluminum angle in the pic above that forms the top of the stringer. There’s no good way to drill a hole through the stringer that won’t put the bolt and nut in the middle of that upright frame or the weld that holds everything together.

A pic from my last article shows the offending frame–how did I miss THAT???

I can’t move the engine back so the bolts clear the frame, since that would require pushing the prop shaft further out of the boat, which would put the propeller hub 2″ past the aft-most  cutlass bearing. I can’t pull the prop shaft further into the boat, because that would put the prop too close to the aft-most strut. The prop shaft can be shortened, but it’s already machined and installed. I could also have a new set of motor mounts made (which is probably what I should have done from the beginning). All of which reminds me of something I wrote about before: the butterfly effect, and how little tiny things that happened a long time ago can cause ripples in time that wind up kicking me in the balls years down the road.

I was originally going to order the prop shafts after the mechanic installed the engines, so I’d know exactly how long they needed to be. I fired the mechanic after he didn’t get the engines installed for several months back in 2012, but I’d already ordered the prop shafts based on his measurements. If only we had done things per the original plan…

While mulling over what to do about this new problem, I kept working on the spacers.

Epoxy + cabosil + atomized aluminum powder glues spacers together

Shopsmith 12″ sanding disk smooths the bonded aluminum

Nice radii on all sharp spacer corners

Good lookin’ spacer, ready for install

As I was finishing up sanding the spacers, an idea from years before came back to me. I remembered that in my original plan I was going to use DriveSavers to isolate my prop shafts from the gear. DriveSavers are basically industrial strength rubber donuts that isolate prop vibration, provide drivetrain protection in the event of a prop strike, and they break electrical continuity between the hull (via the engine & gear) and the prop shaft and prop, which is even more important on metal boats than on other hull materials. Far more important, though, was that DriveSavers generally require the engine to be moved forward or the prop shaft to be cut by about 1″ to make space for the rubber donut. In my case, they’ll permit me to move the engines forward far enough for those aft-most rear vibration isolator bolts to clear the upright frame, plus provide all of the benefits that originally convinced me they were something I needed on my boat.

We’re back in business…I think.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Cummins Engine Install –DriveSavers & Spacers

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Cutting and Installing Overhead Mahogany Plywood

Aft stateroom overhead needs panels installed before foam

Once the foam insulation gets sprayed between the frames, it will be very difficult to securely attach mahogany plywood panels overhead. The panels over every door and cabinet would have to be free-floating below the insulation, which wouldn’t make for a very solid structure. Alternatively, I’d have to slice and scrape away the urethane foam, and that sounds tedious.

Time to break out the luan ply strips and glue gun

The luan strips capture the complex angles and distances of the overhead framing

Transfer the luan shape to African mahogany plywood

The mahogany plywood pieces I’m using are the scraps that were left over from the aft stateroom walls.

First cut…not a bad fit

I’ve noticed that the luan tends to have a bit of spring in it. The transferred shape that I cut in the plywood is never a precise fit the first time around. It only takes a fraction of an inch here and there to make the fit too tight.

Better…but now quite right

That’s more like it

There’s a good fit all along the overhead plywood and frames, as well as along the edge where the overhead piece meets the walls and corners.

Repeat for the next segment on the port side

While I’m at it, I might as well install the last aft stateroom bulkhead

The pic above shows the stairs coming down from the helm station into the salon, behind which there is a large open area that permitted big things–like the fuel tank, the washer, dryer, and jet bath, to be moved into the aft stateroom. I removed the bulkhead there during the early demolition phase, since the plywood there was rotted out from the former teak decks. Since I no longer need that wide opening, it’s time to put the new bulkhead in.

Scarfed in frame replaces rotten mahogany

Pretty close fit for the first cut

After trimming off 1/32″ along the bottom, the bulkhead slid right into position

Like all of the other aft stateroom walls, I had this panel finished with ICA basecoat clear before installation. We’ll top coat it when we do the entire interior.

Overhead panels back from the paint shop, then prepped for gluing and screwing

Varnishing a piece of molding for a butt joint

The varnish protects the wood from the epoxy that’s used for the joint. Instead of staining the wood, any epoxy that squeezes out of the joint just wipes off with alcohol.

Molding hides the joint for the panel over the aft stateroom head door opening

That’s a wrap for the overhead panels in the aft stateroom

Ventilator opening through the toe rail had a piece of rotten mahogany that I removed

Wetting out the new mahogany piece to encapsulate it in epoxy

My ShopSmith bandsaw came in very handing making this piece for the ventilation opening. It’s a big chunk of mahogany, and none of my other saws could have made the cuts.

Wood flour and cabosil-thickened epoxy holds the new piece in place

But before clamping the new mahogany in place, I coated the entire opening (chute? chase?) with epoxy until it wouldn’t take any more. Then I applied wood flour-thickened epoxy where there were sharp edges at the transitions from the mahogany toe rail to the aluminum deck, and then to the mahogany underneath. Once the whole opening was smooth with thickened epoxy, I coated it once more to give an even smooth finish. Any water that passes the ventilator scoops will encounter a plastic tube, with no exposed wood to rot out.

And with that, the aft stateroom is ready for spray foam insulation.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Prepping the V-berth for Foam Insulation

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Bow Seat Window Interior Panels

I’m still working through my options on the helm station windshield saga, but there are plenty of other things going on with the project to keep me busy. The helm windshield problem affects many other things, though, so at this point it’s unclear whether or not we’ll be able to splash the Roamer as planned in fall 2015. Getting all of the windows installed is one of the things that absolutely has to happen regardless. The bow seat windows have been awaiting installation since 2013, so I might as well get moving on that. There’s just this one little hitch though…

Chris Craft’s design had some…issues

The pic above from Day One of our 1969 Roamer Refit, back in December 2007, shows how Chris Craft installed the bow seat windows from the inside, using sealant between the glass and the fiberglass cabin top, all of which was held in place by mahogany bits on the inside. As you can see, that approach did not work well, in part, because it allowed water to pool at the base of the glass. When the sealant at the base of the glass started leaking, which probably started within the first few years (if not months or even weeks) after the boat went into service, it completely destroyed the interior paneling below.

After the paperwork SNAFU was resolved in 2012 and the refit restarted in earnest, I met a woodworker who was sailing the Americas in a steel boat he’d refitted. While overwintering nearby, he developed a following of loyal customers who highly recommended him for my refit. I saw a few examples of work he’d done and eventually contracted with this sailor/woodworker, who described himself  as “good but slow.” Slow was fine with me…it was the good part I was really after, and the price seemed fair.

Motion Windows’ design is best

The pic above shows the clamp-in window design from Motion Windows , in which the window frame seals on the outside, but the only fasteners are on the inside of the boat. In my opinion, this design is the best in the industry since, among other things, it uses no screws on the exterior for rain to eventually find a way in. And since they’re basically flush to the exterior, water isn’t given an opportunity to pool anywhere. The manufacturer specifies no more than 1/16” deflection in the bulkhead to which their window frames are affixed, which seems reasonable since we’re talking about panes of glass that naturally want to lie in single planes. My new windows arrived in 2013.

Out with the original

The shot above is from 2012, when I was remaking the bow seat, and shows the galley window openings with all of the original glass, wood, and bonding compounds removed. The fiberglass is ground back and ready for Mr. Good-but-slow to install new plywood.

Since the three bow seat windows are on three different planes, I felt the best approach was to cut three panels of ¾” Douglas fir marine ply that would fit up tightly to the backside of the fiberglass around the galley window openings, yielding three planes to which the Motion Windows would clamp. Then, the fairing crew on the cabin top would simply make the exterior surfaces flat and parallel (to within 1/16”) to the 1” deep window opening (i.e. ¾” plywood + 1/8”~ 3/16” fiberglass cabin top thickness + thickened epoxy filling in any irregularities and bonding everything together). Finally, I would apply mahogany veneers to the three marine plywood panels and finish it bright before finally installing the Motion Windows.

After explaining all of this to Mr. Good-but-slow back in the fall of 2012, I came back a week later to find something other than what we had discussed.

Not quite what I had in mind

Notice in the pic above that there are not three panels of ¾” Douglas fir marine ply in three planes. Each of the separate elements—the uprights and top and bottom cross pieces–are their own separate planes.

The hitch: 9 planes instead of 3

While Mr. Good-but-slow epoxied the ten separate panels very well to the fiberglass around the window openings, his approach yielded nine planes instead of three! The planes created by the center upright bits were ~8° off of the planes for the cross pieces installed to either side. Plus, none of the top pieces were in the same plane as their corresponding bottom pieces. Instead of meeting the manufacturer’s 1/16” tolerance for the bulkhead thickness, there were up to ¼” gaps in the corners where the flat mating surface for the window’s aluminum inner clamp ring met Mr. Good-but-slow’s handiwork.

Since this pattern had recurred (to varying degrees) three times with other projects I’d assigned to Mr. Good-but-slow, I let him go when he wrapped up the 4^th and last project I had him working on. Turns out that Mr. Meh-and-Slow would have been a more accurate name. As usual…Enter the Boatamalan* to fix the problems caused by the American “craftsman.”

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

Using his mad skills with a grinder, sanding block, a straight edge, and some Awlfair, my Boatamalan fairing crew chief and most excellent painter removed material from the uprights and upper and lower elements so there were three planes—one around each window opening where the window clamp ring lands. The port and starboard-side planes meet the center plane midway through the center uprights, which is what I need for the workaround I came up with for the interior mahogany. I can’t use veneer, as planned, because of all of Mr. Good-but-slow‘s wacky planes outside of the area the Boatamalan faired. Jumping ahead to 2015, I’ll use ½” African mahogany ply to make the finished interior panels against which the interior window clamp ring will clamp.

Luan strips and a hot glue gun for pattern-making

More luan strips for the starboard panel pattern

The vertical luan strip at the middle of the center upright is where port and center panels should meet

The plane of the side panels is offset from the center window panel by ~15°. So if I cut the inner edges of the side panels at 15°, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to cut the center panel side edges square.

Port-side pattern at the complex upper corner, where nothing is square

So…if I’ve done my calculations right, starting from the top in the pic above…the top edge for the side panels will need to be cut at 45°. The short vertical bit needs a 15° cut, followed by another 45° cut for the short horizontal. Then, the long vertical (or is that diagonal?) outer side edge needs a 21° cut, followed by 45° across the bottom of the panel. And I’ll need the aforementioned 15° cut for the inside edge that will meet the center panel.

I’m not a professional woodworker, and I’ve never done this kind of stuff before. What could possibly go wrong??? 🙂

Transferring the patterns onto the 4′ x 8′ African mahogany ply

The mahogany ply in the pic above is lying on my Eureka Zone EZ-One woodworking table. For breaking down big panels in a small space with extremely precise cuts, you can’t beat this table and the track saw that goes with it.

Cross cut then rip to the marks from the patterns

Angled cuts get the panel close to the final size

Jigsaw wouldn’t stay on the line

I tried to use my Makita jigsaw for the complex upper corner cuts, but with the base set at 45° I couldn’t keep the blade from wandering off the line. Time to break out the heavy hardware.

Roll out the Shop Smith for complex angle cuts

Though the bastard thieves took most of the attachments for my Shop Smith when they cleaned me out in May 2014, I’m guessing the base machine was [fortunately] too big for them to take. For the complex cuts I need to make on these panels, the Shop Smith table saw and bandsaw should get the job done.

Set the table saw and band saw to 45°

Done and done

I had to finish the cuts by hand where the two angles meet in the corner, but it turned out pretty good.

45° cut along the bottom (and top) went right to the line

Verify the line for the 21° edge cut

My biggest fear is that I’ll get the orientation wrong on these angled cuts and go the wrong way. With each successful cut, I got more and more nervous that the next cut I made would turn the panel into scrap.

Setting the table at 21° for the last cut

Booyah. Fits like a freakin’ old-school pro did it

I did not take video of the happy dance I was doing after this piece clicked into place, nor would I show it to anyone if such a video existed. But rest assured…there was, indeed, a happy dance. 🙂

Cut the rough window opening with a jigsaw, re-fit, and mark the actual opening

I also marked the high spots where the crazy planes from Mr. Meh-and-Slow‘s marine plywood install impinged upon the mahogany panel and stopped it from seating flush.

Creating low spots on the back-side and cutting the final window opening

BOOM! One panel down…two to go

Rinse, lather, repeat…nice fit!

Now go outside and mark the window opening and any points where Mr. Good-but-slow‘s Douglas fir plywood is high.

Port-side panel final window opening cut and low spots ground out

Two down, one to go!

The Bosch rangefinder moment of truth…

Measured between the inside edges of the two outer panels, there’s 1224mm at the top…

And 1222mm at the bottom

OK, I’m sure a real pro would nail it dead on, so I figured I’d be happy if I got it within 1/4″ (~6mm). But 2mm off over the height of the panel comes to only 0.03 degrees off on my final cut. I have no idea how I did that, but not too damned bad if I do say so myself! And I can easily make that up when I cut the final center panel.

More happy dance… 🙂

Back to the EurekaZone track saw

BOOM!

Et voila!

One of the cooler features on the boat

The center bow seat opens, which is one of the neater updates we’ve done to the original design. When we’re out in an anchorage or under way, we’ll get great airflow through the galley and salon. Venting heat from cooking in the galley will be a breeze, too: just flip the window open and lock it in place.

I need to take the panels off again and send them to the Boatamalan to be coated on the inner mahogany surface with ICA clear coat base before I epoxy them in place and install the windows for good. This is the same approach I used with the aft stateroom bulkhead walls, which turned out surprisingly nice. Resolving the problems created by Mr. Good-but-slow and getting the panels fitted is a huge step toward getting the glass in and [hopefully] splashing in 2015.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Head Walls

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making Molding

There are lots of things going on with our Roamer project right now. So many, in fact, that a honey-do list with check boxes would make more sense than writing up individual articles. 🙂 That said, I recently made the molding I’ll use to join two African mahogany panels in the aft stateroom, the first part of which I already installed.

Chris Craft joined panels using butt joints

When the varnish is new and the panels are aligned nicely, butt joints are fine. But eventually varnish starts chipping at the joint and if you let it go for, say, 25 years, like our boat when we first found her, butt joints can look kind of scrappy.

I was over at Weaver Boatworks checking out one of their new builds and noticed that they used a modified butt joint, with a thin piece of dark teak separating the two panels. On a 3/4″ panel, the teak is cut to 5/8″ and glued in so, when looking at the front of the panel, it’s inset 1/8″. I liked the idea of breaking up the butt joint, but I’d rather see wood than a dark void. Having never done anything like this before, I figured it was best to test the idea first and see if I’ve got the tools and skills to make the filler molding.

Panel molding plan

Freud 1/8″ radius half-round router bit

Scrap wood clamped and ready for routing

Actually, my Shopsmith would be the best tool for this job. But it was 20 degrees outside, and the space where I keep the Shopsmith isn’t heated. It’s also not set up for working long pieces of material right now. So, instead, I used my Bosch laminate router on my EurekaZone EZ-One table in the nicely heated salon.

Not bad, but depth control is a problem

This router bit doesn’t have a bearing on the end to control depth, so I have to free-hand.

After a few practice runs, I’ve got the hang of it

Slicing off the molding using my EurekaZone track saw

Needs a little bit more depth of cut so it just meets the cut from the half-round router

Scrap molding looks pretty good!

Fits good, too! The plan works!

Time to get serious.

African mahogany molding from a craigslist find

I bought a stack of these 13″x 1-1/8″ moldings that were leftovers from a golf club remodel. This is the shortest one, at 88″; the longest is 12 feet, and I paid $1/ft for them. The wood has been sitting since 2008 just waiting for…today!

Setting up the track saw

I forgot to snap a pic of the finished routed edge, but it turned out very nice.

Setting the extremely important depth of cut

Getting closer

Gotta love this Eurekazone track saw. It’s pretty easy to set up, and the accuracy and trueness of the cut is outstanding.

Cut, sanded and varnished

I’m using the same pre-finished approach here that I did with the other aft stateroom walls.

Two coats of varnish need to dry overnight

I’m sure a pro in a proper woodshop could have whipped out that molding in an hour or two. Being a noob in the very confined space of a Chris Craft Roamer 46 motor yacht in the middle of winter, it took me a whole day. That’s OK though…the plan worked, the molding looks great, and I can continue installing the aft stateroom walls now.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing Aft Stateroom Walls V

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Demise of the Evil Helm Windshield Frames

In March 2013, I removed the helm windshield frame so we could rebuild the cabin top. As the paint prep work was progressing, I dug into rebuilding the windshield frame to get it ready for paint. One of the biggest problems with rebuilding the frame was that the center glass frame was missing when we got the boat back in late 2007. A buddy up in the Great Lakes was parting out a smaller Roamer, and it looked like I could use his windshield frame extrusions to manufacture a center windshield frame for my boat. After fitting all of the pieces and welding the extrusions together, I started working on improving the larger frame extrusions in preparation for reassembling the main frame. During the 2013~14 winter, I disassembled the whole windshield. It turns out those things are very complex structures, with all kinds of connectors and screws holding them together. Stainless screws in aluminum in the marine environment is a recipe for trouble, and the windshield frames gave me plenty of it. But I kept at it and eventually had all of the pieces fitting pretty good and ready for reassembly.

Frame extrusions and connectors

Most of the screws came out with a bit of work, the rest had to be drilled out. The Frearson screws that hold these frames together use an undercut head. I was able to buy replacement undercut head screws that will work, though they use standard Philips drive rather than Frearson. Even after the old screws came out, though, some of the connectors were broken.

Removing broken frame connector pieces

I drilled a hole lengthwise into the aluminum connector that broke off in the extrusion. Then I twisted in a deck screw to give me something to clamp onto.

Mr. Broken Connector, meet Mr. Mallet

3 whacks and the connector came out

Scrap aluminum angle just happens to be the right size

The 6061 angle has a radiused inner corner that will have to be removed, just like they did originally. I’ll also have to bend the extrusion a bit to match the original, since the windshield frames don’t have 90 degree angles.

Mark the width

New connector, ready for final shaping, drilling, and tapping

Shopsmith bandsaw removes material from the inner corner

The new connector piece is ready to fit

Removing material to improve the fit

The center uprights were contacting the cabin top on the trailing edge, leaving the forward edge floating just a bit. Taking off a bit of material from the aft edge should improve fit.

The bottom edge of the center windshield frame upright

The pic above shows one thing I didn’t like about the original design: the bottom of the windshield frame upright extrusions were open. This leaves a very narrow line for bedding compound to seal out water. It would be best to weld plates in to provide more area, but the windshield connectors cannot be installed if there are plates in the way. I could weld in plates after the windshield is assembled, but if I ever need to disassemble it again…

It’s always something.

Final fit with new connector looks good

After getting all of the windshield extrusions and connectors ready to reassemble, I left them in a neat pile out of the way on the aft deck. My plan was to give them to the painter for refinishing, then put the whole assembly together on the boat. But before I got around to that, the boat was burglarized. In addition to cleaning out all of my tools and materials, the thieves took lots of new and also original boat parts. The OE parts that were stolen consisted of the chromed bronze stanchion parts and many of the aluminum extrusions. Consensus around the boatyard and elsewhere seems to be that after grabbing high value tools and materials, the thieves went for scrap. Recycling yards in the area were paying $2.78/lbs for bronze and 6061 aluminum was $0.78 when the theft happened.

So, just when I solved most of my evil windshield problems, thieves got around $50 in scrap and imposed on me a different resolution to the evil helm windshield problem. With the OE windshield no longer even an option, I went back to the drawing board and then on to the workshop.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The New Windshield Frames

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the propeller shafts

This one’s been a long time coming.

For the second time on this refit, I’ve installed brand new cutlass bearings and put the shafts in. The first time around, back in 2009, I was still using the original 1.5 inch Aquamet 17 shafts, which seemed more than adequate for the 120hp Lehman diesels I installed on the first go-round. Since we decided in 2012 to run with Cummins 450 Diamonds instead, we cut off the old strut barrels and welded on new ones last fall that are sized for the new 1.75″ Aquamet 22 shafts. I had to resize the phenolic bearing housings just a bit because the heat of welding moved two of the strut barrels around just a bit. Removing just a wee bit of the phenolic bearing housing allows the bearing to move around inside the strut barrel, which allows them to self-align when the shafts get slid into place. Epoxy fills the interstitial space between the phenolic bearing and aluminum strut barrel, which “float aligns” the bearings and locks them in place in perfect alignment.

Brand new shafting off to the machine shop

Cutlass bearing fits in the strut barrel but is still a bit too tight for float alignment

Shopsmith 12″ disc sander helps ensure consistent material removal

Black marks indicate tight spots…back to the Shopsmith sander.

Nice fit…just enough gap for a good epoxy bond and flexibility for alignment purposes

Stern tube bearing looks good

Dry-fitting the shafts

Dry fitting the shafts was a good idea, just to verify that the bearings all had enough clearance from the strut barrels to self-align. But I gotta tell ya…those one-piece shafts are heavy! After dry fitting, the shafts and bearings came out (after I marked the bearing orientation) and I mixed up the epoxy potting compound.

Cutlass bearings float aligned in thickened West System epoxy

First, I treated the aluminum with Alumiprep and Alodine, scrubbed in with a stainless brush. After the metal dried, I mixed up some West System epoxy and thickened it with their 422 barrier coat additive (which basically looks like aluminum powder). After coating the inside of the strut barrel and phenolic bearing housing, I slid the bearings home. Then, just to be sure of good coverage, I used a syringe to inject potting material in via the 1/4-20 set screw holes on either side of the strut barrel.

Bearings float aligned and struts get barrier coated little by little

“Hot coating” Devoe Coatings barrier coat over West System

Good bearing clearance all the way around

I’ll smooth out the barrier coat later, and then apply one or two final coats of Devoe, followed with Pettit Vivid bottom paint.

The float alignment process worked well. A week has passed and with the epoxy fully set I can easily rotate the shafts with one hand. Now that the shafts are in, I need to obtain and install propellers so I know exactly where the gear coupler will need to be. Once I know that, I can move the engines back and install them on the engine beds I started building a month or so ago.

But until the props show up, there’s plenty of other things to do.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Classic Chrome Bits & Pieces

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Boatyard in Winter…2014

It’s been six years since we first started this refit of our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46. The winter of 2008 wasn’t too bad, from what I remember. 2010 was a humdinger, because that was the year of the great Mid-Atlantic snow storms. That was during the unfortunate paperwork SNAFU, when I thought I’d never get the boat titled. Snowmageddon is what they called it, and it pretty much shredded the shrinkwrap tent I’d left the boat in…three feet of snow will do that to a “temporary structure.” But in all of these winters and all of these tents, never before have I experienced a winter as nasty cold as 2014.

Fortunately, Tent Model X had the benefit of all of my years of experience making tents that were destined to fail, sometimes spectacularly. It took every dump of snow on the chin and shrugged it off. Unfortunately, it’s beyond my willpower to get enthusiastic about working in an unheated, uninsulated aluminum boat in an unheated, uninsulated tent when it’s 4° F outside and blowing 25 knots out of the WNW. We’re finally past that brutal cold, though, and heading rapidly toward spring. Time to get back to work!

25° F can make any boatyard peaceful

I’ve always liked the boatyard in winter. It’s usually dead quiet except for the clanging halyards on sailboats. But when the high temperature for the day doesn’t go above 25°, even I’m hesitant to get in the truck and drive an hour each way to the yard. The days are already short enough, but when you add in time to let the temp come up just a bit and can only work so many hours before you start freezing up, it’s hardly worth the trip.

Sometimes, it’s worth it though

Even though some of the trips to the yard aren’t especially productive because it’s so cold, it gives me time to stare at what lies ahead and think about how I’ll accomplish certain tasks. The biggest challenges on the horizon are to get the prop shafts and engine installed, and I’m STILL working on resolving some issues with the windows.

Setting up shop under the bow

One of the plywood battens going around the inside of the tent at the deck level failed just above where the door is. The plywood snapped, so the plastic is a bit flappy there, but the battens are still keeping everything in place so I’m not terribly worried about it.

Taking advantage of a lull between storms to move equipment

Shopsmith Mark V is ready to go

It was a tight squeeze getting it in there, but my trusty Shopsmith is ready to work. I bought it specifically because so many tool functions can be packed into a relatively small space. I’ve already used it many times as a table saw, horizontal boring machine, drill press and as a milling machine when I made the aft enclosure window openings and modified the center windshield aluminum extrusions. The bandsaw attachment is extremely useful, and eventually the 12″ disk sander, shaper, router and jointer will be put to good use.

Inside the boat, lights help add hours to the day

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to take advantage of the light because it’s just been too cold…and wet. The boat is blocked up out in the most remote part of the yard, which also happens to be the lowest, and with all of the snow we’ve had the ground is very wet. The water table is up to the gravel under the boat, and water vapor rises until it runs into the underside of the tent, where it collects and falls back onto the boat. Even on the coldest days when the water turns to ice, the tent plastic collects enough heat from the sun to melt the ice. I have to keep a vent fan running 24/7 to stop it from raining in the tent.

I’ve got a propane heater, but propane is a very wet fuel and it rains even worse when I use it. I’ve got a kerosene bazooka heater, and it heats up the space pretty well, but with the big vent fan running it pulls the heat straight out of the boat.

Ah well. This last week the harsh winter finally broke. Over the weekend it was 60°. Time to get back to work.

Up next on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Engine Beds.