Moving More Than The Clocks Ahead

After a long winter of annoying snow storms, a clear signal that Spring is on its way is the ritual of moving our clocks ahead.  While this change essentially shortens one night of sleep, it heralds an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day.  It is amazing how much that seemingly little change offers such a large space in which to work on things.

Add to that a flirtatious warm temperature and it is amazing how energized one can get.  Our project list has filled pages with a steady stream of set-up steps, but also deep dives into preparing for furniture fabrication in the galley and dinette.  While waiting for the snow to melt, I prepared cedar ceiling strips for inside the galley and dinette cabinets.

While most of the ceiling strips in the boat were originally fabricated out of teak.  The cost of teak today is around $32 per board foot.  Since most of the ceiling strips I need will be enclosed within cabinets, I don't need fancy teak.  I have opted for either mahogany or cedar strips which cost between $5 and $9 a board foot.  Where visible when opening a cabinet door, I have chosen to use mahogany, and, where hidden, I have chosen cedar.

The mahogany strips will be varnished and the cedar will be unfinished.  Unfinished or natural state cedar helps repel bugs.  Hence, the cedar will not be finished.  Besides those benefits, not having to finish the cedar strips saves about 5 days of varnishing!

To make the strips, I purchase 2x4x8 or longer mahogany or cedar studs.  Step 1:  I round-over the corners on a router table.  Step 2:  I rip out a 3/8" strip.  Once that is done, I repeat steps 1 and 2 until the 2x4 has been completely used.  At the end of the process, I am able to produced six ceiling strips out of each 2x4.


Ceiling strips begin as a 2x4 piece of wood

 







The corners are rounded over on the router table

The ceiling strips are ripped to 3/8" thick





This is the process I used to make both the mahogany and cedar ceiling strips.  I try not to make too many at one time in order to prevent the strips from twisting or getting out of shape before I install them.  The mahogany strips require 2 coats of shellac and 5 coats of varnish before installation.  The cedar strips get installed as soon as I am on the boat

While the snow remains in the yard and the temperatures stay in the low 30's despite flirting with Spring, it is a good time to do these set-up steps.  At this point in Harmony's restoration, every project requires a goodly amount of preparatory steps:  hull ceiling, furniture cabinets, electrical wiring, cabin overhead paneling, etc, etc!

But at least the ritual of moving the clocks ahead gives us more light at the end of the day!

Fair Winds and Following Seas