Building the Forward Hatch - Part 1

September 18, 2019

With a looming completion date on my mind more and more and the vacation days stacked up like cord wood, I decided to burn a few and get some brightwork fabricated.  Today, I would tackle the forward hatch as the opening salvo in the campaign to take the Allied 24 high ground armed with fresh teak stock.  

The first order of business was to create a work space that actually provided some space to work!  The teak board that was ordered for the forward hatch was near 10' in length, and given the space within the wood shop available to me, I would need relocate the table saw.  My table saw is a heavy, cast iron shop saw, but thankfully it is outfitted with a crude axle a set of wheels.  I assembled the axle and wheels, and carefully dragged the table show to fresh air.  I set up the outfeed table such that it would receive the sawn timber.

I made my way over to the boat to take some measurements of the molded fiberglass hatch base - from these measurements I dimensioned the hatch frame.  With these dimensions, I cut the four frame boards that would make up the forward hatch.

I ran the frame boards through the jointer to clean one of the edges up for each board, and then back through the table saw to remove the surplus width.

Finally, I ran the frame boards of the forward hatch through the planer to clean up the saw marks.

I laid out the four frame boards to gauge my progress.

I couldn't resist taking the fresh sawn teak over to the Allied to enjoy the visual of the warm wood against the cool fiberglass.

Back in the shop, I cleaned up the boards a bit more by hand plane, and set a 90 degree edge on the ends with the table saw.

I thoroughly wiped the surfaces down with acetone (teak is a naturally oily wood, which allows it to weather the environment so well, but can also inhibit a good glue bond), and then mixed some epoxy resin to wet the surfaces to be glued together.  With the surfaces prepped, I mixed another small batch of epoxy, and this time thickened it with 406 colloidal silica.  I placed a bit on the fore and aft ends of the hatch frame's outboard boards, and clamped them twice on each side.  I cleaned off the squeeze out and set the assembly to the side to proceed with building the top of the hatch. 

The top of the forward hatch would be an assembly of smaller dimensioned teak boards - roughly 25" in length by 1.75" in width.  With those dimensions set, I prepared another piece of the teak stock by first running one side of it through the jointer.  I then eliminated a portion of the width of the board on the table saw.  I then reduced the length of the board to three 26"-long sections.

I ran those three sections through the planer to clean up the surface opposite of the one I ran across the jointer.

On the table saw, I reduce the three boards to twelve smaller boards that were 26" in length, roughly 3/4" thick and 1.75" wide.

Again, I performed a test fit to satisfy the urge - I placed the teak slats across the clamped hatch frame.  In the end, the edges will be rounded over with a router, serving to soften the appearance, and with the base of the hatch frame cut to take the camber of the deck.

I decided to run the hatch top slats across the router table with a groove cutting bit in place.  This cut placed a shallow "v" in the boards when joined together, which will be filled with black teak caulking.

I laid out the hatch top slats, and then cleaned them with acetone to remove the natural oils that the teak wood produces.  As I had done with the hatch frame, I wet out the surfaces with epoxy resin and applied thickened epoxy to glue them together.

I clamped the boards, wiped up the squeeze out, covered with plastic sheeting, and then set a good amount of weight on top to achieve a uniform plane.  Tomorrow, the hatch top will be cleaned up and assembled with the hatch frame.

Total Time Today: 8.5 hrs