Guitar humidifier cabinet begins

A few hours into the guitar cabinet, the sides are assembled and pretty much ready to finish. Here are a couple of views: on the left you can see an inside view of the sides, complete with aromatic cedar lining (it's gonna smell goooooood!).

The front side of the side (if you know what I'm saying) is on the outside of each piece in this photo, so if you rotated the outer edge 90 degrees toward you and the sides faced each other, you'd be looking at the front of the cabinet. The cutouts are for oak 2x4s that will hold the doors and strengthen the shelf and the top.

Oh, and the ugly grey stuff is foam mat, which is easier on the feet than a concrete shop floor. Used as illustrated it doesn't do as much for one's feet, but has the virtue of protecting the outer ply of precious oak veneer, which looks good, but is only slightly thicker than, say, cling-wrap.

The second picture shows the outside of the sides; you can just make out the reinforcement/front edge strip of oak along the inside edges (which are the front edges once assembled, blah blah blah).

Next up: the bottom, the shelf, the top, the legend.

Side project

Courtney here with a quick note: the next couple of weeks will be devoted to a side project, which I will try to document with a few pictures. I've somehow accumulated a fair number of guitars and similar instruments, all of which really should be protected from extreme humidity or lack thereof (Winnipeg winters are very cold, which means our heated dwellings become very dry in winter). I've decided to build a big display cabinet to house, show off, and humidify my instruments.

The basic plan is a cabinet about 55" wide by 20" deep by 79" tall, with a compartment for case storage below the main compartment for display and humidification. The upper compartment will feature sliding glass doors, a lining of aromatic cedar, and eight custom laminated hanging yokes (to suspend the instruments from their pegheads) which slide in a track. It's also got lighting and a hygrometer, and the whole thing will be assembled with 1/4-20 quick connect hardware to facilitate moving.

I'm still trying to figure out how to work in a hot tub and a pony, but squeezing in a mini-bar seems like an insignificant challenge. Photos soon.

As usual it's been busy...

...including trips to New Hampshire and BC. Back at work and back to work on the boat. Seat sides are installed, framed, and filleted on the inboard side. The fillets look a bit messy because we're not going to sand and paint until the inboard side is filleted too, which in turn is going to wait until we have more epoxy mixed up for the companionway lockers.

The second photo shows the beginning of the framing around the tops of the companionway lockers (they're small things on either side of the CP case). Inside the framing is a raised bit (I'm thinking it's called a coaming but I'm probably wrong) over which the locker hatches (lids) fit, with the raised bit keeping water out of the locker itself.

Man, that doesn't make much sense. Oh well, watch for more pictures.

Love this construction stuff!

Here's the latest: fit the other seat side panel, and cut hatch holes in both seat sides. Not being all that familiar with routers, I think I'll wait for Dad to get back before I tackle trimming the hatch holes.

OMG I THOT U WER DED!

No, just busy. Somewhere in the blur of the last couple of months we painted the inside of the boat a few times, and cleaned it all up and made it look pretty. Well, the clean-up and the pretty are almost done, anyway.

We're fitting out the cockpit now - yes, construction! Always a pleasure. A bit fiddly, the construction process; it goes something like:

1. Measure

2. Mark

3. Trim, but not too much! (I've misplaced the board stretcher)

4. Repeat. A whole bunch of times.

Anyway, it's going well. Here's a picture of one of the seat-sides, loosely in place and ready to have hatch holes added to it (but that will be on Wednesday).

Oh, and now that there are actually interesting instances of actual progress to show, expect more updates. Er, that would be all two of you who are still checking this blog in the forlorn hope that I've updated it...

We're back!

Just a quick note to say we're back at work on the boat. The past month has been entirely too busy and the boat ended up on the back burner - not where it belongs! Got some solid work done yesterday and will be painting the interior Real Soon Now™. Watch this space for more regular updates and photos!

Sorry!

Been meaning to update the blog but life has been rather busy. Here's a quick crappy phone camera photo to show you what we're up to.

Glassing the inside left some rough spots, which were cleaned up prior to filleting. Then we filleted the joints with thickened epoxy, masking the areas that will be bright-finished. We used the Ziploc baggie method of epoxy application, which I must say worked like a charm.

You can also see the bulwarks, which are getting their own fairing treatment. There's a bit of fillet sanding to do, and some final smoothing and sealing down around the bilges, and then I think we paint the interior.

So we're working, it's just not particularly photogenic or hugely indicative of progress.