28' riverboat Cindy Lou

Discussion in 'Wooden Boat Building and Restoration' started by troy2000, Dec 30, 2012.

  1. michael pierzga
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    michael pierzga Senior Member

    Doors make a small boat REALLY SMALL...also doors interupt the airflow inside a boat. In summer it overheats..
     
  2. Wavewacker
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    Wavewacker Senior Member

    Had a sliding door on a travel trailer, a real space saver and you never open a door into someone walking or standing outside the door. Guess there is an opening port in the head.

    With a header above the door opening seems there would be no issue, just thought more counter space and storage would be handy.

    Anyway, great looking boat, it would be a real looker heading down the Big Muddy....
     
  3. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    It'll probably never see the Big Muddy, or anything else east of the Colorado River. But never say never; it's a nice thought.

    And I certainly don't mind suggestions.... now's the time for them, before I start sticking pieces of wood to each other. :)
     
  4. C-mack
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    C-mack Boat Dreamer

    What about a vinyl accordion door for $39 dollar for the head
     
  5. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    Unfortunately, I have an irrational hatred for vinyl accordian doors. I once rented a house that had them on every closet and storage space. I couldn't get them to stay all the way open when I wanted them open, or all the way closed when I wanted them closed. Granted they were old and beat up and poorly installed to begin with, but... :)

    I may bite the bullet and build some sort of custom slider for the head itself, mostly as a nod to the ladies and their worries about privacy. If it was just me and the guys, I'd put a curtain there too.
     
  6. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    On the original Floom (Cindy Lou's big sister) the door to the head was a roll top style of door, mounted sideways. The door was curved and the it retracted into the bulkhead on the forward side of the head. It was stylish, didn't intrude into the living spaces, couldn't swing open for no good reason in a seaway, it was solid and kind of clever. Something to think about.
     
  7. SamSam
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    SamSam Senior Member

    When it comes to enclosing your carport, assuming it's temporary, Extend the roof a few feet with cheap ply and tarpaper and then use a tarp for the outer wall. Your tools you can lock up in a gangbox. That way in decent weather you can roll up the walls and let the light fresh outside in and the dark enclosed depressing claustrophobia out.

    Pvc pipe can be used or a few 2x4s for a frame. You might not have to extend the roof at all, but just lean the walls out from the roof instead. That will give you more room to maneuver around the side of your project.
     
  8. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    All good suggestions. Unfortunately table saws, thickness planers, drill presses, bandsaws and the like don't fit into a gangbox very well. I have a lot of that sort of toys... In the years since I stopped contracting for a living, I've kept them locked away and only brought out whatever I needed for a particular project. But that gets old, and I think it's time to have a real workshop again.

    Besides, the county has condemned the old boarded-up mobile home I've been keeping a lot of my tools in, and the wife is carrying on about the ones stashed on our enclosed back porch.

    The carport I'm enclosing is 42 feet long and 12 feet wide, on a concrete slab. I think that'll be enough space to get the job done, although I'd prefer to have another three or four feet of width. I'll add lots of shop lights, and several windows. I'll install window shutters that can be locked from the inside to discourage thieves, and extend the security system we have on the mobile into the shop.

    But the slab extends on along the mobile beyond the covered part, and when hot weather comes I may stretch the shop using your ideas. Then I'd get a lot more workspace just by opening the double doors while I'm working....
     
  9. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    Troy, I think you'll find that a compound miter saw and a table saw will be the tools you use all the time, while the rest just need to be available occasionally. These could just be on wheels and moved into position as required. If you mill your own stock, a thickness planer will see lots of work too. The band saw, joiner/shaper, etc. can live chained to a lolly column until you need them.

    I made some grand temporary work spaces with big *** (technical term) tarps. I have a 45"x90' that makes a great big tent. I just string up a ridge line, which is usually just some 3/8" line on a come-a-long, toss the tarp over it and prop up the sides with 4x4 posts. You'll need two points high enough to attach the ridge line too, but I have lots of willing trees for this. I have used in in the field, but rigging up a couple of end poles to string the ridge line from is tenuous at best. A more solid solution would be a simple post, set in the ground at each end and a solid, simple truss along the centerline, to clear the project.
     
  10. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    Since I used to be a contractor, all my stationary tools are on wheels -- except for my thickness planer. I'll park that monster near a wall, and close enough to a doorway for me to run long pieces of wood when necessary.
     
  11. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    Update on the C-Head composting toilet. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and haven't had to empty the solids collection container yet. But you'd be amazed how fast you can fill a gallon jug with urine. If you buy one of these toilets, lay in some extra jugs.

    I was going to replace the flush toilet in my motor home's bathroom with the C-Head. But when I removed the old toilet, I found the toilet ring not only sticks up above floor level, but it's set on a piece of 1/2" plywood. Since I don't want to permanently modify things, that means I need to lay a temporary new floor about 3/4" above the old one.

    I haven't had the time and ambition to do that yet; it's going to require some fancy cutting and fitting. So instead, I just stuck the C-Head in the bedroom.

    I haven't vented it, and that hasn't been a problem so far. The odors are a little more pungent while I'm actually using it, because the solids aren't dropping into water. But as soon as I slap the lid on and stir things around with the crank, the odors go away. And next time I open the toilet to use it, all I smell is the peat moss.

    Of course I'm the only user, and keep in mind that it's winter here. Winter in the desert isn't exactly arctic, but the temperatures have been dropping down to freezing or a little lower at night, and not getting all that hot in the daytime. So we'll see whether the odors stay under control without venting when things heat up this spring.

    The user's manual suggested that I could drop used toilet tissue into the solids container, and the only real down side would be that it fills up faster. Not true. I found that it tends to wrap itself around the stirring paddle, then get jammed between it and the bottom of the container. Not a huge problem, but it does make things bind a little when I first start cranking. So I bought a small, stainless steel waste basket with a tight hinged lid operated by a foot pedal, of the sort that some women keep in their toilet stalls for disposing of tampons and the like. I lined it with a plastic bag, and I've been using it for the toilet tissue. End of that problem....

    Conclusions so far? It should work fine in my boat. But if I get a boatload of beer drinkers aboard, either they're going to pee over the side or I'll run out of gallon jugs. :)
     
  12. pdwiley
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    pdwiley Senior Member

    I got tired of having my heavy tools on wheels so I put them on skids and bought a pallet jack.

    My only regret is, I didn't do it years ago. Tools like the thickness planer & table saw that require a lot of space for infeed & outfeed when you're using them now sit tucked against the wall when I'm not, yet it only takes seconds to position them in a useful spot.

    They also *cannot* go walkies while in use now.

    PDW
     
  13. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    Very clever.
     
  14. SamSam
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    SamSam Senior Member

    The pallet jack sounds like a good idea.

    I had an old trailer I used for boat building. I gutted out all the walls and fixtures, cut out a big piece on the back end and put it on hinges so I could move big stuff in and out.
     

  15. Steve W
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    Steve W Senior Member

    Troy, you may want to build a urinal into the head (not a store bought porcelin one of course), im planning on doing one for my Gemini, i have never liked the idea of peeing over the side, im thinking of installing it under the washbasin so it will drain into the urinal and then over the side above the waterline. Just a thought.

    Steve.
     
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