MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME

I've been pretty busy since I pulled the boat and so it has been hard to keep posting on the blog. So I thought I'd share a little Christmas present I bought for myself. It's a Sailrite Folding Sewing machine table. Since I bought the Sailrite Ultrafeed® LSZ-1 Sewing Machine last year. It seemed like a good idea to enhance my sewing area with a proper table to work on. It came fully assembled and flat in the box:

It was pretty easy to setup. I had to adjust the sunken platform for the proper height of the LZ-1 sewing machine. It took just a few minutes.

Once that was done it was simply a matter of loading the Sailrite sewing machine in it's base cabinet  onto the platform:

It sits nice and flush with the table surface. With the legs locked it was pretty stable and has a convenient ruler running across the edge of the table. I think it will help with my winter project which is sewing a new sail cover for BIANKA. More on that later.

USEFUL THINGS ON BOARD: PORTABLE WORK TABLE

While I was getting things ready for launching this spring I came across an old cutting board stored away at home. I thought it might be useful on board so I came up with an idea to make it useful as a portable work table. Using some scrap wood from an old bed frame and a couple of screws I soon had a very useful surface to work on around the boat. One place where I could use a work table space is in the aft quarter. Perhaps using the stainless steel pushpit railing for a support. I then thought how I could secure the cutting board from slipping off the rail. That's when I found the old wooden bed frame that already had a strip of wood running along an edge that would be perfect for the function:

After securing it to the cutting board with a few screws it was ready for a test fitting:

Perfect. The wooden lip will prevent the surface from sliding off the rail. I will probably install another strip so the rail fits between the two strips at some point but, this is fine for a start. I then took another piece of the old bed frame and screwed it into a position where it would sit on the cockpit coaming while the other board was sitting on the stern rail:

It tilts down at a slight angle but, not too bad.

While most items would not roll off the work table at this angle having a flat surface would be better. So looking around while putting on my "use what you got hat" I found that two 12 oz aluminum cans sitting on the coaming surface make for a perfectly level work surface:

Problem solved!  I also found another area where this portable work surface comes in very useful. I spent some time varnish the fold down cockpit table on BIANKA. I would prefer not to have to do this too often. I found my new portable cutting board work table fits nicely on top of the fold down table top while protecting the varnish job. It also  provides a handy work table service for projects at the same time:

Plus turning the work surface sideways allows for an even more secure work surface thanks to those edge strips:

I think this portable work table is going to come in very useful on board for a number of projects in various spots around the boat. I will continue to report the new uses for it as they appear.

FROM THE USE WHAT YOU GOT FILE: Helm Cover

It feels good to have the boat back on the water. I still have not gone out for a sail I'm still getting things organized and cleaned up and doing some small projects. One of which is a new helm cover  I stripped and varnished the cockpit table recently and wanted to protect it as much as possible. A large helm cover fits the bill.  I've seen helm covers made out of Sunbrella material and I may make one once I get a Sailrite Sewing machine which is on my wish list. Instead I made one out of some recycled shrink wrap material:

It completely covers the helm and the table is pretty durable and the only cost to me was a few brass grommets and some spare line I had lying about to keep the sides secure :

While maybe not as colorful as a custom Sunbrella cover it does the job and helps keep some shrink wrap out of a landfill somewhere.  Plus the price is right.  It can also function as an additional shade cover if one should need it when it's not covering the helm.

USEFUL THINGS: Cardboard boxes

One of my projects this year is to re varnish Bianka's cockpit table.  I'm applying three coats of West System epoxy first followed by three coats of varnish. Applying the epoxy was not a problem for flat pieces of the table. But, the fold down end pieces were unstable when standing on their edges. What to do?  I found the answer in a cardboard box I had laying around:

I cut two slits into it with a box cutter and put the edges of the side table pieces into them:

The box held them securely so I was able to apply the epoxy to the edges. Plus I was able to move and position both pieces at once. Sometimes simple solutions to problems are all around you if you just look.

STRIPPING VARNISH

Well, the off season projects are starting to back up. One project I've put near the top of the list is to re-varnish the boats cockpit table.

 It's been over ten years since I last varnished the folding cockpit table on BIANKA. The eight or nine coats I put on at the time have held up pretty good. But, sun and weather have finally taken their toll on some parts of it.

So it's time to strip it down and re varnish it.  Like painting most of the work is in the preparation. A small folding table for a boat is no exception. After removing it from the boat one needs to remove all the hardware and screws:

Once the hardware has been removed it's time to strip off the old varnish. There are a number of ways to do this. You can use various liquid varnish strippers.  I found it is faster and easier just using a hand scraper and a heat gun:

Here is a video of how quick and easy this method really is:

Once you get started the stripping goes very fast and there is no drying time like with the chemical strippers. I had the whole table stripped in about a half hour.