Tabernacle

 Another bench project

                                           

I cut a 42 mm thick section from a large piece of Hoop pine (above left) and milled it into the two 18mm thick side pieces (above right).

Page 250 of the manual suggests beefing up the tabernacle sides to 25mm thick. To do this I will laminate 9mm thick ply sections to the insides and run them through the thicknesser. When lacquered up the end grain of the laminated ply will look nice alongside the Hoop pine.

The 9mm plywood sections are cut slightly larger than the sides.

The mating surfaces are wetted out with undiluted epoxy.

And glued together with thickened epoxy. A plastic sheet was placed between the two clamped sections.

Clamps are removed, epoxy squeeze out cleaned up and the larger laminated ply is trimmed.

Next, I clamped the two tabernacle sides together and with a spirit level ensured it was horizontal on the drill press. Oversized holes are drilled for the mast and bowsprit bolts.

The two sides are reduced to 25mm in thickness and the whole unit is temporarily assembled.

I sat the assembled unit on the foredeck to ensure the base angle and the fillet fit OK.

A trial fit of the bowsprit into the tabernacle found it a bit too tight, probably due to the 3 coats of epoxy and the 500 coats of lacquer. So, because I intend to do lots of coats of lacquer on the mast I will need to widen the rear face by a smidgen. I simply added a layer of cloth to the edges to widen it. If this is too much, I can simply sand a bit off.

The oversize holes are filled with thickened epoxy.

    

 

Then the epoxy plugs are sanded down level with the sides.

The two identical sides are clamped together and leveled on a drill press; the smaller bolt holes are drilled in the center of the oversize plugs.

To add additional strength to the mast pivot area of the tabernacle I decided to add a small stainless-steel plate at the top. I just happened to have a thin sheet of stainless laying around the workshop screaming to be cut up. Nice to do a bit of metalwork for a change, reminded me of my high school years, yes, I can remember back that far.

Armed with an angle grinder, cutting disc and grinding disc I cut out the shape and smoothed it out.

With the plate sitting in place the pivot hole is marked from the inside.

The tabernacle is routed to enable the plate to sit flush, the pivot hole and four small securing holes drilled.

There are two things I want to do to the tabernacle to make it "Showy" as John says......

This is the first.

Routing two grooves in the tabernacle sides and inserting blue gum strips......following my build theme.

The second "Showy" will be revealed later.

Grooves are routed to a depth of 2mm.

Blue gum strips are epoxied in place.

Drainage channels are drilled in the base of the tabernacle using a rasp. 

The outside edge of the channel is routed with a round over bit, and trial fitted.

To locate the mounting bolts, I trial fitted the tabernacle hard against BH 2. A length of scrap timber was jammed between the tabernacle and the breast hook to hold it in place.

 From inside the cabin, I drilled two small pilot holes through BH2 into the tabernacle.  

Recess holes are drilled with a Forstner bit to the depth of the bolt head and washer. 8mm holes are drilled through BH 2 and the tabernacle.

Here you can see the hex head bolt, washers and dome nut that will secure the tabernacle to BH 2.

Time to assemble the tabernacle, two spacers are placed under the clamps to keep things square until the epoxy sets.

Plugs from blue gum are made to fill the drill holes.

and epoxied in place.