Ama Hatch Edge Control

As much of the rest of the nation struggles with snow and cold, the sun is doing its winter thing here in Southern California as I continue encapsulating all the wet locker and float hatch covers in epoxy.  Fortunately, I can do this off the boat in a relative's driveway on nice flat ground!

Each ama hatch cover is getting a two-inch edge of glass.  By the time I have all four edges covered, the exterior side of these hatch doors should be totally impervious to water migration.  Let's hope so; it is taking what seems to be a lifetime on these details.  End-grain of plywood is a pain in the...

Note the alternate "green" transportation vehicles in the second photo below.  I sometimes use my commute bike to ride down to the harbor (about 14 miles away) if I am not carrying a load of tools or boat parts.

Other work accomplished is a thorough cleaning of the old Shipmate two-burner range and oven.  Unfortunately, the Shipmate  company is long gone, so no parts are available.  The old unit served us well when we lived aboard in 1990-1992, but I never liked the burner controls that could easily be bumped to the "On" position just by an accidental touch.  I could not find an easy way to convert them to burner controls that lock in the "Off" position, so I am changing these burners out for a couple from a Cabela's camp stove I picked up once when I was in Couer d'Alene, Idaho and looking over all the goodies in that humongous store.

The entire top of the stove will be replaced too since the original one had a stainless top with a non-stainless sheet of metal spot welded under it for a heat-sink.  This ferrous metal piece had rusted badly over the years and could not be removed easily from the stainless top.  Thus, it is a trip to one of the metal supply yards common in this area to find some stainless I will fabricate into a new top for the stove.  I also did not like the single grates for each burner, and way back in 1990 I had  made a heavy duty stainless grate to fit the entire stove top.  In this manner Doreen can place pots on the grate and move them about without fear of one of them slipping off the individual grate.

During the stove cleaning process I disassembled as much of the thing as practical and found some the the fiberglass insulation in the door is falling apart.  So, still another trip to some vendor for some fiberglass batting to repack into the oven door. It is always another trip to some store for something unexpectedly needed that sucks one's time away.  Now that we are working together on this major project, Doreen is getting better at being my "gopher." ("Go for this..., Go for that!")