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I think the weight of the battery is on the galley flat, so even though the galley insert is secured to the bulkhead, the weight of the battery potentially bouncing on the galley flat seems like it could cause this failure. If the only thing securing the galley flat to the bulkhead is the fillet on the galley side of the bulkhead (and not a strip of fiberglass on the corner beneath the shelf on the interior of the camper), then the fillet might not fail, but the glue between the top layer of plywood of the galley flat and the next layer can fail, which appears to be the case in the photos. They plywood of the galley flat looks like it has de-laminated along that seam.
My two cents: I thickened all of the fillets throughout with both wood flour and cell-o-fill. I don’t see any reason to use cell-o-fill-only fillets for the galley shelf. I can’t remember where, but I read somewhere, and my experience is, that the cell-o-fill helps make the wood fillets more smooth and fluid, so you get less of that chunky application even when the fillet is fairly thick/viscous. But if you use cell-o-fill-only fillets, they end up white, which to my taste doesn’t look as good as a fillet that is closer to the color of the wood. I agree that it would be a mistake to varnish the shelf before installing it.
I think this particular (temporary) gap is a fairly common occurrence – it happened to me and I saw a few other posts about it. I figured the best way to deal with it was to try to keep the camper as close to spec as possible; I wanted to close the gap to keep the pieces together as designed. The disadvantages of having a small work area turned into an advantage because I was able to use some scrap lumber wedged against the wall of my shop to hold the sides flat against the galley flat while the fillet and taping job cured. See the attached photo. Like jmb builds, I would worry about the potential distortion of using a strap to squeeze the whole thing.
Gene
I found the pastry bag technique worked really well for me, and made it very easy to apply a consistently sized bead in the right place. A few things I found helpful:
1) Use the pastry bags available from CLC instead of using freezer bags. The “real” pastry bags have sharper points and don’t stretch, so you can control the placement, volume and speed of application better.
2) Put the peanut butter-like paste in the bag, cut the tip to the desired size, lay the bag flat on a counter top and use a paint stick or filleting tool to squeegee the paste toward the tip.
3) Squeeze the loose part of the bag behind the paste, then twist the loose open end of the bag until it applies pressure to the paste.
You’ll then have a taut bulb of paste in a pointed dispenser. For me, this is like using a caulking gun and is much faster and neater than plastering it on with a spoon. Everybody has their favorite way of doing things, this is mine!
Gene
