Reply To: Building the hopitat

#1217
rovineye
Participant

Rolling the TD over was easy and it was easily supported with a bit of foam on the vent and a sawhorse under galley. It rocked around as I leaned inside to sand, glass vent bezel, install shelf, but not so much that I did anything about it.

I rounded over bottom with router. The butt block was too short to use the bearing on the bit (should have rounded before installing), so I removed bearing and free handed. Went well and I did what I never do, ran with the direction of the blade spin rather than against it. Tis caused the router to run and definitely limited going too deep into the block. Very happy with that.

Bottom takes a butt load of epoxy as expected. No real issues here, but as others have done I had to cut and patch come corners that just wouldn’t stay down and really need to be strong.

2nd epoxy coat on bottom, some sanding but not OCD on this area, and painted with 2 coats of Interlux sea green. Good coverage and only one little corner of storage box needs touch-up. The tape from CLC made for a super clean line!

Drill 1/2″, fill (fill more than once as epoxy absorbed and shrank), drill 3/8″ for 5/16″ bolts.

I will flop it over onto trailer this weekend and drill through trailers aluminum bunks and bolt through. I have some textured rubber strips from the original wood bunks I think I will sandwich in between to dampen vibration. It may not be needed, may not help, but I don’t see a down side.