Second Year
Week 6
Tom departed to return north to Juneau and Semper Fidelis his Lord Nelson Tug. Progress slowed up of course, but I am also in a very tedious project-- the Fridge. Tom cut out the foam in a day or less. Fiberglassing up the foam is taking a week or more. I did a test with Polyester resin and epoxy, the polyester happily ate in to the foam so epoxy it is. I don't need the structural strength of epoxy here and I sure would appreciate the speed of the polyester, but it is not to be.
I started with cutting the door openings. I still haven't fully figured out how they are going to seal and open and close and ---- and --- but I know that the standard is a tapered door so I start there. A short pause for comment, I am winging it here. I don't have good enough connectivity to do the research on building your own marine refrigerator. I know that info is out there but I don't want to go sit in my truck for three hours every night until I have what I need. So I am making it up off of previous readings and what I know of foam and fiberglass both from boat building and homebuilt plane construction.
I decided on a 7 degree taper and cut a 2x4 with that bevel on the table saw. I then used a short toolbox saw held up against it to cut out the door holes.
Tapered guide and saw
Here is the first opening try on the top. After cutting them out I decided the right hand opening wasn't big enough. There are what I think are (non researched) issues here. The bigger the door the more potential cold loss through the door seam. I know that the doors are not going to be a good enough seal, sawing foam and then adding fiberglass plus fairing and then getting it all to mate perfectly is beyond my capabilities in a short time frame so there will have to be an added seal. My thought after considering all this was I needed the right hand door bigger. Cutting a bigger door is easy but now I don't have a plug that I can trim to fit so I have to cut a new plug out of another piece of foam .
Fridge top doors
With the doors cut I can fiberglass both sides of the foam. Where possible you want foam on foam joints, less heat loss out the edges. Fiberglass epoxy will conduct heat in cold out. I put one layer of 10 oz glass on the outside and a mat, roving , 10z glass on the inside. The hope is it will resist impacts. After the epoxy sets up I can trim to the foam edge,
Fiberglassed panels
So how does that foam work? Here is a pic in the early morning. The sun is up and it is above freezing but the insulating capabilities of the foam keep the frost frosting.
Frosty Panels
I did other stuff, can't remember what it was. Another week done.