70 Practical Boat Owner t http://www.pbo.co.uk
Having tidied the edges and vacuumed out the space
I could finally see what I had. To add order to the
proceedings I wanted the rotary switch in the centre, so the main
power cables had to be extended.
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PRACTICAL
The donor teak-faced plywood came from the chart table
which I was replacing with a separate project to fit a
fridge. It was the perfect size for what I needed. I took it to my
local joinery shop to have it cut perfectly square, and with sharp
blades to prevent splintering of the edges.
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Here’s the rear view of the panel with the instruments in
place – you can clearly see the extended battery cables.
The next task was to fix the top and bottom panels together, and
temporarily fix the whole thing to the bulkhead.With the panels hinged together the bottom strip was
drilled and screwed into place, with the screws passing
into a bearer behind the GRP bulkhead. After this trial fit it was
all stripped down again and the panels taken home for finishing.Here is the original connection to the rotary switch. The
extensions were new leads bolted to the old ones, and
protected with many wraps of insulating tape. In due course I’ll
probably replace these leads with single lengths.
Since there was only one chart table to cut up we stuck to
the mantra ‘measure twice and cut once’. Using a fine-
toothed blade in a jigsaw the cutouts were made then everything
was trial fitted, including drilling and screwing the instruments.Here’s my friend Reece drilling and screwing the 316
stainless piano hinge to the panel and bottom fixing strip.
We were very careful to pre-drill the holes to prevent the screws
blowing the plywood as they were tightened.11