Seeking Frederick style hatch fix advice

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Seeking Frederick style hatch fix advice

Postby kokomoto » Sat Jul 08, 2017 9:35 am

After dry fitting my hatch, I found the gap between the hatch and the wall on one side to be a little short of the 1/4" - 5/16" I had planned for to accommodate the trim. I'm trying to figure out the best way to correct it. So I'm thinking I could trim the outer side of the hatch back about 1/8" - 3/16" with some creative use of a router. If anyone has a better idea...
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Re: Seeking Frederick style hatch fix advice

Postby tony.latham » Sat Jul 08, 2017 10:11 am

Just for the trim, right?

I used a CMT 835.501.11 "Variable Depth From 1/8-Inch to 1/2-Inch, 1/2-Inch Cutting Height, 1/2-Inch Shank Rabbeting Router Bit Set" –$42 at Amazon. I used this to cut shallow grooves for the trim on both the walls where they meet the hatch and the hatch.

Does that help?

Tony
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Re: Seeking Frederick style hatch fix advice

Postby aggie79 » Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:47 am

I had to do cut the relief in the galley sidewall for the hatch seals after the sidewall was in place. The same setup/approach may work for your situation.

The cut was made in two passes. For the first cut, I used a rabbet bit in the router to cut a rabbet or notch to the desired depth of material removal. The rabbet bit bearing has a different diameter from the cutting head. The bearings are interchangeable so that you can alter the depth of the cut. Below is a sketch of the router and bit setup and a photo of the first cut:

Image

Image

The second cut was made with the router and template or pattern bit. The bearing in a template or pattern bit is the same diameter as the cutting head. In the second pass, the bearing "rides" in the notch created by the first step and the cutting head makes a flush cut the depth of the "notch". Below is a sketch and photo showing the setup and cut:

Image

Image

Hope this helps.
Tom (& Linda)
For build info on our former Silver Beatle teardrop:
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Re: Seeking Frederick style hatch fix advice

Postby kokomoto » Mon Jul 10, 2017 4:18 pm

tony.latham wrote:Just for the trim, right?

I used a CMT 835.501.11 "Variable Depth From 1/8-Inch to 1/2-Inch, 1/2-Inch Cutting Height, 1/2-Inch Shank Rabbeting Router Bit Set" –$42 at Amazon. I used this to cut shallow grooves for the trim on both the walls where they meet the hatch and the hatch.

Does that help?

Tony


Thank you for the tip.

Sorry guys, I should have added a photo or two to make this all clearer.

I built the hatch in the standard SF manner. On the outside edge of the hatch, I cut to the 2" wide minus about 1/4" to allow a space for the trim. The plan was to just add the trim to the bottom of the hatch side and another trim to the top of the wall and be left with a nice, consistent gap of a 1/16 - 1/8" between the two. In hind sight, I should have used something like the router bit you refer to after cutting. Unfortunately, I'm new at the router game, and didn't even know such a thing existed. The result being an inconsistent space on one side of the hatch between the outer hatch side and the outside wall of the TD. Up near the hinge, the gap is about 1/4". As you progress toward the tail end, the gap closed to 1/8" or less, for a couple feet, then opens back up to 1/4" -5/16" or so. I'm not sure how I got it that way, but now I need to deal with it. After investigating the problem, I discovered that the 2" out hatch piece is actually 2 1/8" - 2 3/16" in the problem area. Sloppy work on my part somewhere along the line.

Now here's the ugly part....

Yesterday, with the hatch removed, I attempted to use a router with a guide set at 2" (another router gadget that I am using for the first time) to get the hatch side wall at a consistent 2" width/thickness. Well, I proceeded to run the router bit (which I couldn't see clearly as the view of it was blocked by the router guide gadget) up into the outer wall of the hatch about 3". It was hideous. I had to remove the aluminum side skin to get at the 1/2" deep gouge in the side (luckily, I had the router set at only 1/2" deep) I did my best to patch up the damage by cutting pieces of 1/2" plywood that roughly fit the damaged area, and glued them in place. They should be dry enough to get back at it tonight.

I still need to get the side width right, probably with careful use of the jigsaw this time, then cut another aluminum piece for it. I'm not sure if I will have to remove the roof edge trim on that side or not in order to get the aluminum where it needs to be. Has anyone tried to remove those aluminum nail screws before?

Here's what the hatch was looking like before I drove a router bit canyon in the side of it.

image.jpeg
Hatch
image.jpeg (120.05 KiB) Viewed 778 times
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Re: Seeking Frederick style hatch fix advice

Postby kokomoto » Mon Jul 10, 2017 8:06 pm

aggie79 wrote:I had to do cut the relief in the galley sidewall for the hatch seals after the sidewall was in place. The same setup/approach may work for your situation.

The cut was made in two passes. For the first cut, I used a rabbet bit in the router to cut a rabbet or notch to the desired depth of material removal. The rabbet bit bearing has a different diameter from the cutting head. The bearings are interchangeable so that you can alter the depth of the cut. Below is a sketch of the router and bit setup and a photo of the first cut:

Image

Image

The second cut was made with the router and template or pattern bit. The bearing in a template or pattern bit is the same diameter as the cutting head. In the second pass, the bearing "rides" in the notch created by the first step and the cutting head makes a flush cut the depth of the "notch". Below is a sketch and photo showing the setup and cut:

Image

Image

Hope this helps.


Thank you for the very informative reply. That rabbet bit is on my short list. I wish I had known about that little gem when I started building! However, I don't think it will help me out of my current predicament. :NC
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Re: Seeking Frederick style hatch fix advice

Postby kokomoto » Mon Jul 10, 2017 8:12 pm

Here's some pics I took tonight after trimming my patched up hatch with a jigsaw very, very carefully. It still looks like a hatchet job, but not bad enough to start a new hatch from scratch. Besides, the repair should be structurally sound. I'll just have to cover the mess up with aluminum. ;)

image.jpeg
Hatch patch 1
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image.jpeg
Hatch patch 2
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