More Trim

With the other woodwork being refinished, I decided to pull off the entry trim

Used a painting multi tool scraper to pull the old dowels out that hid the hardware.  I used the grain to my advantage to get is out cleanly

One side done

Second side off.  Pretty dirty behind those.

Using a belt sander with 60 grit paper, I sanded the faces.

The back was a bit darker

The side edge before sanding with 50 grit paper by hand.  I went over the whole piece with 180 grit to fininish

After their first coat of varnish.  Night and day difference.

Refinishing the trim

In the pursuit of sealing all the old hardware, we decided to pull off some trim pieces (I'm self taught, so I'm not versed on the proper nautical terms).


I forgot to take photos while we were working since it was pretty difficult.  Here are the pieces removed after we scraped apart the existing sealant (I suspect it is 3m 4200 caulking)

It was a lot of sealant.  Back at the house, we scraped and scraped and scraped, until most of it was removed.  We plan to get the remaining residue with acetone, but haven't hit it yet.  But with the dried sealant gone, we had several holes in the wood that needed to be filled.

The majority of the sealant was pushed out with a screw driver, then drilled on my drill press with a 3/8" bit.  I then wood glued a few dowels in place and wiped away the excess.

The next day I used a dremel to cut down the dowels on both ends.

Then I hit the whole piece with a belt sander using 60 grit sand paper

I did it in three sections so my clamps would keep it in place.  I then finished the top and sides up with an orbital sander using 50 grit paper to start, then switching to 180 grit.

With that all done, I put the two pieces side by side to show the comparison.

The parts protected by hardware are still pretty visible, but since the hardware is going back over them I'm not worrying about it.

After that I mixed a marine varnish with xylene to thin, and laid on the first coat.

The two boards look vastly different when varnished, I'm guessing whomever built them did not match the wood faces but it's only my novice opinion.  They still look worlds better than before.

More varnishing to happen later.

Repairing an old boat ladder

Last summer the plastic rungs of my boat ladder snapped in half, leaving us unable to go swimming.  With nothing to do this winter I figured it'd be a good time to repair it.


I didn't intend on starting a blog when I did this project so it will be missing some pictures

Three of four steps had cracked in two, leaving me one good piece to use as a model.  I initially thought I could drill out the plastic through rods that held the steps in place, but it was difficult to square up perfectly.  In the end I was able to cut between the side grooves with a utility knife, and either pushed or drilled out the smaller pieces.  I then took the intact step to lowers and bought stainless bolts, washers, and locknuts.

From there I took my last remaining step and got lengthXwidthXdepth dimensions.  Conveniently, my grandfather makes furniture and has a wood shop.  I knew I wanted to use a hardwood for this project and he happened to have a lot of cherry in stock.  We planed our boards down and cut them down to size.  Afterward, we used the model piece and a drill press to drill out the bottom of the step grooves.  I recommend undersizing the bit.

We put a stop block behind a band saw that was measured out to the bottom of the step grooves.  You can make 4 cuts per step before having to readjust the band saw.  It worked really well.

Once notched out, I recommend rough fitting them into the grooves and adjusting the cuts from there.  When you're all done you can clean up the grooves with a file and sandpaper.

With the grooves complete we needed to angle the ends.  This was accomplished by lining up the old step and drawing the angles in pencil.  The sander takes care of the rest.

From there I used a drill press to drill the pin holes

Then I checked the fitting.

With the steps cut out and mostly complete, I measured out some anti-skid grip tape, cut it to size, and aligned it in the center of each step.  

That night I varnished them (right over the tape too) and mounted them in the morning.  They Looked good but I wasn't happy with the old siding no longer matching.  I also used a piece of aluminum to make a stabilizing crosspiece.  It's secured with wing nuts and a chain secures it to some existing hardware (So I don't loose it on the bottom of the lake.)

Here it is from the back.

Before leaving back to my house, we cut and planed some new sides out of cherry.

Removed the sides with hand tools being careful to save the old hardware.

The old side rails worked great as a drilling guide

I then made sure the new rails would fit.

Time for varnish.  I used 180 grit sandpaper to rough it up.

And now with the varnished sides back on.  I could still add a few coats, but my basement isn't ventilated enough and it's too cold to varnish outside.  May hit it again in the spring.  The last remaining thing is to mount some blocks and put a rub guard on where it will hit the boat.  I'll also tackle that in the spring, for now it's done.