Looking for drawers for my Ericson

I am thinking about putting in some drawers where the right ice box was located. I had to open the wall facing the center walkway, and now it is just a big open whole. I think 4 drawers will be nice to put in the whole, but I want it to look like the original drawers used in the rest of the boat. The problem might be to find someone selling such drawers. I could try to build it myself, but it will be difficult to make. Any suggestions?</SPAN>
Maybe there is an Ericson that is going to be dismantled that got good drawers?
I will take pictures and show what size that will be good for the drawers. If I can’t get the whole drawer, maybe just the front will be OK, and I can make the rest.</SPAN>

Not looking any longer - have to make

I was lying with the flu this weekend, and then I started to think about the whole that needed to be field with something, and drawers cam as first choice. Today I finely got out of bed, and manage to take some pictures of the boat, and then I see there are no drawers in the E41 that are 43-48 cm wide, so I guess I should forget about finding some old ones. Then I will have to make them. I will try to copy the way the other drawers are made, so they will have the same behavior. I think it will be three drawers, and maybe I will keep the old icebox top, but make a shelf that can be accessed from the top. The other drawers are either too wide or too narrow.</SPAN>

Hi Svein,

It's good to hear you are feeling better. If you have a router the drawer fronts will not be too hard to build. You can usea bevel raised panel bit like this; http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=19243&amp;site=ROCKLER to make the detail on the drawer fronts. You might want to bring a drawer to a cabinet/wood shop as an example with measurements for your new drawers and have them made. They shouldn't be too expensive.

Svein,

Mark has given you some helpful information, but if you want to avoid spending the money on the expensive router bit, and you have a table saw, you can make that beveled cut on your table saw by setting the blade at the appropriate angle and holding the material vertically against the fence. To make the recessed handle, you'll need a round-nose bit for your router. The round-nose bit is not very expensive.

Regards,
Roscoe

Thank you both for good advices. I will look for nose bits that will make equal shape as I got. Then I will decide if I will make the fronts myself or give it to a professional. Maybe making the entire support frame inside will be the hardest part, but I will try to copy how it was done in the other cabinets.

raised panel drawer doors

Svein,

Here's a YouTube video showing the technique I described above. This guy uses a large jig. If you have a good fence and a steady hand, you can make these beveled cuts without taking the time to make this big jig.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63aBHazzpDw

Regards,
Roscoe

The YouTube video make it look easy, but I am not sure if I will make it myself yet, but I will keep you all informed when I start building this. </SPAN>

Starting to feel seasick.

My friend that I use to sail/race with every Wednesday has left town for a long cruse around the world, and I have no boat to sail in. My Ericson 41 is resting in the marina with no mast, and it will take some time before it will be ready. My body is crying for some moment on the sea, so maybe I just take her out by motor, and let her lay there, and I can pretend I am sailing....
But there are so many things I can do on the boat, so I guess I should do that first. I just bought a plank of teak for the drawers. First I was planning to make it like the old drawers where everything is in teak, but teak is so expensive. I bought on plank that I will cut in four smaller pieces and use as front on the drawers. It was 6.5 foot long and 6" wide and ½ inch thick, some think that would cost 3 or 4 dollar in normal wood, but in teak they wanted $80,- for it. So I think I need to find other materials for the rest of the drawers.

Teak, real and almost-real

Strictly in the "for what it's worth" kind of advice...
:nerd:

The interior structure of your new drawers could be mahogany, and with a bit of staining most folks will never notice any difference. As for the teak face, you might consider some of the near-relatives to "Teak."
For instance, we remodeled our hourse last year. First updating in over 35 years since we built it. The Admiral wanted wood floors to replace the wall-to-wall carpet, and she liked teak.
Yikes! $$ !

It turned out that there are some look-alike species that are half the price, or less.
We went with Cumaru wood. In the retail market it's often called Brazilian Teak. Then there's also Jatoba, usually called Brazilian Cherry when marketed here.

Heck, if you were not so darned far away, I would gift you with several square feet of leftover cumaru flooring.... I have been handing out bits of it to woodworker friends. It is twice (!) as hard as red oak, and finishes out to look almost exactly like teak. Note that real "teak" will have quite a range of color, from a darker brown to the golden look that we personally like.

Good luck on your cabinetry. While the work may be frustrating at times, the resulting interior look and feel will give you a lot of satisfaction over the years.

Several years ago I was aboard a restored E-41, at a rendezvous, and the varnished interior was very warm and inviting. I felt like I was aboard a true Classic Yacht.

Regards,
Loren

I'm no expert, but I have been going on the assumption that my early-70's interior is mahogany. It's mostly darker than what I expect teak to look like. Somewhere I seem to recall reading that some were? Or is that not correct?

I too have to fabricate some drawer-fronts (one missing and some old) but it looks pretty simple. My remaining ones are like Sveinutne's last picture. Standard router bits that I already have in my drawer. The first picture looks somewhat different - maybe those were added at a different time? Looks like maybe a door-panel bit was used.

I've almost decided against adding any actual drawers - just swing-down cabinet doors with the same appearance as drawers. As per the factory doors under the settees. The drawer structure takes up a lot of space in the cabinet. On my smaller boat few of the spaces are square and parallel, so there would be a lot of dead space around the drawer. Hopefully you have more volume to work with! However, one can always build a simple cabinet to begin with and add drawers later, after the boat is sailing again.

Hi Loren,
Yes, I agree with you. The teak interior is very nice and warm looking, and I feel it is gives a good feeling just to sit inside. The marine is only seven minutes by car from my place, and this last two weeks we have had warm weather and plenty of rain. Maybe not warm in US standard, but 3-10 degrees plus is unusually warm in Norway for March. But I still got some leaks, so I have used to take a trip to the boat after dinner almost every day, just to remove the water I can find in the boat. My routine is to turn on the two propane heaters on the saloon table and then start the Petrobas 500 heater under the table. Then put on the stove and make a cup of coffee. Then the temperature has reached a nice temperature, and I can start to dry up water and look for where the water is entering. Then I have to turn of the propane heaters, and sit down and enjoy the coffee.

Your idea of using other materials is something I will look into.

Hi Todd,
You might be right the interior might be mahogany. But the teak I have bought is even darker then what is in the boat, but I hope this new teak will be more golden when it get some layers of varnish.

The interior of your boat is mahogany (most likely phillipine )and the drawer fronts should be made of the same species if you want the factory
look. It's not really all about the color, although that is important, but about the grain. The grain in mahogany has a
certain look, and is different than teak. Making the doors/drawer fronts for an Ericson is not difficult. The raised
panel can be easily done on a table saw, preferably with a jig. The finger hole is done with a plunge router and
a ball bit. If you are doing several, you might want to make up a simple jig. The one detail on the Ericson version
that works well is the undercutting of the top of the lip slightly allowing for a better grip.

HTH

Martin

Tags/Code in Posts?

Hi Svein -

Just a question - I've been noticing some code in your last couple of posts - specifically the tags "SPAN" - which align items in text - are you putting those in your sentences - or are you trying to put special Norwegian characters in or something (I'm trying to figure out why/how they're in there)? I edited two of the last couple posts, so I was just wondering.... :nerd:

Hope you're well!

//sse

Hi Sean,</SPAN>
Thank you for your visit, now if you and your wife return this summer I will take you out sailing. </SPAN>
My English spelling is so bad that I use to write in Microsoft Word and then cut and past the text. I guess it is Word that adds a lot of tags. Maybe you know a simple way to remove all this annoying tags? I know one way and that is to past it into notepad first, but that is a lot of steps if you just want to write a short comment.</SPAN>
Hope to see you again.</SPAN>
Svein</SPAN>

Hi Martin,</SPAN>
Thank you for clarifying the wood interior. I will see if I can swap the teak for mahogany. I have not made any cut in it yet. It is a lot of nice work done inside the boat from the factory. It is when you start to work on it yourself you see many details.</SPAN>
I have wondered why only 50 some very build of the E41. It is so nice and good looking, and with the helm all the way in the back it makes a lot of room in the cockpit. Was it the V-drive that was the problem?</SPAN>
Regards</SPAN>
Svein</SPAN>

Svein,

A lot of people in the area where I live use Sapele as a substitute for mahogany. It has a rich, reddish-brown color with a beautiful grain. Some people call Sapele "African Mahogany," as it is native to that continent.

Roscoe

Thank you Roscoe for you advice, I will check what the suppliers or exotic woods can deliver and compare the prices between them, but teak is only delivered by half a dozen suppliers, and it is sold in less shops every year, so soon it will be very difficult and very expensive to get. In Norway we got something called kebony.
http://www.kebony.com/
And it should also be some sort of teak replacer, but I have not tried it. If Ericson used Mahogany, I think I will try to find that and get as close as I can to the old color and grain structure.

Lots of different woods are sold as mahogony. The stuff that was in my boat (looks just like the photos of yours) is luan, also known as meranti or philippine mahogony. If you're looking for your closest physical match, this is what you want. The good news is that it is also the cheapest of the woods sold as mahogony. Sapele, mentioned above, is a very nice wood, better than luan but the grain is not a direct match.

As for why they only made 50 Ericson 41s, a couple things happened at the same time. One, the ratings rules changed so that the beautiful, long overhangs look of the Ericson 41 no longer gave a ratings advantage. Second, Ericson began experimenting with pan construction in which fiberglass sub assemblies are made from molds and then bonded directly to the hull. Furniture finishing touches, such as fiddles and so on, were then screwed to the sub assemblies. Your boat's interior was made entirely of plywood pieces bonded directly to the hull with no pan sub assembly. This is known as stick built construction. With the Ericson 27 and 29 Ericson started moving away from this. It is more labor intensive than pan construction.

Martin,</SPAN>
Yes, safety is important. With all this advice, I feel I should give it a try. I might test with a plank of cheap woods first, so I see I got the angle and dept right. If it looks OK, I will go for it.</SPAN>