kilroy
Member
260DA - cockpit table project
As many others have done, we decided to replace our cockpit table, as the small OEM plastic table really didn’t work for us. At the same time, however, I wanted to relocate the support post so that the table was center-mounted, so my first task was to find a post that would work. This took some searching because most were either 20-22 inches or about 30 inches; I finally sourced one directly from Garelick Industries (model 75359-44), which, as it turns out, is located right here in the Twin Cities. This post is 26 1/4 inches high and not available through normal online suppliers (not sure why). I had intended to order the upper and lower mounting plates from Garelick as well but they told me I could get them cheaper from iboats.com, so that’s where I bought those.
Now that I had the hardware, I marked the location where the new base plate would go and cut the hole. Then I removed the old mounting plate and screwed and epoxied a piece of flat aluminum stock to the underside of the old hole. Using the plug that came out of the new hole, I trimmed it down to fit the old hole, coated the raw edges with 5200, and epoxied the plug into place. I coated the raw edges of the new hole and installed the new mounting plate, then filled the old screw holes. New flooring will cover the spot where the old mounting plate was.
Now on to the table itself: I always have cutoffs and scrap plywood lying around, which turned out to be a very good thing because I wound up building at least half a dozen prototypes before deciding on one that we liked.
I played around with shapes and sizes, starting with a rectangle, moving on to a trapezoid, then settling on what I would call a modified ellipse. After making several prototype plywood tops of varying lengths and widths, I finally arrived at the proportions we liked and a size of 19 ½ x 36.
The wood I chose is sapele, a tropical hardwood similar to but not part of the mahogany family. It has nice grain and color, it’s a bit harder than teak, but it's still easy to work. I glued up the stock, marked and rough-cut the outside curves, then sanded the edges to the lines with a belt sander, after which I routed a partial radius profile on the edges themselves. I didn’t bother with recessed cupholders or raised edges around the perimeter.
After sanding through 220, the surfaces were sealed with Interlux sealer followed by several coats of Cetol Marine Light.
There was some sapele left over from the table project so I decided to build a new cupholder for the port side of the dash, since the original one was cracked. I glued up some stock, cut the cup holes using the old plastic one as a template, then shaped and routed the same partial radius on all the edges. It’s still pretty shallow for a cupholder, but we’ll see how it works this summer. I can always build another next winter.
As many others have done, we decided to replace our cockpit table, as the small OEM plastic table really didn’t work for us. At the same time, however, I wanted to relocate the support post so that the table was center-mounted, so my first task was to find a post that would work. This took some searching because most were either 20-22 inches or about 30 inches; I finally sourced one directly from Garelick Industries (model 75359-44), which, as it turns out, is located right here in the Twin Cities. This post is 26 1/4 inches high and not available through normal online suppliers (not sure why). I had intended to order the upper and lower mounting plates from Garelick as well but they told me I could get them cheaper from iboats.com, so that’s where I bought those.
Now that I had the hardware, I marked the location where the new base plate would go and cut the hole. Then I removed the old mounting plate and screwed and epoxied a piece of flat aluminum stock to the underside of the old hole. Using the plug that came out of the new hole, I trimmed it down to fit the old hole, coated the raw edges with 5200, and epoxied the plug into place. I coated the raw edges of the new hole and installed the new mounting plate, then filled the old screw holes. New flooring will cover the spot where the old mounting plate was.
Now on to the table itself: I always have cutoffs and scrap plywood lying around, which turned out to be a very good thing because I wound up building at least half a dozen prototypes before deciding on one that we liked.
I played around with shapes and sizes, starting with a rectangle, moving on to a trapezoid, then settling on what I would call a modified ellipse. After making several prototype plywood tops of varying lengths and widths, I finally arrived at the proportions we liked and a size of 19 ½ x 36.
The wood I chose is sapele, a tropical hardwood similar to but not part of the mahogany family. It has nice grain and color, it’s a bit harder than teak, but it's still easy to work. I glued up the stock, marked and rough-cut the outside curves, then sanded the edges to the lines with a belt sander, after which I routed a partial radius profile on the edges themselves. I didn’t bother with recessed cupholders or raised edges around the perimeter.
After sanding through 220, the surfaces were sealed with Interlux sealer followed by several coats of Cetol Marine Light.
There was some sapele left over from the table project so I decided to build a new cupholder for the port side of the dash, since the original one was cracked. I glued up some stock, cut the cup holes using the old plastic one as a template, then shaped and routed the same partial radius on all the edges. It’s still pretty shallow for a cupholder, but we’ll see how it works this summer. I can always build another next winter.
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