Boat bookcase 5

Well, 15 months of down time and I'm back to work on the boat bookcase.
For a recap see:
1. here,

2. here,

3. here,

4. and here,


I left off needing to contour the sides of the shelves so that they match the curve of the boat, defined by the plywood back (er, bottom?). I thought this was going to take a long time because all I had was a belt sander. Well, recently I bought a cheap angle grinder and this thing removes wood pretty quickly. So I used the grinder and sander and had the shelves ready in about 45 minutes.

Now I needed a bow support. I marked and cut a piece of 2x4, screwed it to the bow and contoured it as well.

The strip running down the length on top is only temporary. It is nailed into each shelf so that the front edge of the shelves are the same distance apart as the back edges, which are screwed to the plywood back.

On to the boat sides. I wanted something at least 1/2 inch thick, and painted, but knew that I wasn't going to be able to bend 1/2 inch plywood. The answer was to use 2 pieces of 1/4 inch plywood for each side and make a sandwich with glue in between. Here is the plywood marked and ready to cut. The piece closest to the camera is extra.


With the plywood cut to width I applied glue down the shelf edges and fastened the first side. Here it is from the inside:


And here it is from the outside:


Then I applied the other side. I had to hold my camera a little high to snap this pic, so it doesn't do it justice.


Finally, using a spray adhesive, I applied a liberal coat to the second pieces and installed them on top of the first. Then I removed the long strip for the front edge spacing. I didn't take a picture, but it looks like a boat at this point.

Next up will be sanding, painting, and applying solid wood strips to cover the plywood edges.