Dish Soap and Paper Towel Storage

[waterdog]

Remembered to bring the camera to the boat today.  Took a few shots of summer projects.

I was bothered by having no place for the dish soap and remembered a nice solution for a paper towel holder in the projects section that just fits over the fiddle and takes up no counter space.   So I made a set.   The second picture shows the core of the paper towel holder which doubles as ship's rolling pin.

[Craig Illman]

Steve - I think you could sell those and retire to Mexico!  Your shower looks nice too!

Craig

[Susan Ray]

Excellent holders. Did you make a template or do you have demensions and instructions so I could build one? What kind of wood did you use? Thanks, Susan

[waterdog]

Uh oh.  I was afraid somebody would ask me for plans or a template.  The truth is I build all manner of things without plans.  Though I once did follow instructions to make a strip plank bahama dingy cradle boat.   I digress.   Here are the complete instructions:   

There are only a few measurements which are important.  The width of your fiddle and the length of your paper towel - check a few paper towels - I was surprised to find a half inch of variance.   

For stock, you could probably make them out of finished lumber 1x4 from your favourite lumberyard.   They could be teak, ash, maple, oak, or whatever you like.   Pine is possibility.  I happened to start with a birch tree which I ripped into about 1" thick material and dried for eight years before planing it down to about 5/8" thick.   But that's probably a long time to wait to build a paper towel holder.   I'd go with what you can buy already dried.   

Roughly speaking the ends measure 4" x 6".   The corners are all radiused to the dimensions of a spray paint can, though it may have been as small as WD40, but I try to avoid that because it can mark your wood with greasy spots.   You can cut the corners with a jigsaw or bandsaw.

Then you make the stretcher or base.  It's just a plain piece of wood.   Cut them as long as your longest roll of paper towel + 2 times the depth of the dados in the side pieces - say an extra half inch plus a little breathing room. 

Dado is just a fancy word for the horizontal grooves in the side pieces that the base sticks into.  This is where it's worth taking time to make sure you have a nice snug fit.  I always cut my dado a little bit skinnier than the piece of wood I'm trying to stick into them and then sand the bit I'm sticking in down to the perfect size.   You can cut the dados on a table saw or just chew them out with some nice sharp chisels. 

So now you should have identical side pieces and two bases that should fit together nicely to form the two units.   

For the paper holder, you just need to add the roller notches.   Drill a 3/4" hole and a couple of saw cuts is all that is required.   Then I turned the dowel out of a very dense piece of boxwood.  Has a nice weight and doesn't lift up when you rip off a piece of towel one handed.   But, if you don't have a wood lathe, you could just buy some large dowel to fit your towel roll and some small dowel.   Cut the big dowel to the length of the inside of the holder.   Drill holes on center in the ends at the diameter of the small dowel.  Insert some oversize lengths of small dowel into the holes with a bit of glue and then trim them off at the right length.   A little more work, but it will be just as nice.  If you use off the shelf dowels, source your dowels before you cut your roller notches so you make them the right size (a bit larger than your small dowel).

For the storage box, I just cut some rails to length and cut some notches out of the sides for the rails to inset in. 

For both assemblies I just glued and clamped them with ordinary wood glue.   If you are doing teak, gluing is more problematic because it is a very oily wood.   It requires cleaning with a solvent before gluing and even then it will fail over time - go with sliding dovetails over straight dados. 

Oh, and don't forget to cut the notch that fits over your fiddle.  Sorry that was kind of like the instruction for diffusing the bomb:  Cut the yellow wire.  "Snip"  But first, cut the blue wire.

[horsemel]

As a fellow woodworking I appreciate you not having plans and drawings.  My projects never end-up like the original design.  Most of mine start out as sketches on napkins or scrap paper.  i think i will make a set of these in the spring.  However, I think my set will include some kind of drip proof holder for wet sponges etc.  My mate doesn't like to leave the wet sponge sitting in the sink.  This is a great use of space!
Mark Mueller
Blue Moon #815

[Stu Jackson]

Nice work.  We have a teak paper towel holder under the top step of the companionway stairs, a teak soap dispenser holder at the forward corner of the galley (near the 120 V outlet) and we keep the dish soap behind the white sliding door above the galley.  Not right to hand, but close enough.

[Susan Ray]

Thanks...I will give your plans to a friend who makes his plans on old peices of wood. He should enjoy your instructions and will help me build them. Do you have any other projects (aside from shower which I saw) that you have done for your boat?

[waterdog]

Most of the things I have done are equipmpent type upgrades.   In two seasons we've taken an old stock boat and added or messed with:

A dodger - standard canvas affair with side handles
Replaced drains under galley sink
All new cabin lights
New combo extraction fan / light over the galley
New chartplotter
Rebedded a few stanchions
New portlights
New forward hatch acrylic
New latches for all the cabinets
Snap on black out canvas on forward hatch (inside)
Cockpit speakers / ipod compatible stereo
mast boot
Microwave
C/O detector
Windlass
Swim platforms
Inverter
Battery monitor
Rigid vang
New foam in the upholstery
Rope clutches
Various running rigging
Forced air diesel furnace
VHF with chartplotter interface
New rubrail
New cowls
Halyard bags
Cockpit shower
Fishing rod storage rack

Plus about 120 smaller maintenance type items (vented loops in the head, cooling hoses, cockpit cushion repairs etc.)

Right now I'm about to embark on a storage refit for the boat.   Basically, we want to go cruising for a year and I intend to go stem to stern and completely redo the storage.  I imagine there will be a bunch of little woodworking projects along the way dividing up lockers and the like.   

Major problem areas that are going to get permanent custom solutions are:

- chart storage
- book storage
- pots and pans
- bottle storage
- wine glasses
- pantry storage
- propane

There are vast amounts of space to be had.   It's just a matter of decent organization and access.  If I do anything novel I'll post it.  The nice thing is that a lot of great upgrades have already been thought through, implemented and documented here.  I intend to shamelessly steal ideas...

[Susan Ray]

How about info on the combo extraction fan/ light in galley? Any pictures? Sound like a good idea. Did you use the same cowls when you replaced them?

[waterdog]

We just used the cowls they sell on Catalina Direct.  They look good.  I posted a picture of the galley fan as a new topic.