and Finally - the Galley build begins

The fridge installed and running.

After a long winter of mucking about in the workshop and occasionally managing to get a coat of paint on the galley panelling, the worktop finally got installed a week or so back - bedded down on white sealant to slow down the moisture ingress.

The next job was to fit the fridge compressor unit. This was carefully located on the support panel mounted on the engine stringer.

The cold plate was then fitted for the final time into the cool-box and the big hole sealed with two-part polyurethane foam; which amazingly was still active after many years in the shed.

The cooler pipework was then clipped to plywood blocked embedded in the insulating foam. the control box was similarly mounted.

The cool box was then installed after removing the compressor - its a bit of a fiddle to fit- and sealed with white sealant. The compressor was then refitted and then removed again and moved towards the main bulkhead to allow for a fair run of the cooling pipes. (There's just room for a ratchet screwdriver under the cool box.)

The coolant pipes were then connected (there's a one-shot fitting for these as the system is pre-gassed. Fingers crossed and some Fairey liquid applied to the joints to test for leaks and all appeared well.

In the photo you can see the second hand Huntress battery connected to the compressor ECU. The Multi-meter showing that the battery is on charge (it as also found in the shed) from the trusty CTEK7000 charger. Unfortunately there was no activity from the ECU or compressor.

It transpired that there was a wire missing from the Fridge kit (not sure where it went). A quick squiz at the manual (last resort), and the extra connection was made between the control box and ECU and lo-and-behold, the compressor sprang into life.

Five minutes later the cool box temperature dropped to 2 degrees (ambient temperature was about 9 degrees C) and that was with the lid removed. With the lid fitted and another ten to fifteen minutes of cooling action, the temperature dropped to -1.5 degrees C. More than enough for a fridge - the milk will be solid.

The next job is to fiddle the cooker box into position and thread it round its pre-fitted gas pipe. But there's some more painting to do before that.

[Now Playing:  Cold - by Annie Lennox ]