Well, of course, every day is beer time. But, anyone in Brum around 20th October? My three years of hard (honest!) work has paid off and I graduate at Birmingham Symphony Hall on the 20th October. This seems like too good an opportunity to miss so we'll be taking Bouncing Ben up there for a couple of days either side. Cap and gown on the back deck and gin and tonic seems like a bloody good plan to me!
TTFN
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Ennin hole holes
Still no updates for a while as envelope stuffing for a living leaves my brain like mush to the extent that I am no longer capable of turning a computer on, never mind typing anything. So a quick one and Paul can fill you in the the gory details...
Paul's been down in the ennin hole today to investigate a past bodge to see what was going on.
I may not have mentioned this bodge before (mostly cos the engine bit is minging and we've built a deck over it to forget about it for now) but there was a washing up liquid bottle fastened round the stern tube. This is a tube (clever, eh?) that the turning bit from the engine goes through to get to the (currently missing) prop. The concern was, of course, that the washing up liquid bottle was covering something nasty that would aid our sinking when we eventually put the ship in the water. So, off came the bottle today to investigate what was going on...
Under the bottle was exhausty type bandage stuff (techy, aren't I?) that seemed to be smothered in vaseline or similar. This was peeled away and a quick clean up revealed....
Some sort of weird hole. The damage was in an awkward place so Paul had a quick grope (tee hee) then took this picture for later inspection. What the hell caused this? Paul has posted the pics on the ever helpful Canal World Forums in the hope that somebody can enlighten us. Obviously we need to figure out how to fix it, but first I really really want to know what the hell it is. Beer and a chocolate biscuit to whoever figures it out :-D
Paul's been down in the ennin hole today to investigate a past bodge to see what was going on.
I may not have mentioned this bodge before (mostly cos the engine bit is minging and we've built a deck over it to forget about it for now) but there was a washing up liquid bottle fastened round the stern tube. This is a tube (clever, eh?) that the turning bit from the engine goes through to get to the (currently missing) prop. The concern was, of course, that the washing up liquid bottle was covering something nasty that would aid our sinking when we eventually put the ship in the water. So, off came the bottle today to investigate what was going on...
Under the bottle was exhausty type bandage stuff (techy, aren't I?) that seemed to be smothered in vaseline or similar. This was peeled away and a quick clean up revealed....
Some sort of weird hole. The damage was in an awkward place so Paul had a quick grope (tee hee) then took this picture for later inspection. What the hell caused this? Paul has posted the pics on the ever helpful Canal World Forums in the hope that somebody can enlighten us. Obviously we need to figure out how to fix it, but first I really really want to know what the hell it is. Beer and a chocolate biscuit to whoever figures it out :-D
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Quick thought....
Not a useful contribution, and I realise I need to do more to add interesting stuff...
If we can get a genie to finish the project off, will it be a Djinn palace?
PC
If we can get a genie to finish the project off, will it be a Djinn palace?
PC
A floor!
No updates for so long, sorry! I've finally joined the world of the gainfully employed and have been knackered so far so not in the mood for blogging. We've also had other stuff to do like realise there is a big difference between a built-in fridge and built-under fridge (nothing to do with boaty-ness though). I've also managed to squeeze in a little jolly on my dad's boat out of Swanley Bridge Marina.
Anway, worky worky tomorrow so just a very quick one to say, "WE'VE GOT A FLOOR"!!! Yep, muchos help from Ben the Builder yesterday saw a load of ballast go in and a floor laid. Makes a massive, massive difference and it hopefully means I will stop talking to the baseplate.
Hopefully this week I'll feel a bit more awake after work so will update more.
TTFN!
Anway, worky worky tomorrow so just a very quick one to say, "WE'VE GOT A FLOOR"!!! Yep, muchos help from Ben the Builder yesterday saw a load of ballast go in and a floor laid. Makes a massive, massive difference and it hopefully means I will stop talking to the baseplate.
Hopefully this week I'll feel a bit more awake after work so will update more.
TTFN!
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Welding tales
So, the little welder wasn't up to the job of welding a narrowboat back together. Not a great surprise, but a bit of a let-down as we don't really have the cash kicking around to buy a new one. Fortunately, Paul's birthday will soon be upon us so begging for early birthday cash seemed like a good idea.
A search of fleabay led to a big welder with hardly any bids up in Yorkshire. Sounded ideal. Bidding done we won a welder for £132 and just needed to go to Shipley to collect it. Paul likes crazy eBay collections so this wasn't a great problem (we once drove from Manchester to deepest, darkest Lincolnshire to collect a car won from eBay, after a day at work!). Half a day off work and off we went up the M1.
Thank the lord for estate cars as the newtoy welder only just fit in the back of the car. Back we went down the M1 to take up some more space in Paul's parents' garage.
Here's the newtoy welder with the old one on top, a bit of a difference in size!
There were of course some minor issues with getting the welder working (of course) but I will let Paul bore you with the details of that as I understand sod all about it!
A search of fleabay led to a big welder with hardly any bids up in Yorkshire. Sounded ideal. Bidding done we won a welder for £132 and just needed to go to Shipley to collect it. Paul likes crazy eBay collections so this wasn't a great problem (we once drove from Manchester to deepest, darkest Lincolnshire to collect a car won from eBay, after a day at work!). Half a day off work and off we went up the M1.
Thank the lord for estate cars as the new
Here's the new
There were of course some minor issues with getting the welder working (of course) but I will let Paul bore you with the details of that as I understand sod all about it!
Sunday 9th August
Another sunny day dawned and I was feeling much happier about life now I did not have to deal with gravel.
The vactan from the day before had done its stuff so it was time to slop some more of it around. I still had hurty hand from the big hammer the day before, but at least painting is easier work. Happy, happy Kate!
As it was a warm day, the vactan worked its magic quite quickly...
So it was time to apply some of the cheap Screwfix red painty stuff...
While my day was going so well, Paul was again cracking on with the welding. The poor little welder gets quite hot and numerous fuses were blown.
In the end the small welder decided it had had enough and produced lots of smoke and packed up. This led to a not very happy Paul...
As we'd also tripped the power out we decided it was time to call it a day. I'd also run out of vactan and red painty stuff. Another productive weekend finished.
Injuries for the weekend: Kate's hand no longer works as it should and we really need a new welder!
The vactan from the day before had done its stuff so it was time to slop some more of it around. I still had hurty hand from the big hammer the day before, but at least painting is easier work. Happy, happy Kate!
As it was a warm day, the vactan worked its magic quite quickly...
So it was time to apply some of the cheap Screwfix red painty stuff...
While my day was going so well, Paul was again cracking on with the welding. The poor little welder gets quite hot and numerous fuses were blown.
In the end the small welder decided it had had enough and produced lots of smoke and packed up. This led to a not very happy Paul...
As we'd also tripped the power out we decided it was time to call it a day. I'd also run out of vactan and red painty stuff. Another productive weekend finished.
Injuries for the weekend: Kate's hand no longer works as it should and we really need a new welder!
Saturday 8th August
Back to the catch-up...
I really must get better at blogging once we've done something, not a couple of weeks later. I'm usually so knackered after a weekend working on the boat, that I don't want to think about it for a few days!
So, anyway, Saturday 8th August was to be the battle with the gravel part 1,342. It was agreed that I would work on the last really stuck bits of gravel while Paul started on some of the welding. We had considered just leaving the stuck bits there and painting over them, but decided we would actually do the job properly. We'd already shovelled and swept as much up as we could and I'd tried some of the worse bits with a wire brush. Now it was time for some serious action. Very big hammer and a chisel!
There were only two floor sections that needed dealing with in this way, but it was a slow, nasty, evil, bitch of a job. My tiny hands are not made for big hammers and chisels and by the end of it even picking up said hammer made me say very bad words. The result is that the gravel is now finally all gone, but it did leave me a broken woman!
Not my best look!
While I was breaking myself, Paul had been getting busy grinding and welding. Here's a couple of pics but I'll let him tell you the rest himself!
Towards the end of the day I at least had some fun trying out the vactan. I only did one section as time was ticking on, but had some fun as well!
So, another productive day with the rest of the floor ready for the magic vactan and paint and weldy work seeing real progress
I really must get better at blogging once we've done something, not a couple of weeks later. I'm usually so knackered after a weekend working on the boat, that I don't want to think about it for a few days!
So, anyway, Saturday 8th August was to be the battle with the gravel part 1,342. It was agreed that I would work on the last really stuck bits of gravel while Paul started on some of the welding. We had considered just leaving the stuck bits there and painting over them, but decided we would actually do the job properly. We'd already shovelled and swept as much up as we could and I'd tried some of the worse bits with a wire brush. Now it was time for some serious action. Very big hammer and a chisel!
There were only two floor sections that needed dealing with in this way, but it was a slow, nasty, evil, bitch of a job. My tiny hands are not made for big hammers and chisels and by the end of it even picking up said hammer made me say very bad words. The result is that the gravel is now finally all gone, but it did leave me a broken woman!
Not my best look!
While I was breaking myself, Paul had been getting busy grinding and welding. Here's a couple of pics but I'll let him tell you the rest himself!
Towards the end of the day I at least had some fun trying out the vactan. I only did one section as time was ticking on, but had some fun as well!
So, another productive day with the rest of the floor ready for the magic vactan and paint and weldy work seeing real progress
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