More work...
Posted by casper ghost, Mar 13 2010, 03:18 PM
Me and my brother stayed on Casper the night and did a bit of work.
Casper;
We welded 1" box section to the engine room roof to support where the hatch is to be cut out. Welded up the last of the battens, removed the diesel vents and welded up the holes. While grinding the welds our grinder packed up, that's another dead grinder, one day i'll go back and count how many we have had break, I think it's 6 or 7 
At least this one has a 3 year guarrantee 
.We cleaned the engine room with soapy water, using a wet vac to remove the water. Since removing the lining, ballast and diesel tanks the counter has risen and is now about 5 inchs out of the water this also means the propeller is hardly in the water. I've been adding weight to pull it down, I've got 7 20 litrre water tubs on the back deck and i've removed some weight from the front, the counter is now just out of the water so should be ok to cruise.
Sleepy Hollow;
We fixed up the roof battens. These were strips of 9mm ply which we self-tapped onto the roof bearers. It went ok but the drill we had is messing about and we had to keep swapping the bits which was not easy as the drill chuck will not tighten properly. We have put some gunk on the engine room side doors as some rain was getting in. We put the water tank in too, though it'll be a while before it needs fitting..
Loading the Ruston into the trailer...
Posted by casper ghost, Mar 10 2010, 05:57 PM
Went to my neighbour to borrow his steel loading ramps, he had dug out a sampson winch for me to borrow too. This made loading the engine rather easy. I just put down the ramps and winched the engine up and onto the trailer, it was almost as easy as it sounds. Managed it without the help from my friends. I was almost looking forward to us all struggling with the heavy lump..
Handy little Clio to pull it about...
AND before I get any wise comments I know i've missed a bit, paint that is..
Diesel filler mk2..
Posted by casper ghost, Mar 9 2010, 02:39 PM
Well, got a length of mild steel tube which we had laying about and made the bend by cutting at 45 degrees and joining. All welded well, tested with diesel and no leaks to be seen so all ok..
Welding woes...
Posted by casper ghost, Mar 8 2010, 01:09 PM
Went out today to make the filler pipe for the diesel tank as the tank is being moved. The pipe now needs to go down and into the side of the tank. I got some scaffold pipe for this and a 90 degree hydraulic bend I had lying around. Welded the bend between 2 lengths of the pipe. To test for leaks I filled the bend with diesel, it leaked. ground back and rewelded, it still leaked, ground back and rewelded again, but it leaked worse this time... Some of the welds on the bend have cracked and I now think that the hydraulic bend may not be mild steel. Looks like I will have to start again with something else as I seem incapable of welding this and i've lost the effort to try again with it.
I did manage to blank off the holes where the original filler and vent were, at least that went ok. I won't bore you with any pics..
Work on Sleepy Hollow and Casper..
Posted by casper ghost, Mar 6 2010, 09:57 PM
Me and my brother did some work on the 2 boats.
On Sleepy Hollow we fitted some battens on the cabin sides, which was easy as we had already drilled the steel angles which we noe bolted the lathes to. We also cut 2 more roof drains at the back of the boat as we now know where best to place them as the boat is pretty much ballasted.
On Casper we cut out and removed the 2 diesel tanks taking one home to adjust so it will fit further back under the counter to allow more cabin space.
We went to see our local friendly chap with a mini crane who has agreed to lift the rather heavy Ruston into Casper. Now we just need to work out how to lift the 0.38 ton engine into our trailer to tow to the boat.
We spent the night on Casper. Luckily it was fairly mild as the last night I spent there it was freezing inside..
The ballast in the engine room
Ballast under front deck..
Cutting out drain.
Tacked, needing grinding and welding.
Okay, not the most exciting pictures but I made an effort...
Another exciting photo...
Posted by casper ghost, Mar 2 2010, 01:12 PM
Well, today and yesterday the sun shone and although freezing in the morning it did get warm-ish in the afternoon so out with the paint brush. I didn't paint the engine as it was only going to be warm for a little while before getting cold again but I did manage to paint the gearbox, which no one will see once in the boat, except me..
.
This is a PRM 140s gearbox with 2-1 reduction. It's an early 1970's box. I have already stripped it down and replaced all the seals. I was told it was working when the seller removed it from his boat but I can't test it so lets hope...
I also painted a few items that I could bring inside before the cold. 
More work on Casper..
Posted by casper ghost, Feb 27 2010, 02:34 PM
Well, i've managed to sell the little Sabb, it's going into a fishing boat on the Welsh coast. The buyer wanted it in a week but I said I needed it until the end of March to cruise to the dry dock. I've now got to rush to get things ready..
Spent a couple of days working in the bedroom/engine room on Casper, between the rain showers.
Welded up most of the battens and welded the extra floor bearers where the new, much heavier, engine will go. The aim was to do all the welding needed below the water line before I go into dry dock, haven't quite finished yet.
The position of the diesel tanks just inside the rear doors is right in the way for my fitout so they need to be moved. It took all day to drain them down and it was only 5 tubs. The boat and me now smell of diesel..
This was my bedroom..
An exciting picture of some battens...only welded top and bottom to avoid burning the paint off the cabin side.
The offending diesel tanks with balance bar between them. Drained first from the tap then from the balance bar joint. They are made from 6mm steel so may get help to lift them out..
Rigged up the diesel tank from the Ruston so I can still cruise with the Sabb.
Painting the Ruston and Cutting lugs...
Posted by casper ghost, Feb 20 2010, 04:08 PM
A nice sunny day so I painted the engine in red lead/oxide. 
I also cut 65 steel lugs for fixing the battons to the cabin side. These were from 20 x 3mm flat. Drilled a 6mm hole every inch or so then cut them all out with the 9" angle grinder. It's a labour intensive method, but i've tried other ready made things and they didn't work. I've also tried getting these made by companied but I couldn't find one that would do it so I do it myself. When I did Casper I needed well over 150 lugs, Sleepy Hollow is longer...
Comments on this blog...
Posted by casper ghost, Feb 19 2010, 05:08 PM
Okay, i'm not the most techy person and I didn't know that there were any comments on here. Someone has just pm'd to say they have put a comment on. It didn't show up so I searched and i've now found a whole load of comments. It appears that i've not got the settings to let me know when a comment is posted and nothing else tells me...
I'm now having to go through each page,clicking on comments to see if there are any. If anyone asked a question they probably thought I was ignoring them .
As i've said before, I must try harder.... 
More cutting and destruction...
Posted by casper ghost, Feb 9 2010, 03:37 PM
Didn't work too hard on Casper today, did manage to remove the remaining half of the steel bulkhead from engine room.
My existing exhaust comes out of the roof and to take it further away from me while steering I cheated and ran it through a fake pigeon box which pushed the exhaust stack about 2 feet forward. I now need to remove this exhaust.
The black square extension to the left of the pigeon box needs removing.
This was not easy as the angle grinder would not cut all the way down so I had to cut most of it with a hacksaw. This was a right pain and I hit my knuckles 3 times on the steel ..
This is what it looks like now, far nicer
I've yet again put off cutting the hole in the roof, must pluck up the nerve to do it 
...
on Diesel filler mk2..