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malp

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Everything posted by malp

  1. It's an online survey, if CaRT have your email address you should be sent a link to participate. The actual invitation is being sent out by DJS Research who are conducting the survey.
  2. Wouldn't the land sinking move the bottom of the canal further from the top?
  3. What none of these meters can tell you is how much steel thickness is left at the bottom of a pit. So a small depth gauge should also be part of the surveyor's kit. Many digital tyre tread depth gauges are suitable .
  4. I have both a cheap Chinese one and an expensive Tritex. On clean bare steel the Chinese one is accurate, but through paint it is not, whereas the Tritex is. Both need calibrating for the material being measured, and both need some sort of gel under the probe for best results. The difference between them is that the Chinese meters work on a single echo system, whereas the Tritex (and other equivalents) use a more complex multi echo system. The former cannot distinguish between paint and steel so gives a combined reading, the latter can and gives just a steel reading.
  5. Just to add a thought to TB's advice, and bearing in mind that I'm more familiar with Russell Newbery than Gardner, if your engine has an old school cleanable mesh type oil filter element, then non detergent would still be appropiate. Detergent oil is appropriate with a modern filter that uses replaceable cartridges, at least that's the received wisdom in the RN world. Whichever you need, look at the Morris range HERE
  6. Not saying that your particular boat's entry is wrong, but CanalPlan, whilst useful, is not 100% reliable
  7. Agreed, the Carrick Bend is the ultimate safe knot for joining 2 ropes. It weakens rope less than other knots, is totally secure, yet easily undone. On the downside it is quite chunky. However I believe in having ropes of the right length
  8. That's great to hear! In that case I'd tentatively suggest he gets his feet properly under the table in the car restoration world before putting time and effort into finding welding work on steel boats where he would be a (relatively) unskilled entrant in a field where there is going to be more experienced competition.
  9. Tony is likely more up to date on this than myself - certainly though back in the day when I got involved with shell building there were no specific required boatbuilding qualifications for welders. Welding codes such as ASME and AWS existed then, as they do now, and welders could take tests to demonstrate particular competences such as positional welding. That said, in employing welders I soon learned that just because someone was ASME coded did not guarantee that they were a competent production welder for narowboat work. Doing a test piece on a bench is very different to lying on your back doing overhead welds. As the OP recognises, welding and fabrication work involved in the thin sheet gauges used in car restoration is quite different to working with the plate gauges used in narrowboat construction, though many welders find the heavier gauges easier to work with. For shell building MIG is probably used more now than it was when I began, and is generally OK when working with clean, rust free steel in a sheltered environment. But for repair work on older boats, outdoor work, or less than perfectly clean steel MMA (stick) welding is still usually more reliable. Regarding kit, much depends on the work to be done. For shell building I'd suggest a minimum 300 amp machine capable of running for long periods without overheating. For mobile or maintenance work a 180 amp set should be enough for most situations. There are plenty of low cost imported welding sets, but for serious professional work I'd still look at the Oxford range of welders, not cheap but you get what you pay for.
  10. Crewsaver or Baltic would be a couple of decent brands to look at.
  11. As has already been said, what you are thinking of would simply not be viable. What might work for you would be to see if you could get an investment boat in an established hire fleet. This might involve using your capital plus finance (marine mortgage) to purchase a boat which the hire fleet would then operate for an agreed number of years with a few weeks set aside for your use, and hire income shared between yourself and the fleet operator, with your share covering your finance payments. This operating model does date back some years, it may be done differently now, and with interest rates heading up this may not be the ideal time.
  12. They have many other strong points, but not sure that I'd consider a Russell Newbery DM2 particularly quiet or refined. Going by the one in my boat anyway.
  13. Presumably the 6 passenger rule will apply to GoBoats as well, though probably with less effect, as the ones operating in Birmingham don't often seem to have the maximum allowed 8 passengers.
  14. I looked into doing this some years ago, and Canal Cruising Co at Stone was one that I came up with, if I recall correctly.
  15. Yes, stern would have been afloat. It was a bare shell with no ballast at that stage, so not so heavy. It was also not the first to be launched from there in that way without problem.
  16. One final pic of Freeth Street, this time from Google 3D satellite view. The remaining bit of steel framework identifies the location of the yard...
  17. Nothing went wrong, the boat was launched stern first. There's a photo from JohnnyWalker earlier in the thread which shows that.
  18. Ladywood, Birmingham. The canal is the Icknield Port Loop.
  19. All that remains of the Freeth Street premises now, just identifiable by the remaining bit of steel frame ....
  20. Another launch photo....
  21. Depends where the engine is I guess! With a forward engine room Tantalus has a Hardy Spicer intermediate shaft which can be dropped out of the way to draw the tail shaft inboard.
  22. The strut between the skeg and counter bottom (I refuse to say u***r plate) is there to add support to the (longish) skeg mainly against the not impossible event of hanging the boat up on the skeg in a lock and bending it up enough to jam the rudder and make the boat unsteerable. I dipped into the Canopus thread, and found some of the views expressed "interesting". My boat Tantalus has such a strut, as did a number of others I built, and I have not heard from a single owner that it ever made steering difficult.
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