smelly welder

I don't have my own boat but i live near the canel and college cruisers and am up and down the towpath all the time .Never seen any trouble so to speak - the odd few chavs hanging about , the odd drunk but nothing to worry about .

Regarding distortion , i would definatly have a practise first on similar material to what you weld before starting proper . This is good sense on any job , to set up the machine so you don't use excessive power and cause distortion. Its good practice to mark out were your going to weld with a marker pen /chalk etc , so that you can have the tacks or stich weld equaly spaced . This way you can do a burst on one area , then move to another , allowing the welds to cool before you continue. Practise is everything with welding , so get hold of as much scrap to practise on before you attack your boat ! Good luck!!

Off the top of my head quickly some safety tips. Get a small fire extinguisher or have some some thing handy such a a wet cloth .Paint will burn easy and or insulation material. Cover your self up and tuck your self in .Sparks and hot welding wire down t-shirt boots etc hurts . As does Uv burn . Cover windows up as spatter will mark them. Disconnect your batterys - its a standard thing if you work on a car etc . i would also unplug anything electrical full stop. Double check you have the earth on before you start. Always wear gloves - by that i mean welding gauntlets - the best ones are big thick suede like jobbys. It may sound obvious but always use your mask - a bit of spatter in your eye when your ' just doing a small tack' is both painfull and a waste of beer drinking time being in A and E all night. Hope this helps!!!

As a welder i would have to agree with Chris polleys comments from earlier in the thread. A good manufacturer should use dye penetrant inspection on there hulls , administered by someone who is trained in its use - thats important as it can be misused. In a ideal world all welders would be proud of there work and not leave things in a unacceptable state but human error , lack of knowledge or the just plain idiot factor does crop up . Dye penetrant performed correctly would give me great confidence in buying a hull . I , myself would'nt settle for a pinprick in a hull myself .

Just incase anyones interested there is a book by Griff called 'To the baltic with bob' . Its about how he came to buy Undina after hankering after a wooden boat for years. Its one of my favourite books , i could read it over and over. The isbn is - 0-141-01286-2.

Hi, As a professional smelly welder i would'nt bother getting it repaired as will most likely only break again.If a steel one is avaliable get that and you shouldnt have any probs.

You can try Alchemy boats who are now based about two or three miles out of Oxford going north at Yarnton.They also have a website if thats any use.There was a boat for sale down near donnington bridge recently which was being sold with mooring by Andrews estate agents for 40k .Not sure if its still about though.And another down in jericho were the old boatyard used to be.Hope thats of some help.

Those kevlar gloves are not really too good.There exactly the same as ones i use welding were they are marketed for there heat resistant properties, which are very good.I think there sold by jml or someone as a cooking mitt thing as well.I wouldnt bother with them as chances are you would end up snagging them on something anyway as they have a wooling texture to them.Best bet is to isolate every thing.

Inspector morse probably would have spied it from a nice riverside pub as he was getting tanked up with lewis!

Oh yeh , forgot to add that i had seen an advertisement somewhere [ cant remember where exactly] saying blah blah boat coming to oxford for sale soon. People are always posting adverts wanted for boats on oxford websites, and you could make a tidy sum selling a boat at a inflated price in oxford. Maybe that was the plan seen as he had financial difficulties?

Well thats even wierder rich. I live in botley not far from wickes at all! Perhaps i should have staked it out!!!!

Rich fairhurst, Just back tracking a little but if you cycled down to enslow and id cycled out of oxford to the edge of kidlington he must have been inbetween.Somewhere by the cement works maybe? I did see plenty of boats about yesterday but im sure i didnt pass holly unless she had come down to oxford and gone and hidden up the bit which goes to Eynsham? What do you think?

Just got back from cycling.Nothing from oxford centre out to ring road [college cruisers out to ring road alchemy boats] .Could you tell me more about the possible sighting and i maybe able to look around further?I did see something odd though which was a few blokes with huge 'A' frames and lifting and what might have been welding gear etc under the A34 next to the canel.Probably nothing but you never know.Please everone dont start a new conspirocy theory based on what ive said, its probably nothing but i just want to share what i can to try to help.

I live in oxford and the 'gipsy' boats may be an innacurate referal to the eco friendly bunch who inhabit the waterways.Im going to nip out now and have a butchers.I could have sworn i have also seen some advertisement somewhere as well about a boat hull coming to oxford for sale soon.People do have more money than sense here and there are always people after boats .Maybe an idea to call Alchemy boats based just out of oxford to check if they have seen anything.

I know this might sound a bit silly, but if anyone knows of any small tributies where the boat might have gone have they thought of looking with google earth?.I mean i dont know how often the pictures are updated and a lot of it you cant see properly but if you get good resolution you can make out individual boats clearly and there colours.A green roof with red bits would stand out from the others.It also lets you look over fences into peoples yards.... .Just a thought anyway, hopefully the boat and bloke will be found soon safe and sound.