starman
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Posts posted by starman
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38 minutes ago, David Mack said:
Why can't you fit normal boat windows? Probably need to get them made to order due to the small size.
And how do you get on with unlined steel doors? Don't they end up dripping with condensation in cold weather?
I think it ought to be cheaper and easier to cut holes in the hatches. (They’re unlined because I’m still doing the fit out so it’s empty - and cold! inside.)
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8 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:
I have had a friend who has done this, they are on Facebook if you want me to put you in touch. Personally I don't like the look of them
I don’t particularly like the look of them either but as it’s an under-cloth conversion when the boat’s closed up the canvas will hide them. The sheet of Perspex has worked for us before but these are big hatches so awkwardly big Perspex.
Yes I’d like to see how your friends did it. Thanks.
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8 hours ago, dmr said:
So you want to keep the side hatch but add internal glazing to keep the wind out? or remove the doors and just have a window??????
...............Dave
Keep the side hatches, cut out the centres and replace with fixed glazing. So yes, it effectively becomes a window but one that can be completely opened.
On previous boats we’ve just used removable pieces of Perspex but I’m running out of places to stow them on this one so this could be an option. -
We are thinking about doing this; I know quite a few people have done this but when I want to know more I can’t find any examples.
I’d just like a bit more info on how it was done - and how tricky a job. At the moment we have flat 4mm steel doors, unlined. -
I found mine on a nearby farm after posting on Facebook but quite a few boatyards will rent space. Debdale on the Leicester GU is one that comes to mind.
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You think foxes are nasty, you should see the damage lovable Mr Brock the badger will do to chickens.
We were woken in the night by noises from our hen house and looked out in time to see one clambering out of the egg box. The carnage inside was horrible - he had ripped them up. At least a fox does a clean kill.-
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1 hour ago, David Mack said:
Why use cables? For an engine like a DM2 rod linkages all the way would be the way to go, possibly with a chain link down from the ceiling to the speed control on the engine.
In Graham Booth's Narrowboat Builders Book there are pictures showing how he linked trad controls to a Lister engine and PRM box.
Edited to add: previous thread:
Thanks David, I don’t have a problem with the speed control set up as is but the gearbox would need an awkward set of linkages and potentially would reduce access to/from the back cabin as the gangway is down that side of the engine.
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I've got a RN DM2 and PRM160 in my engine room and control rods in the ceiling and I need to span the gap between the gearbox rod and the box. I've never owned a boat with Morse controls so I'm pretty ignorant of the cables and their various fittings and need some beginner's tips.
I'm thinking I will run the gearbox cable along the ceiling from the forward end of the, down the front bulkhead concealed inside some shiny copper tubing and back under the engine toward the box's operating arm. Quite how each end of the cable makes its connection I don't yet know - are there suitable off the shelf fittings? What sort of radius will these cables bend through?
And is there anything against doing a straight connection from rod to cable rather than amplifying the movement with a pivot lever - does the internal resistance of the cable need the extra leverage of a pivot arm?
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20 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:
A cheap drill with high quality drillbits will make a much better hole than an expensive drill with low quality drillbits. I have seen a lot of people get this wrong ...
There is a place for serious drill kit- think core-drilling big holes in concrete or steel - but they are unusual jobs for most people.
Exactly - my drill was from Lidl but my drill bits certainly weren't!
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I did the same trip about five years ago and Craftinsure only specified a pilot from Sharpness to Portishead. The leg into Bristol is pretty straightforward (our Portishead pilot gave us a couple of tips.)
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8 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:
Remarkably good for the price, and come with 3 year warranty.
The one that impressed me was the slide compound mitre saw - it came with spare brushes, which suggests they expect it to last a fair while.
My current angle grinder is one of theirs as well.
They seem slightly better than the Aldi versions generally, but it varies by product.
My Lidl battery drill is still going strong after four+ years of pretty serious use for boat renovation and general diy. It's brilliant. My general maxim is buy a cheap drill - all it has to do is drill holes which is pretty basic stuff - and expensive saws because there's nothing more frustrating than an inaccurate saw. So Lidl drill; deWalt table saw.
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3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
All you can do is 'make the boat look not worth bothering with', with a cratch and a battery angle grinder, they are protected/hidden and nothing you do will stop them if they are really intent on getting in,
Quickest method of entry is just to break a window, - (it is surprising the number of boats now appearing moored up with steelbars across all the windows).
One way is to just accept that you may well be broken into at some time so you need to try and minimise the damage and inconveience should it happen.
No windows just side hatches as we are an A-frame style, canvas over steel pretend working boat. The front doors or rear hatch would be the easiest way in I’m afraid.
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1 minute ago, blackrose said:
6mm doors? Steel? Windows in the doors? More info required...
Steel doors, no windows with an overlapping edge
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I need a secure locking system for the front doors given that baddies would be hidden by the cratch if trying to break in.
I’ve got a clean sheet of paper to do the job - just a pair of plain 6mm as yet unlined doors.
I don’t want Fort Knox just a decent deterrent. -
Personally Peterborough would be bottom of my list of reasons for visiting the Nene - don’t care much for the place.
But the Nene is beautiful - lovely countryside, pretty villages, attractive river. Fotheringhay is a delightful spot to moor and the farmer’s fee goes to church funds.
Quite a lot of locks but almost all guillotines are electric. And do join FOTRN.-
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Ah yes of course! I am being dim - I’m on the low pressure side so I just need to use the correct spec pipe and stop worrying!
40 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:The time you'll see the benefit of, at least, a manual changeover valve is when the gas runs out halfway through a shower in December and you're fiddling with a gas spanner, freezing cold and with shampoo dripping in your eyes.
MP.
I think I would be cursing almost as much if I had to get out of the shower and turn a change over lever. As for an auto-changeover - it doesn’t bear thinking about what The Boss would say if the second bottle ran out half way through cooking Sunday dinner.
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I don’t see the benefits in a changeover unit so I thought I’d have the ultra-simple flexy pipe and regulator set up for the final connection between bubble tester and gas bottles but what does this sentence in BSS regs mean - specifically the ‘pre-assembled’ bit?
“All LPG hoses on the high-pressure side...must consist of pre-assembled lengths of hose of proprietary manufacture.”
I ask because regulators and pipes etc seem to be sold separately not ‘pre-assembled’.
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Good luck to Mike in his retirement - a lovely chap; real old school gentleman and running a proper boatyard that builds very sound boats.
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My angling brother-in-law can rant for hours about the havoc that cormorants wreak on fish stocks in rivers.
...and the damage caused by salmon farming
...and East Europeans taking fish from canals
...and the state of the 'continuous moorers' on his local canal
We have a list of forbidden topics when he comes to visit – unless I fancy having a bit of a winding up session.
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8 minutes ago, Mike Tee said:
This is going to be hard to explain but - on my old boat (with similar DM2) the trad controls ran via rods along the ceiling into a box just inside the engine room, then two cables ran down the bulkhead and disappeared under the floor, appearing at the engine and acting on the gearbox and speed control as if they came from a Morse lever. This had the added benefit of there being no rods or chains dropping down from the ceiling getting in the way of things. (I actually had to have a Morse lever fitted eventually as my wife preferred that to the 'normal' trad controls - this was so easy to do as all it required, apart from the morse lever, was extra length cables). The only drawback I could see was having to carry a couple of spare cables 'just in case'.
This was built by Stoke Boats (quite a while ago) but a phone call to them might work in your favour.
(And, No, I don't have any photos!)
Sounds a good idea - did that give you the requisite 'feel' for the gearchange? And did you have a box for each rod, one either side, or were the rods adjacent to each other?
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After a gap doing more pressing jobs I've returned to this one. I have some amassed some pics but haven't yet found a solution which doesn't involve an expensive trip to someone like Tony Redshaw! As I said in my OP we've moved the engine forward and built a back cabin so the old set up of linkages at the 'box end connected to a flat steel bar that runs up to the push-pull rod is not in the right place any more so I've pretty much got a blank canvas from the control rod to the PRM.
Photos of other set-ups would be much appreciated.
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29 minutes ago, Jon57 said:
Glad you managed to get your nut tight Kevin. ?????
I’ll find out when I connect the gas ??
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54 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:
Drop the olive in your Coke and swirl the glass as you drink!
Like cleaning old pennies!
BTW the spot of oil tip was a good one - still needed some spanner work but much easier. Thanks.
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14 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:
On plumbing size compression fittings from say Peglers or Yorkshire Metals in 15mm and upwards to 28mm sizes they used to recommend finger tight and half to threequarters a turn with a spanner but this is on half hard copper pipe and you are on soft copper pipe, makes a big difference.
If you lubricate the thread you will find a difference.
I would think that the olives are not annealed after forming from fully annealed copper and therefore will have some hardness as copper quickly work hardens.
I’ll certainly try that. Perhaps I have also been making the job harder for myself by not using any sort of pipe sealant or Ptfe tape (because it’s frowned upon) which would have lubricated the doing up.
Guidance for visitors to the Fenland Waterways
in General Boating
Posted
I think you have to remember that, unlike the canals, there are large stretches where it’s simply not possible to moor - the Nene was seriously lacking until FOTRN negotiated new spots. The Middle Level is very short on spots. And there are lots of local weekend boaters.
If you want to find longer places to stop join an AWCC boat club who often have arrangements with each other and may help - but again, don’t expect to hang out endlessly.
You also queried flooding etc - the Nene floods very easily and is often shut for many weeks in winter. The Ouse likewise floods but not quite so badly.
Boating on the Anglian rivers is certainly different.