Heron boats

Hi, Gary is spot on about the primer issue, years ago before we started building our own steelwork we used to buy shells, after the first couple I started having them delivered in bare steel to avoid the problems that gary highlights. It's dificult to be sure of the quality of the priming but I would bet that if you contacted your builder and asked him to guarantee that the primer was ok on pain of re painting the boat if it failed, he would tell you that it is a holding primer and will need sanding off! Worth checking anyway. as for sandpaper and paint 2 primer, (on bare steel) sanded back with 320 wet&dry (appart from 1st primer flat by hand not orbital , sorry!) 2 undercoat sanded back 1st one with 400 second with 600 2/3/4 gloss dependant on colour (reds and yellows need more coats) sanded inbetween with 800. We only ever brush paint and I think the above works well. one last thing with brush painting, apply every coat as if it were the last gloss and you wont go far wrong.

Stuart, If it is to be a mansfield dump through toilet then I would recomend routing the suction pipe inside the tank to be directly below the toilet bowl. With these types of toilets it is possible to get a heaping effect directly where the waste lands, especially if (as is often the case) you try to limit how much water you flush away. With the suction pipe under the bowl you will suck out all the solids first, ensuring that the tank is empty, if the pipe was situated in the corner of the tank, possibly several feet away there would be a risk of pumping out the fluid and leaving the solids behind. We have done our tanks this way for years and it works well, its more work but it beats having problems in such an unpleasant area! Ignore the above if its to ba a mascerator of course!

Thanks for your edit Alan, much appreciated

Onionbargee, You need to look a lot more closely at some boatbuilders if you believe that V preps are universal, there is indeed another way, you can butt the 2 square plate edges together with a slight gap and weld across the top, This results in poor penetration and voids in the joint. Alan Saunders, You seem imply that we have investigated the shortcomings of other builders, discovered their weak point (in this case not V preping plate joints)and then started advertising that we v prep our joints, then "leaked to the press" that others do not. all this to deflect attention from our other shortcomings! Thats quite a conspiricy theory! In fact we have always V preped our plates, when we set up our steel operation we decided to employ best practice throughout from day 1. The idea to advertise the V prep came from Rod Straw at Waterways World during a visit to take some pictures for our adverts, he suggested that V preping of joints was not all that common and that it was one way of getting across to potential customers that we strive to follow best practice and build the best boat possible. All companies seek to present them selves in the best possible light, we are no different we simply highlighted an area that others had not, Its not "bull" its not some sort of conspiricy, simply a statement of fact. PS Gary Peacock answered the posters question perfectly, ages ago, funny how these things drift isnt it. (Hi Gary, hope to be able to tow you home one day thanks btw)