LEO

I have flown from Duxford in the top one, great sensation and nice wicker chairs, landing on a grass strip was good as well, I later took my wife's grandchildren up in it as a treat, their Mum was not amused and considered the plane 'totally unsafe'.........great planes, great flying experience

The problem is the lock mechanism is contained in a metal box held in place by two bolts (see original pics), the individual key takes up most of the thickness on this box and it would be difficult to fix a turnscrew onto the internal face of the lock. It should be easy to keep a key inserted internally if and when needed, but it would have to be removed to lock the door externally.

Not so far as I am aware, I have used these on standard framed ledged and braced doors successfully and had no problems inserting the key either side, although if the timber door is too thick you have to modify the fitting of the lock a bit.

Yes, the same key can be used both sides, they are basically designed for garage doors.

Agree with you, they are good locks, with individual keys for each lock.well designed, useful video on uTube to show how to fit them.

Hi, I found an easy way of up grading the fire-resistance was to double up the board with a 5mm air gap between sheets. Distance washers can be easily cut from copper tube.

I've got 2 of those indicators, cheap and reliable................

If you have a battery charger fitted it could be a temperature sensing wire fitted to detect overcharging problems, looks as though something 'cooked' here, I would check batteries as well for water levels.

The BMC 1.5 in my former boat came from JG Meakes, presumably from the boatyard by Marlow bridge, this was coupled with a Thamesway (I think) gearbox, is was a dreadful unit. always wearing the small splines on the input shaft, I changed this to a Hurth box with a new bell housing and sold the old housing and box to Tewkesbury marine as spares for their hire fleet. Agree with comments about users nowadays not understanding the 1.5 units, the blanks stares you get when you mention 'heater plugs' etc say's it all

I had a boat with a BMC 1.5, lovely small engine, but they do need looking after and many were raw water cooled, lots have have 'bodged' repairs and all have their own 'temperamental' way of working. Most now require a good overhaul and once this is done, will if looked after carefully run for years. Mine was raw water cooled originally which caused lots of problems, changed this to indirect cooling with a heat exchanger, cleaned all the water cooling channels on the engine, over hauled the cylinder head, new valves, guides, it ran like a dream. They really are almost reaching classic status, spares can be tricky because there were so many variants, but overall there is not much to go wrong. The other little problem mine had was never fill the oil more than half way on the dipstick or it would throw it out of the rear crankshaft oil seal....... Oh! and so many people feel nuts on them should tightened with molegrips, I had a good collection of AF spanners from fiddling with BMC cars. Now my boat is Gardner powered............it's too late to say 'long live' British engineering, it was killed of years ago by a lack of investment.

Hi, I also have the small version of this fire, the OD4, with water heating coil, they are excellent stoves, but the large version may only be suitable for a full length boat. Take care using it without water in the heating side and the manufacturers do not recommend using the stove with a heating coil unless you have a pumped water circuit. I have found a way of getting round this. They are good stoves and to get them to run efficiently it's best to get a catalyst to fit inside the fire. A useful address is Karunda (Google for details), they hold some spares and may have online manuals. Some of the parts are shared with the Refleks unit, the carburettor contains a small fuel filter and it's worth studying the manual before working on this. As stated regular cleaning is needed, but be careful with the bottom of the burner pot as the one on my fire this perforated (I have read of this happening on other fires), Karunda tracked a spare down from the makers, but at great cost. One piece which can be troublesome is the small copper pipe which connects the carb with the burner, this 'claggs' up and needs removal and careful cleaning (ie. Push a pipe cleaner through it). Stacks of info about lighting these stoves, check these and don't try re-lighting when warm using the meths method............. They can suffer from down draught in windy situations, this can be overcome by fitting different chimney arrangements.

The interesting part will be cleaning tanks to remove all traces of red dye...........virtually impossible methinks. Be interesting to see if this affects the construction industry...........another excuse to inflate the cost of HS2.

Interesting, having seen the way boating has been changing over the years since I started in 1975, and the way costs have risen (and will keep rising), I would go down the caravan/motor home route. Moorings are tricky and expensive on canals and safety requirements and inspections on a 4 year basis can prove costly. Unless you are very practical and have researched boating costs and have deep pockets take the other route.

It was a bit of a 'hotch potch' of editting, with bits stitched in from all over the network, but watchable never the less. Saw a fine selection of boats on the summit. Matt Baker - yes I thought he was a bit of a pain, but he lives nearby in the Chilterns and I have met him a few times and he really is a 'top bloke', including a couple of times during the gruelling Children in need Rickshaw Challenge and he was clearly 'knackered'. He had a bad day hosting the 'Flotilla' down the Thames!. Great family man, no gossip and he has an old Landy to run round the farm in.....

Lovely spot and historic crossing of the Thames, the pub used to be good (35 years ago with some excellent mounted locally caught specimen fish on the walls), used to be a large WW11 gun emplacement close to the bridge. I would have to get rid of all the moorings though.........

Hi, Historically BW canalside mooring were cheap, when I started in 1975, they were much cheaper than say, Thames side moorings my mate moored a boat at Wallingford, This situation remained for years, I recall my attention was drawn to an article in the waterways press about 15 years ago, which suggested BW were becoming much more business minded and someone in the upper echelons asked the question 'why are floating moorings in estuaries so much more expensive than inland waterways'. They quoted examples such as Hamble on the South coast. this set the cogs in motion and mooring costs started to rise. BW changed to CRT, boat ownership and demand increased dramatically and the 'leapfrog' situation rapidly crept into pricing of moorings and boatowners reach the situation we are in now. Introduce the liveaboard situation on CRT leisure moorings and you realise why prices have gone ballistic.

Bit more detail needed here, is the hatch square or tapers like a traditional hatch. If square it's easy to match up brass to the runners and the slide. If it tapers a bit more care is needed. I recently made a new slide, and glued the brass strip to the runners, to the tapering slide I carefully worked out the area of cover needed to mate brass to brass and cut a rebate for the strip and glued it in. It's worth dressing the brass over the front end of the runner as it makes the cover slide more easily. Works well.

One wonders if a BMC 1.5 can now be classed as a 'vintage engine', that would fit under a back deck............why pay a premium for a vintage 'lump' and hide it away?

Hi, Looks a neat installation, but I would check the installation instructions carefully as most pumps require a section of flexible pipe between the pump and the fixed piping. I think this is to avoid 'cracking' the pump head when the unit cycles, hairline cracks cause water leakage and re-cycling.

I varnish my pole and boat hooks, look good and store them inside......