springy

I also have an Alde stamped mushroom on my paloma which I fiited because there wasn't an approved paloma one. It has never been questioned, or even closely examined IIRC, it has always passed BSS including smoke tests on the last two. springy

Only if you pull too hard. Many things get messy if you pull too hard ! springy

Bit of rope, wrap two or three turns round the filter (like a pull start cord before everything had recoil starters) & then pull. Worked fine on a lister LPWS where the mounting bed effectively prevented me getting anything else anywhere near. I do have a "propper" strap type which fits a standard 1/2" drive ratchet but couldn't get it in. springy

In that case I guess the first job is out with the angle grinder & cut an access hatch ! Make it as big as you reasonably can - it will make climbing in and painting that bit easier. You can either cut carefully & re use the piece you have cut out as the hatch cover, but you will need to add supports (flat or angle iron) to the underside - probably by welding, this has the advantage of leaving the upper surface of the deck reasonably flat. Alternatively you can simply obtain a larger piece of steel which overlaps all around the hole and use this as the hatch cover, this does result in a slight step in the deck surface (but overall is an easier method). In either case you can secure the cover using countersunk screws either tapped directly into the steel of the deck, or (better) using rivnuts, and a bead of suitable sealant. It is tempting to cut almost all of the deck out - leaving approx 2" all around the outside, and have a new deck plate to overlap the 2" stub - this may be ideal BUT beware it may be impossible to get the new deck plate into position depending on the angle of the hull sides & width of the gunnel top. (and pretty heavy & difficult to remove again) springy

Hi As far as emptying the tank goes, assuming you have an access cover, when I needed to do mine I just temporarily rigged up my spare bilge pump (clean and unused at that time) & chucked it in the tank to pump the water over the side - saves running the domestic pump for hours & probably does a much quicker job. repainting the inside of the tank is just one of those evil jobs which has to be done. springy

First (if you havent already done so) get a piece of rope through the hole I hope you have in the top of the rudder blade & tie loosely to your stern dollies - that way if it comes out of the cup at least you wont loose it completely. To answer your question, Yes it will be a "standard size" but it wil probably depend on the builders inclination - I would guess at least M8, probably M10 or M12 assuming it was built in the last 15-20 years. You can use thin steel e.g. opened out food can cut with scissors to "shim" the top & take the play out. edited to add - the spanner size needed to fit the bolt head will (usually) indicate the bolt diameter - assuming it is metric then M8 needs a 13mm spanner, M10 possibly 16mm or usually 17mm, M12 possibly 18mm usually 19mm. You will also need to know the length, best done by taking it out and measuring ! Also the scissors wont cut hair properly afterwards ! springy

Probably because you need quite a bit of depth underneath the cup to get the rudder post vertical in order to feed it back up through the counter. It would be easier to line up & drop in the cup whilst still in the dock but presumably there was not enough clearance between the floor of the dock and the uxter plate. springy

My villager has "airwash" - not stunningly effective at keeping the glass perfectly clear, but I suppose I haven't really tested it without, but IIRC it is based on the vents being above the glass and quite tightly baffled so that air flow is forced across the glass. springy

Stainless is definately much more resistant to the corrosive effects - I've been using a stainless outer & inner for over 10 years & its showing no ill effects so far (unlike the previous two steel (single skin) ones which lasted three or four years apiece. Painting stainless however, whilst not impossible, does require specific surface preparation & paint formulation to get a good, lasting adhesion. Personally I decided to leave it "self colour". springy

Dont know anything about the boat, but it looks like its on the main line outside caggys yard. springy

Coming along Nicely - Hinges are just about perfect ! Re ash pan handle - doesnt really matter exactly how it looks / works but you need a separate handle which hooks snugly into the hoop to allow you to lift the ash pan with one hand, and then is detached when not in use - it means the handle stays cool, whilst the ashpan itself will get hot. Re the door latch - the "variable tension hook" you describe is usually used as it easily allows for variation due to the stove body expanding/contracting due to heat - you only need enough tension to ensure the rope seal maintains contact all around the door. I fear that the catch as you have made it at the moment could prove difficult to operate when the whole thing has warmed up a bit - you will have to line up the holes to drop the peg in - whilst that might be ok when all is cold - provided that you set it up with the sealing rope installed, the alignment could change when everthing warms up. The other way of latching has a knob on the outside, a rod through the door & then a bar which swings down inside the stove body to hold the door shut - on my vilager this has a pan head bolt in the end which allows me to adjust the pressure on the rope seal, alternatively you could weld a bit of steel on the inside & use a grinder to refine it into a "ramp" which gives adjustable pressure. springy edited cos I cant spell propper

Dont forget to attach another rope to the top of the rudder pivot pin (with an eyebolt if possible) - this helps to first lift the bottom of the pivot out of the cup then lower the whole lot down until you get below the counter so that you can then move horizontally away from the boat, keep hold of the end of this rope as well & when you have lifted the whole lot on the bank, tie both ends of this rope together/to a dolly. When you come to replace the rudder, having a piece of rope ready threaded up the hole will save some effort. springy

Aldridge. Dont know much more, domestic fuel on BCN, privately owned carrying Canal Transport Services colours. springy

An air horn is the one place where I have used this - rather than run chunky cables all the way to the front just for the horn compressor I ran a thin one to a relay & picked up the power from the already chunky cables installed for the cabin supplies. I thought about doing the same for the tunnel light but as the cables were already in place for that and were (just about) adequate I left that as it was. springy

Short Action Solenoids (starter engage & stop solenoids which only activate to stop the engine) may well have only a single coil & therefore draw a high current - intended for "brief" use only, any solenoid designed for longer duty cycles should actually have two coils or some arrangement which presents two coils - one high current "activation" and one lower current "hold in" coil, along with an auxiliary contact which switches to the "hold in" coil once the solenoid has thrown. I would assume that stop solenoids which are active all the time an engine is running (i.e. a "permit run" solenoid really) should be of this design. Of course this doesn't necessarily mean thats what has been done in practice - it will also depend on the force the solenoid needs to apply to achieve its intended action. springy

Not completely convinced it was the crimp at fault - difficult to tell from a piccie but the heat seems to have been concentrated around the bolt tab - any chance that it had worked loose ? Probably difficult to tell in the aftermath. Clearly the copper strands have been hot but the tube part of the crimp doesn't shows much heat marking, where the tab of the megafuse obviously does ? springy

It looks to me as if they are simply reducing the length of the basin - if you look at the step in the wall in the 2002 photo - roughly in line with the stern of barnet and then look at the construction photos, I would guess they are cutting it to approx 30 ft ? Why ? The "lift bridge" is actually a fixed foot bridge , and the "tunnel" entrance is all that remains of the Worcester & Birmingham public wharf. The company offices were originally alongside the wharf. I can only presume the cafe wants more outside space (which the city council can charge them for), and of course no chance of mooring those ****y working boats outside. springy

To be fair casper the interview was with a woman who paints mostly decorative ware in a canal style for sale to the general public - she does do some commission stuff (IIRC the coal box on Angel is some of her work) and IMHO makes a nice job of it, but by selling stuff at the gatherings manages to make "a living" - probably like many other canal based businesses not a fortune but just enough to justify not having to get up and go to w*rk 9-5. Having spoken with her on many occasions after a festival it can be hit & miss - good weather/turnout - a profit, bad weather - a costly weekend. The other bodies who will suffer similarly will be the societies who can also drag in money & members at these gatherings. I'd agree about the councils - Lichfield started squealing weeks ago about the cost of the repairs, but they have been renting out powerboating, skiing & sailing rights on the water for the last umpteen years (I believe BW sold it to A council in '57, not sure which one). I think Lawrence's points re Bradley are far more important - I didn't know there was a second pumping station though I've been told there are 3 pumps at Bradley and they only ever use one. Will they run pumpS and make maximum effort regardless of the cost of electricity to keep the level up or will they just wring their hands and say "sorry the pump broke friday night." I'm not holding my breath ! springy

What brand of Laptop - I seem to remember something about newer Dell laptops being "locked" so that they will only work with a genuine dell psu, though I think there was also something about getting round the problem but it involved butchering the original psu. Otherwise yes fit a cig lighter socket or three to use for all those other things that fit into them. springy

Try this one Waterexplorer clicky you have to zoom in quite a way to start with but it then shows lots of markers - bridges, locks, junctions, winding holes etc, on a satellite picture or map or both, if you hover over one of the markers it will give you the name and or number, and for some locks the fall as well. springy

Yes thats the one, is it the lighting or is the exhaust square ? springy

Hi There's also a photo of Victoria in Tony Lewery's "The Art of The Narrowboat Painters", dated 1932, good side view of the cabin but unfortunately doesn't show much of the stern, partly because the photo runs into the spine of the book. (Can't get it on the scanner, will try with camera - if I have any joy I'll post it later). springy

Hi Brazing, silver soldering or soldering depending on the strength required - brazing being the stronger, however they all require heating the item - brazing being the hottest - this may discolour the brass item - if the item is not too complex a shape then it will not be too difficult to clean up. As an alternative, and where the "mend" can not be seen I have successfully used one of the many two part epoxy liquid metals available (I used JB Weld - Quite a thin liquid good for stripped brass threads provided you are not likely to want to dismantle. You can also get two part epoxy putty - good for building up missing metal - they can be drilled & tapped after hardening) however to a purist it would be "cheating". springy