Chris Lingwood

Can you buy a push fit (or just threaded) switched t junction? I can't find them. I was just thinking about fitting a small calorifier for cruising and keeping my gas heater for when moored. I obviously can't put calorified water through the gas heater, I'll die, but if I could have a valve to select between the 2 sources of hot water it would be fine.

What a wonderfully perfect, mildly condescending life you must lead.

Mines "fairly" modern compared to the cottagey type although its not as good as Leviathan (which incidentally must have been for sale for 2 years now!) http://83.67.106.99/barge/ equipment used to run/maintain the boat - ropes, mooring pins + hammer, tiller extension + pin, boat poles appliances - cooker, fridge, freezer, microwave amount of food - as much as a normal person living alone cooking items - normal things really entertainment - tv, hifi + speakers, pc & laptop, some books, paperwork and suchlike, cds+dvds, guitar cloths, bed cloths, bathroom stuff general tools wood/coal 2* kayaks 2* bicycles electrical gubbins cupboard (inverter + battery charger and what not) some of that is on the roof admittedly but you should get the idea. Most of it is just normal stuff you need for living (I live on board) very little is actually specifically boat related. Oh yeah I forgot about storing gas/water/poo all in their respective tanks!

Mix the sand with the paint before you paint it? I think that's how international paints do it, although they have a special name for sand. Although as the paint wears you get sand everywhere. Yachts use ply with a cross pattern on it, I forget the name. I expect its quite expensive though, you can get a rubber equivalent aswell. I imagine that the grit tape would peel up and wear out fairly quickly.

That's what I want it for! I've got an old mgb (not to mention my boat) and refurbing a few bolts and studs will come in handy (although I intend to replace a lot of them as I go along). Die's (I'm told) aren't quite as good a thread restoring as die nuts because its a pain to get them to the right size. I've got no use at the moment for cutting threads onto bars....maybe later.

OH REALLY!!! I'm paying 12p a unit at our marina...praps I should start making a fuss

the bwma don't appear to agree with you. That's not about buying pounds of tyres...or wire. I don't see that the BWMA would have got this wrong. Could you show me the part of the directive that proves you right, I've not found anything yet. EDIT: MY GOD!!! WHAT THE HELL IS IT WITH THE WORD WHEREAS!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!!! They use it like a pissing capital letter! Have they met grammar? They certainly don't use it! Since when has a semi colon finished a paragraph? They have a sentence almost two pages long which appears to end in a comma...

Cheers! I've found at least some very expensive die nuts, and probably some cheaper ones too. Its http://www.tracytools.com/ rather than http://www.traceytools.com/ by the way.

They still sell them in their socket sets! I'm sure they do....perhaps they don't separately though. Its still a fair point though. If you make something (say ALL of the ratchets in the country) to 1/2' 3/8' 1/4' and then decide you you have to call a spade a garden excavation implement you end up with 12.7mm, 9.52500mm, 6.35mm, you can't start rounding things because that would make at least all the sockets and ratchets in this country (probably others as well) obsolete in one simple retarded manoeuvre.

The British weights and measures association seam worried...and they should know! http://www.bwmaonline.com/Business%20-%20c...inst%202010.htm I'd like a 1/4inch bsp thread...sorry 6.35 millimetre....oh lord

on a subtly different note I could do with some imperial rethreading dies....I'm struggling to find imperial dies...let along imperial rethreading dies. Have you any ideas where there might be some? I can find imperial taps without a great deal of trouble. At the risk of being childish.....*snigger*

I'd keep an eye on it, if things start smelling "electrical" you have a problem. There is a possibility that your engine room doesn't have enough ventilation. If you are charging 4 big batteries it will be running flat out until they start to become fairly charged. If it always runs hot (even when fully charged) there would be cause for concern.

Having the hull of the boat connected to the negative terminal of the battery is perfectly normal. Not really because its desired, more because for a lot of boats its nigh on unavoidable. What you do need to ensure doesn't happen is the hull being used as a return path for the electrics (as you would use a car body). I understand this is the bit that causes corrosion. Thats why on boats you have lots of negative black wires and on cars you don't. I wouldn't be overly concerned about the alternator getting warm....hot might be a concern. If it starts to smell hot I would perhaps switch it off. I'd be surprised if it was overheating presuming there is some chance of getting some colder air. Is it a new one? Its not unheard of for older ones to just be full of dust and crap.

yeah epoxying isn't worth it. Thinking about it, and the uv issue is a big one (seeing as its on the roof) and according to a mate of mine you tend to paint over in polyurethane which isn't submersible. Is shall investigate Toplac & sikkens. Are they both uv resistant? It gets a LOT of sun up there, I could cover it but we also get a LOT of wind! How long does the paint last, i'd be happy with 1 or 2 years tbh.

I'd be surprised if your mould was down to heating. I've got only a single solid fuel stove to heat the entire boat and have no problems at all. My boat is one 50ft room though which may well help with ventilation. Have you got a dehumidifier? Might be a good idea even if just a temporary solution. I leave mine on when I'm for more than a day or 2 to try and keep the boat dry. Are you confident you don't have a leaky window or something? This is not of course to say that your gas stuff doesn't need sorting And probably doesn't help you in the slightest

hmmm...it would be good if it was actually water proof and didn't flake How much does that stuff cost? The kayak was pretty inexpensive. How resistant to light is epoxy, it gets stored on the roof which is what killed it in the first place.

I got a plywood kayak last year which needed a bit of attention but was water worthy. Unfortunately its not faired overly well during the winter and at the very least the bottom needs repainting. Its not the highest quality boat in the world, its just a few sheets of ply fibre glassed together at the joints. In a week or 3 I'm going to sand it down and repaint it with something, not sure what though. The top is varnished (or something similar) but the bottom is painted black. I'd quite like to keep it black but I've no idea what I kind of paint I should be using. Any ideas?

I've already got all the cable runs going down the boat. I'm just sorting out the distribution part (which is frankly crap!). Everything works at the moment so I'm not going to mess with the runs for now. I'll have a look at the wire sizes and do a few calculations and perhaps replace if necessary after I'm sure the new bit works. Otherwise I may never get this to work properly! Cheers for the info though. And you might say that the current carrying isn't important. Perhaps someone said that to the guy that wired up the back part. He clearly took no notice of such trifles! For instance using chock block as a busbar then looping the connectors together with the same cable he did the runs with. All fine and dandy until you realise the last loop is taking the return current for THE ENTIRE DC SYSTEM! It might only be going a few cm but I don't like it at all. I like the idea of connectors though. I'm not sure it adds that much complexity after all they are just extra links in wires that are already there. They do it all the time in cars and the inside of a boat isn't too inhospitable, its better than under the bonnet of a car. I take your point though. Just in my experience the best way to make a hash of something is to try and do it in a cramped inaccessible place Shame about those bananas too, they would have been quite good. Gary: I'm glad I'm not you right now

That's a bit retarded! I've come to the conclusion that my examiner/surveyor is either a retard or wholly incompetent anyway. I've identified around 10 fire hazards (some of the bloody important). I'd sue him but I've destroyed most of the evidence by fixing stuff and I honestly haven't got the time. Not a mention of ventilation, not a mention of the frankly scandalous gas installation, not a mention of the non fire retardant foam in the sofa. Did he mention the piece of crap electrical work? Nope. Did he write in his report that some welding needed doing at the front but not mention it at the time EVEN THOUGH he knew full well I was buying it straight after. I bought those mushroom vents in a rush (cheap) so just guessed how many I might need. it is 60ft but I'll do the sums at some point to see what I need. I've got no pigeon box or anything in the roof really short of sliding hatches so I can't really wedge anything open. is that (2200 x G) + (2200 x U) + (650 x P) + (440 X F) for a gas water heater? (G being equivalent to U) Also is my solid fuel stove (a fairly normal size) probably about 6kw? I presume since I only have 2 compartments (bathroom and rest of boat) I just treat them separately? One formula for each? I'm confident its safe at the moment though, with the massive cat hole at the back. Its about as air tight as Swindon. Needs doing properly though.

I was wondering if low level is just in the doors or actually around floor level (with pipe inside the walls...which seams daft!) At the moment I've got 2 vents in the doors and a cat flap without a door so that's enough ventilation to be going on with. I don't have any bulk heads so I don't need to worry about venting through them. I might take the vent out of the doors directly above my head and put some more in the doors nearer to the kitchen area (also right next to the stove). After I've put the new mushrooms in I might try blocking it off...see how it feels.

My boat is a draughty old bugger, and necessarily so at the moment seeing as I have no high level ventilation. I've got 6 lovely brass mushroom vents sitting in a box waiting for a nice warm weekend and a huge hole cutter to arrive (not to mention the free time). The upshot of that is that I can put lots of lovely draft strip in the gaps in the door without killing myself and actually sleep if its windy. But I've also got a note on the last bss that my low level ventilation isn't quite up to scratch, but I'm not quite sure what that is really. If its just the vents in the doors I could add a couple more. If its vents in the lower walls its significantly more complicated.

Yeah the connector(s) I'm trying to buy would go after the fuses & relays. I've got a bit of paper somewhere with all my current usages, if those connectors will do around 40 amps that's more than enough for almost all of the circuits. I can split a few up to help spread the load if necessary. Is there a reference somewhere for the current specifications for wires and connectors? It would be incredibly handy. I've already got bus bars for the negative side of the circuit (although I may have made it sound like I didn't). Sounds like those will do the job then! Cheers I dislike doing wiring at arms length in poor light so I thought I'd make it removable so I can wire it up on the bench.

I've got to rewire my boat this spring and I'm having a bit of trouble finding some high ampage 8ish way connectors. My 12v cupboard is quite deep and I'd like to do the wiring on a sheet of plywood outside the boat then just plug it in when I'm finished. Just can't find connectors with the testicular fortitude to take my fridge/lighting circuits (at least 10A for the lights, can't remember for the fridge). Any ideas, I've tried vehicle wiring products: Which looks OK but there's no hint as to how much current that might take. Someone must have a good idea what I could use. Ideally I'd be using a slot/pin connector which gets plugged in as you screw the board down, but I've not found anything like that.