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Whats your go-to tool for clearing the prop?


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17 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

Always assuming you have a sensibly-sized (ie BIG) weed hatch in the first place!

 

Our first boat had a weed hatch, but unfortunately my arms only have one elbow each. To use it at all would have needed three.

This ^^^^

 

I had concrete reinforcing bar wrapped around my shaft and prop like a pigs tail.  Bolt croppers would have made short work of it, but the hatch wouldn't have been big enough to open the handles far enough on anything big enough to do the job.  I do have a very small pair for wire and the like, but I had to resort to cutting it into several pieces with a junior hacksaw - not easy when the object moves a bit every time you seem to be getting somewhere!  My hatch is also under my trad stern steerer's step so there's little headroom too.

 

Moral of the story - make sure that the tools you do carry are appropriate to the workspace available. 

 

My weapons of choice...

Bread knife

Plasterboard saw

Hooked knife (similar to that linked earlier)

Small bolt croppers

Junior hacksaw

Plus other things from the toolkit as appropriate

 

What I inherited with the boat, don't really use but still carry anyway - one of those special weed hatch tools made by the bloke that does the brolly mate... which I also don't use! 

 

Finally - don't underestimate the value of adding a lanyard to whatever tool you're using.

 

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A sharpened iron boathook which is what the working boatmen used. 

I never take the weedhatch off. I've had all sorts of junk off the prop with this. It's on a 10ft spruce shaft. 

 

Basically a slightly long cabin shaft with the inside of the hook part ground or filed down to a blade. Works lovely :)

 

IMG_20200618_122137.jpg.4bd5cc96430af7def1449ae1e1abd6c4.jpg

 

Have to be a bit careful working from the towpath last time I had to do it I almost whacked a psychlist with the end of the shaft.  Yes it is ok to whack one of them in general but its what happens with the wooden shaft afterwards that is a concern.

 

 

Edited by magnetman
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11 minutes ago, magnetman said:

A sharpened iron boathook which is what the working boatmen used. 

I never take the weedhatch off. I've had all sorts of junk off the prop with this. It's on a 10ft spruce shaft. 

 

Basically a slightly long cabin shaft with the inside of the hook part ground or filed down to a blade. Works lovely :)

 

IMG_20200618_122137.jpg.4bd5cc96430af7def1449ae1e1abd6c4.jpg

 

Have to be a bit careful working from the towpath last time I had to do it I almost whacked a psychlist with the end of the shaft.  Yes it is ok to whack one of them in general but its what happens with the wooden shaft afterwards that is a concern.

 

 

That's a great idea... and a valid excuse for having a collection of medieval polearms onboard.

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42 minutes ago, magnetman said:

A sharpened iron boathook which is what the working boatmen used. 

I never take the weedhatch off. I've had all sorts of junk off the prop with this. It's on a 10ft spruce shaft. 

 

Basically a slightly long cabin shaft with the inside of the hook part ground or filed down to a blade. Works lovely :)

 

IMG_20200618_122137.jpg.4bd5cc96430af7def1449ae1e1abd6c4.jpg

 

Have to be a bit careful working from the towpath last time I had to do it I almost whacked a psychlist with the end of the shaft.  Yes it is ok to whack one of them in general but its what happens with the wooden shaft afterwards that is a concern.

 

 

 

That's a lovely old thing, blacksmith forged from one piece, split down the middle with a hot chisel (as opposed to a cold chisel)  and then the hook/cutter forged out.  Perfect tool for the job......

 

 

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I've found a folding pruning saw and a pair of heavy-duty wire-cutters can deal with most things -- a saw designed for hard wood with fairly small hardpoint teeth which cuts mainly on the pull is better than one of the ones designed for soft wood with big sharp teeth which tend to jam, I think the one I've got is a Bahco 396-HP.

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On 18/06/2020 at 00:35, madsunday said:

Long gloves are very near the top of my list!

 

 

 

I prefer to retain feel when probing around the prop, which gloves destroy. A kettleful of boiling water every few minutes works well to stop your hands going numb when the water is very cold.

 

Regarding tools, a folding pruning saw and bolt cutters have been my tools of choice for years.

 

However my current boat came with a "prop protector" fitted. It is a circular saw that clamps to the prop shaft. In 6 years the only thing I have had to manually remove from the prop was someone's discarded cratch cover.

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20 hours ago, magnetman said:

One of my magnet finds from back in the day :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes I acquired a magnet in a lock near Stone once. It stuck to the bottom of the boat and the cord wrapped itself around the prop.

 

It made a terrible clanging noise as the cord shortened and it unattached and re-attached itself to the boat. I thought I had bent the prop and it was hitting something.

 

I unwapped the cord from around the prop but it was still stuck, so i gave it a mighty heave and nearly did a backward somersault onto the towpath! ?

 

As far as I  am aware the magnet is still doing retrieving duties on my last shareboat. 

 

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I normally just stick in in reverse and give it a short blast. That clears most of the weed off.

 

Canals are so much worse than rivers for rubbish like bags, ropes, tyres, old matresses, etc, and as I'm rarely on canals I don't generally have an issue. I can't actually remember the last time I took the weedhatch off?

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As well as all of the above I now carry [url=https://www.military1st.co.uk/15502000-mil-tec-wire-saw.html]one of these buggers[/url]

They are cheap, take up no room, very effective and once you've threaded one end into the mass you need to remove you can then stand up to use without your hands being in the water.

 

The only warning is make sure you keep it clear of the prop shaft otherwise after 5 hours of continuous use you might fall over when your prop departs.

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