Josephine- DIY replating and full fitout of a 70s Hancock and Lane narrowboat

[merline]

Agreed, add to that a commute of a couple of hours each way as mine was...

Hence the next one will be small enough to park at a  local farm...

 

[MtB]

On 07/06/2022 at 22:46, harrybsmith said:

 

 

 

 

 

Hey is that your Bentley in the photo? 

 

Mind you don't scratch it, whosever it is!!

 

[harrybsmith]

4 hours ago, merline said:

I found the bare steel absolutely rained condensation during the autumn, cold nights, sunny days...not sure how to combat that! 

 

Not too sure myself, a coat? 

 

2 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

I agree, wonderful to see it being done. 

 

One other big thing is needed though apart from the skills, is a place to do it. One needs to press on with the work as places with hard standing to work on, electricity and crane access to bring the boat and take it away don't generally come free, so there is alway time pressure to get on with it. Every week passing is another 100 (or whatever) in rent shelled out.... 

 

 

 

I'm not divulging exactly where it is, but the yard its in is pretty cheap, it's about £150 a month to have it there, and there's electric hookup, full on site engineering facilities inc tool rental, a crane, friendly people and various affectionate wandering dogs. Shame it's about 1hr away from me and there's no shower in the yard so staying down there "on a school night" is not really feasible 

 

 

17 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

Hey is that your Bentley in the photo? 

 

Mind you don't scratch it, whosever it is!!

 

 

It's quite possibly more rotten than my boat was... and no, it's not mine, although once the boat is done I may do another silly car project such as one of those, they're criminally cheap 

[merline]

10 minutes ago, harrybsmith said:

Not too sure myself, a coat

What it means is it's not exactly dry storage....

[harrybsmith]

Progress! 

 

Basically all of the side replating is now welded in and ground off (about 50m of welding done, maybe 2m remaining) and is looking pretty reasonable 

 

I had some friends who were desperate to come and help for a weekend (It's totally different to anything they've ever been involved with so all very novel and exciting) so I roped them in to help me chop the cabin about to start to get it how I want it. 

 

Key criteria are: 

-Fewer window holes, filled with less rubbish windows 

-Decent length tug deck, closed over at gunwhale level to allow for a bed underneath 

-Trad stern

 

Perhaps a bit silly to have bought a cruiser stern boat with a well deck and a huge number of windows then... 

 

Anyway, first job was to chop out a section of roof above the forward-most window and set it aside for later. The remaining front bit of cabin could then be chopped off at gunwhale level, and shuffled backwards to meet the remainder of the cabin. Tug? Job done.*

 

 

 

Remember that piece of roof we set aside? That's going in the back. Chop through the cabin top just in front of the hatch and along the gunwhale, slide that bit back then plonk the roof on top. Job done!  

 

 

The only remaining garnish being to test fit the epic 70s banana guards to the cabin, they're definitely going back on

 

 

*This may be a tad overambitious... 

[merline]

Excellent! Good progress, glad to see you are not afraid to chop it about to get what you want 

[Tracy D'arth]

You be careful on there with 240v power, worth getting a 110v transformer and tools.

 

Looking good, its a good chop job.

[harrybsmith]

11 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

You be careful on there with 240v power, worth getting a 110v transformer and tools.

 

Looking good, its a good chop job.

 

If you look very carefully (and I forgive you for not...) in the first photo you'll see a little yellow box through the hole in the hull at the front. Also got cordless tools on the job (visible there). 

 

240v is through an RCD and mainly being used for the welders and the kettle, cutting tools are all 110

[Mendip-Locks]

Good work Harry and definitely ambitious!

But “The only remaining garnish being to test fit the epic 70s banana guards to the cabin, they're definitely going back on” it is a little concerning you might not be joking 🙃 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say!

The chap there has a grin and it’s only balanced there I’m taking solace from that…

[harrybsmith]

59 minutes ago, Mendip-Locks said:

Good work Harry and definitely ambitious!

But “The only remaining garnish being to test fit the epic 70s banana guards to the cabin, they're definitely going back on” it is a little concerning you might not be joking 🙃 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say!

The chap there has a grin and it’s only balanced there I’m taking solace from that…

 

Darn right I'm not joking! When was the last time you saw a boat in good nick with them on? A tiny piece of canal history that could be lost forever

 

Also it fits nicely with a bit of a theme I'm going for, they look vaguely like a roll cage...

[Psychalist]

I'm liking your free spirit and ability to create what you want. I came across an old photo of a group of us on a Black Prince hire doing the Llangollen in the 80's. That had these guards. It struck me as ugly, but I could see the practicality too, and I dare say, like many ugly old fashoined things, will be seen as a thing of beauty in a modern setting - think Austin 1800 land crab or similar. Maybe emulate BMW and Fiat recreating their minis, bigger is better? Actually, maybe not, the Black Prince ones were huge.

[harrybsmith]

13 minutes ago, Psychalist said:

I'm liking your free spirit and ability to create what you want. I came across an old photo of a group of us on a Black Prince hire doing the Llangollen in the 80's. That had these guards. It struck me as ugly, but I could see the practicality too, and I dare say, like many ugly old fashoined things, will be seen as a thing of beauty in a modern setting - think Austin 1800 land crab or similar. Maybe emulate BMW and Fiat recreating their minis, bigger is better? Actually, maybe not, the Black Prince ones were huge.

 

Well therein lies the problem, despite being too young to have ever seen one on the road I love stuff like the Landcrabs and Allegros and Princesses. Perhaps because I didn't have to suffer them first time around...

 

They're not the only divisive cosmetic decision I've made too

[merline]

I quite like the guards, definitely of an era and as you say a little piece of canal history 

And a darn sight better looking than most cratch covers you see...

[Bee]

Excellent work. 

[David Mack]

4 hours ago, harrybsmith said:

 

Darn right I'm not joking! When was the last time you saw a boat in good nick with them on? A tiny piece of canal history that could be lost forever

 

Also it fits nicely with a bit of a theme I'm going for, they look vaguely like a roll cage...

Those banana guards were a feature of hire boats on the Llangollen due to a combination of the fibreglass cabins then fitted and the fact that the old wooden lift bridges didn't lift as far clear of the channel as their replacement utilitarian steel structures do.

[harrybsmith]

A quick update from the weekend- 

 

Instead of merely being plonked on and vaguely aligned, the front bit of the cabin is now lined up and attached to the gunwhale, and welded in on the cabin sides. I've not welded across the roof yet as it needs a "strongback" inside it (a piece of strip steel) which means dipping into my pockets and buying some steel, for the first time yet, shock horror! 

 

 

To console myself I thought i'd continue to plod on with the welding and grinding down the sides of the hull- all the welds have been ground off as the guard irons will cover them, so they need to be flat ish. A 9" grinder at a slightly awkward height is a really excellent workout tool... 

 

 

You can see in the photo above that nearly all of it is welded and ground off, however there's a short section that isn't welded close to the camera. That's because that's one of the few remaining areas that doesn't line up yet, and it needs a big shove with the hydraulic portapower to bring it into alignment.  When the plates first went in there was maybe 6-8" per 8ft plate that lined up really well, there's now probably 6-8" per plate that doesn't. 

 

I'll be channelling my inner George Fornby next weekend and revealing the next design decision for the cabin... 

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, harrybsmith said:

and it needs a big shove with the hydraulic portapower to bring it into alignment. 

A boatbuilder I know has a number of sort of half G clamps. When plates are misaligned he tack welds the clamp onto the inside face of the plate which is too far out, and then screws the clamp down to bring the plates into alignment for welding. The clamps are then cut off and any remaining weld ground off. The advantage of this approach is you are pulling one misaligned plate against the other, and you don't need a fixed point to jack off.

[harrybsmith]

4 minutes ago, David Mack said:

A boatbuilder I know has a number of sort of half G clamps. When plates are misaligned he tack welds the clamp onto the inside face of the plate which is too far out, and then screws the clamp down to bring the plates into alignment for welding. The clamps are then cut off and any remaining weld ground off. The advantage of this approach is you are pulling one misaligned plate against the other, and you don't need a fixed point to jack off.

 

Clever! I suppose i'll know for next time... 

 

I wonder if they're commercially available or if they're homemade, and if so how they're made? Actual G Clamps are cast iron, so are a bit of a pig to weld well. I suppose similar could be made with a nut (bonus points if ACME threaded) and some stout steel section. 

[David Mack]

I think they are self made - half inch plate cut to an L shape, welded to a large nut, and a threaded bar with a T handle welded across the top. No idea if it is an ACME thread!

[BEngo]

As  David says they are shop made of about 19mm plate  with M24 or thereabouts nuts welded on and matching  studding (allthread) as  a common solution to the  screw.  

 

Another way is to weld an eyeplate made from scrap plate on a rigid part of the hull and use it to anchor a chain hoist to pull on another eyeplate  on the bit that needs to move.

 

Roger Farrington straightens gunwales for welding using a 14lb sledge, as I suspect do others.  That is not a spectator sport.

 

N

[Tracy D'arth]

1 hour ago, BEngo said:

As  David says they are shop made of about 19mm plate  with M24 or thereabouts nuts welded on and matching  studding (allthread) as  a common solution to the  screw.  

 

Another way is to weld an eyeplate made from scrap plate on a rigid part of the hull and use it to anchor a chain hoist to pull on another eyeplate  on the bit that needs to move.

 

Roger Farrington straightens gunwales for welding using a 14lb sledge, as I suspect do others.  That is not a spectator sport.

 

N

I used to weld both ends of a bar on the outside over the recalcitrant plate and bash a steel wedge between it and the bar.

[harrybsmith]

1 hour ago, BEngo said:

As  David says they are shop made of about 19mm plate  with M24 or thereabouts nuts welded on and matching  studding (allthread) as  a common solution to the  screw.  

 

Another way is to weld an eyeplate made from scrap plate on a rigid part of the hull and use it to anchor a chain hoist to pull on another eyeplate  on the bit that needs to move.

 

Roger Farrington straightens gunwales for welding using a 14lb sledge, as I suspect do others.  That is not a spectator sport.

 

N

 

Lots of chain hoist based pulling has been happening, as well as pushing with an acrow prop, it's just that the last few bits are significant dents rather than just general undulation, hence requiring more force to shift. 

 

I do like the idea of these pushing clamps though, I may make a set, there's plenty of metalwork yet to do here, thanks all 

[harrybsmith]

Portholes may be the usual method of ensuring one's boat is safe from towpath break ins, but i'm far from usual, so i've chosen instead to get rid of all my windows entirely. 

 

A simple process, screw some wooden battens to the existing window hole

 

 

Cut a piece of steel to the correct size, then wang it in 

 

 

Repeat for all remaining windows, and you end up with a very secure boat. You also end up with a very dark boat and Vitamin D deficiency, which is a minor inconvenience. 

 

The weather is properly starting to turn now, as you can see the first 2 photos are bathed in autumnal sunshine, and the one below shows how much it was wazzing it down by the afternoon. 

 

Rain be damned, I managed to get the cut n shut roof section sitting reasonably well inline, although there is a tad more work to do to get it bob on. 

 

 

Determined but moist, nearly all window holes got covered up. I was aiming to get the rearmost ones done too, but i'm doing something slightly different there (probably blatantly obvious what?) and it really did start to chuck it down, so I called it a weekend apart from... 

 

What's this, a window? Yep, i'm not totally barking mad, I am having windows (and portholes, stop squabbling), they're just a different shape. They're also double glazed, and were a bit of a second hand bargain. Required some cleaning and polishing, but they don't look bad at all when done 

 

[Bee]

Crumbs, that is some brave work going on there. When it comes to aligning things I just love wedges and big hammers and sometimes hefty bits of threaded rod and big spanners - very satisfying.

[harrybsmith]

25 minutes ago, Bee said:

Crumbs, that is some brave work going on there. When it comes to aligning things I just love wedges and big hammers and sometimes hefty bits of threaded rod and big spanners - very satisfying.

 

It's only brave if you stop to think about it...