36ft Springer build

[magnetman]

The fire looks nice. 

 

The retaining clips are interesting. Where did you get them? 

 

 

I don't have fires with rope seals any more but its worth noting that with a fire like that you want to leave the door open when not in use. If you close it then when you come back random condensation will have formed and it will stick itself to the body of the fire and tear off when you open the door. 

 

Not keen on rope seals at all but I know they are needed for some designs. 

 

 

 

 

[Tracy D'arth]

You are putting a chipboard kitchen in?

[truckcab79]

14 minutes ago, magnetman said:

The fire looks nice. 

 

The retaining clips are interesting. Where did you get them? 

 

 

I don't have fires with rope seals any more but its worth noting that with a fire like that you want to leave the door open when not in use. If you close it then when you come back random condensation will have formed and it will stick itself to the body of the fire and tear off when you open the door. 

 

Not keen on rope seals at all but I know they are needed for some designs. 

 

 

 

 

Cheers.  Like most stuff the clips came off Amazon as did all the seals. Just searched wood burner clips or something similar and they came up.  About £6 delivered for four of them.   The door is tapped for M6 bolts. Very little length on the threads as you can imagine but I’ll think I’ll cut some very slightly longer ones and add spring/split washers for peace of mind.  
 

What other seals are there out of interest?  These seem nice quality.  Think they came from a company called Reeds.  

[magnetman]

My fires don't have any seals. Just metal to metal but both of them are custom made and rather unusual designs. 

 

I'm not sure that there are any other options with a fire which was designed to have rope seals. 

 

Its not a big deal but they tend to come off and need replacing. Same with glass. I don't have glass any more. One fire has mica in the porthole loading door and other has no window. 

 

Glass is nice but a nuisance when it breaks. 

 

 

[truckcab79]

2 minutes ago, magnetman said:

My fires don't have any seals. Just metal to metal but both of them are custom made and rather unusual designs. 

 

I'm not sure that there are any other options with a fire which was designed to have rope seals. 

 

Its not a big deal but they tend to come off and need replacing. Same with glass. I don't have glass any more. One fire has mica in the porthole loading door and other has no window. 

 

Glass is nice but a nuisance when it breaks. 

 

 

Ah. Understood. Thought you meant you had an alternative to rope seals.  I should probably order some spare glass.  Seems plenty of people able to supply it. 

[magnetman]

 

If you do get problems with glass breaking there is an argument for replacing with a sheet of steel then finding a decompression chamber window and bolting it on with mica. 

 

probably better than using it as a photo frame. 

 

I got this one off eBay a number of yars ago but it has remained a photo frame as I like the picture. Portsmouth 1939. 

 

[truckcab79]

It’ll be staying glass.  My wife won’t tolerate not being able to see the flames flickering.  😂

 

Nice  thing to have that decompression window.  Presumably there’s a specific technical reason why the bolts are unequally  spaced.  
 

 

Also got down the boat today. Try and visit weekly even if the work I need to do is in the workshop like today.  All fine.   Made the effort to clean out the gas locker as it was the only thing we hadn’t vac’d. Had a couple of inches of mucky sludge.  Pleased to say however that much like the engine bay floor it’s all solid and any crustiness was actually old blacking flaking off.  Rock solid otherwise.  Will need another coat in the spring to freshen it up. 
 

More pleased given recent threads on here that after clearing the muck out of it it exposed a hole drilled to make it compliant for when the safety certificate comes round.  Hadn’t actually measure anything but I would have sworn any hole would be below the waterline.  Apparently not. 👍

Edited October 28, 2023 by truckcab79

[truckcab79]

Last bit of the stove completed tonight 

 

New grate made.  16mm square and 16mm diameter, round solid steel bar.  Should be strong enough. 😂

 

[truckcab79]

Aside from just buying stuff today felt like the first day of ‘proper’ refitting work with the ripping out of the old toilet and shower areas. They’re going to go back in much the same locations but they’re knackered and the floors are rotten. 

 

All came out easily enough and pleased to see that apart from the rot at low level where it’s all got wet, that the timber and ply is solid as a rock and as far as I can tell is all original. 
 

Insulation is laughable at 10/12mm of loosely fitted polystyrene so we ripped out the battens as well and will replace with 25mm pressure treated and then use 25mm Kingspan and infill gaps with sprayfoam. 
 

Amazed to see that the steel all seems to have the original red-oxide that looks like it was painted yesterday. 
 

Only area that needs attention is toilet to bow wall which for some reason has a 500x500 hole roughly cut out and skinned over with thin aluminium sheet. Bottom of the sheet doesn’t even touch the floor and is taped.  Hence the water ingress. Need to cut this out and either plate it properly or weld a new section in. Odd and can’t imagine what it was done for.  Even if rusted I can’t imagine it went that high up.  
 

Shower out and tray looks like it was custom made for the job so will have to remake something to replicate it I think.  
 

Water pump and shower pump found and they seem to run but will replace with new along with all hoses etc. 

 

Cut out section of the floor.  Much like the engine bay it looked crusty but was just old blacking. Scraped back and chipped off any loose stuff and it’s all in great condition.  Will dry it out and re-black.  
 

Slightly odd plan is to do each little section like this and work backwards replacing with new battens and insulation as we go.  Seems less disheartening than total wholesale rip-out and as we only have one day a week it  makes it easier to plan the work and also keep on top of waste removal. 

 

Moving to the back of the boat I checked the gas locker which I’d previously cleaned out.  Full of water to the ‘gas drain hole’ which I thought was a bit higher.  Turns out it’s pretty much on the waterline.  
 

Sure I read in the regs that it’s fine to have water in there if unavoidable but I’ll temporarily block the hole to dry it out as there is no gas and no appliances currently.  
Need to see what I can do to raise up and keep water out while remaining within regs. Maybe plastic crate construction infilled with foam with the breather tube still exiting same place and bottles raised up above it.  Need to measure up and see what’s possible and legal. 
 

 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by truckcab79

[BilgePump]

14 hours ago, truckcab79 said:

Only area that needs attention is toilet to bow wall which for some reason has a 500x500 hole roughly cut out and skinned over with thin aluminium sheet. Bottom of the sheet doesn’t even touch the floor and is taped.  Hence the water ingress. Need to cut this out and either plate it properly or weld a new section in. Odd and can’t imagine what it was done for.  Even if rusted I can’t imagine it went that high up.  

 

Could this have been where a holding tank for a dump through pump out toilet went? If the tank was 500x500x1000, that would be 250l, then ripped out and the bulkhead hole bodged with a sheet of aluminium at a later stage?

Edited November 13, 2023 by BilgePump

[truckcab79]

2 minutes ago, BilgePump said:

Could this have been where a holding tank for a dump through pump out toilet went? If the tank was 500x500x1000, that would be 250l, then ripped out and the bulkhead hole bodged with a sheet of aluminium at a later stage?

Possible I suppose.  I certainly think it was ‘something’ rather than just a rust hole.  No effort was made in enlarging it either.  Just rough cut and bent backwards before being riveted over. Didn’t even bother doing the bottom edge.  
 

Don’t think it could have been 1000mm though. The bow space is tiny.  Capacity would have been about the same as a porta-potti in the space it has.  

Edited November 13, 2023 by truckcab79

[magnetman]

Oversized cat flap? 

 

Maybe they had a pet tiger which had its own enclosure. 

A small one. Once it grew to big they took it to the tiger's home. 

[truckcab79]

9 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Oversized cat flap? 

 

Maybe they had a pet tiger which had its own enclosure. 

A small one. Once it grew to big they took it to the tiger's home. 

 

Well I’ve got two dogs.  Maybe I’ll keep it.  

[blackrose]

I've never had any problems with either glass or rope on my stoves. Yes they'll both need replacing from time to time, usually every few years, but it's hardly a major chore and certainly no reason to abandon them in my opinion.

[truckcab79]

Cured mine in the home oven. Used 12mm in the end. 10 probably would have done it. Fits securely and seals well. 👍

Just looking back at my pictures the tabs that the battens screw to don’t line up on the left and right hand walls. Presumably because there was something in that catflap hole and they couldn’t put the third set lower down.  🤔

[truckcab79]

As a slight aside that Champion Atom 2200w generator got a workout today as I thought I’d see how it fared with one of those little off-brand inverter arc/tig machines. In this case a Röhr I bought a couple of years back for doing heavy stuff.  
 

Everything on paper says it’s should’t be able to run it but actually it did a decent enough job on the 3mm steel I need to use to weld up that ‘cat flap’ hole.  Had to be on 2.0mm rods and max about 70amps but seems fine. Decent penetration for the most part.  
 

3.2mm rods or any higher amps just overloads it. 
 

If I can borrow some shore power off a neighbour I’ll use that obviously but if I have to I weld it up using my generator then it looks like it’ll do a reasonable job without blowing it up and more control than the old bush emergency trick  of a couple of car batteries, or having to sikaflex it on.  Wouldn’t do for anything structural but it’ll be fine for this I think.  

[truckcab79]

Bit of time at home today between client projects.  Trying to do all sorts of adds and sods just to keep it moving forward. 
 

Today when I wasn’t playing with welders and underpowered generators I cracked open the epoxy and got a coat on the timber that will be replacing the old roof timbers that will support the front and back tonneaus.  
 

Never used epoxy before but seems easy enough. I think I read on the west systems site that ‘correct’ method for marine timber is three coats of epoxy followed by about a million coats of varnish. So far this is just the first coat of epoxy.  
 

[truckcab79]

Another day clearing crap from under the floors.  Thought I’d have a go at the bow though weather not exactly conducive to ‘outdoor’ work.  
 

Usual process. Rotten ply up. Remove ballast. Scrape felt and bitumen up and then vacuum out.  Managed to not take any before pics again but below is a during and after.  
 

Pushing my luck trying to get the bitumen paint on but got it all dried out enough. Some condensation produced a few bubbles around the edge but I knocked them off and will re-coat tomorrow. 
 

Realised the reason its all survived so well is that clearly the felt, which should be a horrendous rust trap, was put onto hot bitumen like a flat roof. Seems to have done well to protect it all these years.  
 

Did a bit inside as well and re-battened one corner.  I’ll actually be able to get 40mm Kingspan in rather than the 25mm planned. 👍
 

Also removed the threaded bung in the water tank to take home, clean up and renew the valve and pipework. 
 

If the weather is favourable tomorrow I’m hoping to weld in the ‘cat-flap’ panel. 
 

[Victor Vectis]

On 07/11/2023 at 21:48, truckcab79 said:

Last bit of the stove completed tonight 

 

New grate made.  16mm square and 16mm diameter, round solid steel bar.  Should be strong enough. 😂

 

 

Oooooo.....

 

A Fobco drilling m/c.

Nice!

 

[truckcab79]

30 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

 

Good spot. 😉. A Fobco Star. Lovely piece of kit.  Salvaged from a department store that was being demolished.  Lots of other stuff I didn’t have space for unfortunately.  

[truckcab79]

Warts and all post on my day of crappy welding with inappropriate equipment.  
 

Tackled that ‘cat-flap’ bit of ali plate. Couldn’t not really as it was about an inch too short and had been sealed to the floor (unsuccessfully), with tape. 
 

Drilled out the rivets in no time.  Used the old piece to cut new in 3mm steel plate and cleaning up and trimming to fit.  
 

Already knew welding was going to be a struggle with a 2.2kw generator.  Runs my little inverter welder fine but only on 2.0mm rods and at about 65amps.  Can do a couple of inches max without the generator overload tripping. 
 

That aside, made a half-decent enough if long winded job.  Had intended welding from  rear and leaving it unfinished at eh back but too many pin-holes and poor penetration so I’m going to weld it all again from the front next week, grind back and fill. Will look fine when I’m done and the back’s never going to be seen.  Edges against hull and base will be filled over and smoothed with a paintable automotive seam sealant to make absolutely sure there are no gaps for water / rust.  
 

Lot of work for what it is but it’ll be fine.  Wouldn’t want to be welding anything structural but will be fine for this.  
 

Thankfully the only welding I’ll need to do as far as I’m aware.  
 

Edited November 19, 2023 by truckcab79

[truckcab79]

Kendorr’s post about his shower drainage just reminded me to post this. Anyone care to guess it’s purpose? 
 

It’s a Jabsco water pump.  The cut hose on the right came from the water tank.  Left hose goes to stern of boat where I assume there had been a water heater.   But what would the purpose of the adjustable hose Tee’d off shoved into a pipe going to a thru-hull be?  Can only possibly think that you could turn the pump on and with the taps closed pump the water tank dry……..but you could also achieve the same thing by turning a tap on surely?   

Pump and hose were in what was the toilet if it helps. 

 

[truckcab79]

Somehow in between the more or less permanent mist of rain I managed to get this welded again from the front. Ground back and several skims of filler and sanding and you’d never know the hole had been there.  Outer seams against the hull and bearer got a thick bead of paintable seam sealer to make sure that I didn’t leave any of the inevitable pin-holes exposed and able to let water through.  
 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by truckcab79

[magnetman]

Are the amps a bit too high on your welding machine ?

[truckcab79]

57 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Are the amps a bit too high on your welding machine ?

 

Too low I think if anything. I’m welding 3.0mm steel with 2.0mm rods at 65ish amps but with a 2.2kW generator.  Tried lower amps and 1.6mm rods and it was just sitting on the surface.  2.0mm Rods and higher amps and the generator overloads.  3.2mm rods and anything approaching 60amp and it cuts instantly.  
 

The generator is way underpowered for welding really but the results are passable (sort of).  I suspect I’m not getting a consistent power delivery at all. About 1/3 of the time I’m getting a decent weld with good penetration and the rest of the time I’m getting stuff that sits on the surface or hasn’t got anywhere near the penetration I am used to getting when I weld in the workshop. 
 

If you can think of a combo that will work better then let me know.  That said that should be all the welding I need to do. 🤞
 

 

What makes you think too high?  I’d expect blow-through in that scenario but I’m not that experienced with stick welding on thin stuff so could well be misunderstanding. 

Edited November 26, 2023 by truckcab79