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18 hours ago, laura hinks said:

Wow thank you Kedian you really do know your stuff. I went to look at one yesterday with a view to buy and im glad to hear that the steel is good quaility. Its a 1986 and ive been told that steel was better quality then anyway. Another thing about the boat is that its water tank was built into the floor its self do you think this may be a problem as most are built out of stainless steel these days?

Also there was water right under the floor. The man i may be buying it off is a plumber so id like to rule out a leaky pipe. He said its condensation and drys up in the summer...do you think it could be masking anything serious? Thanks very much in advance

 The house I currently live in was built for a plumber, who installed all off the plumbing. I had more leaks in my first year of ownership thsn in the previous 30 at my old house... :mellow:

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14 hours ago, KEDIAN said:

A friend of mine is an astronaut he swears the moon is made of cream cheese 

seriously steel is not cheaper a base plate for a boat is now £1600.00 the fact is British steel is no longer available it is now imported with certificates to declare its grade and comfformity  there is a grade of stainless steel that is classed as 316 this is marine grade but there is no marine grade mild steel the certificatation is of little value unless you can test the steel it relates to. The designation for mild steel of good quality is 43A 

The certification is the assurance that the steel is manufactured in accordance with a laid down process that controls the quality of the product. Part of the purpose for having it is because you can't test the product fully yourself.

Grade 43A (or S275 in modern speak) is of course bog standard structural mild steel. It probably accounts for about 80% of steel production and has far greater mechanical properties than is necessary for a narrowboat.

Interesting to note you struggle to source UK produced steel. The UK exports about 60% of its production and imports almost the exact same tonnage.

JP

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Just now, Athy said:

Why?

Because UK steel firms win contracts to supply it. That's the way of the commercial world.

I suspect some of it may have a lot to do with secondary processing. UK produced steel is made into pipes at Hartlepool, tinplated in Llanelli, rolled into rails and other rail products in Scunthorpe, coated for building use in Shotton and stainless in Sheffield (although I think some of that steel may be Swedish).

There is also export of primary products such as slabs.

JP

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Thank you, but I still can't see the point of exporting thousands of tons of steel for use in other countries, so that you need to import the same amount of steel from other counriees for use here. It doesn't seem to make much sense.

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7 hours ago, Athy said:

Thank you, but I still can't see the point of exporting thousands of tons of steel for use in other countries, so that you need to import the same amount of steel from other counriees for use here. It doesn't seem to make much sense.

The clue in my answer was that the products that are imported aren't necessarily the same as the ones that are exported.

Think of it being like your village but on a much much grander scale. You don't have access to all the necessary services in your village and even for those that are available they may not be able to supply to your timescales or at an acceptable price and so you look further afield. With something as big and expensive as steel the same applies but the scale is international.

Most steel import and export from the UK is to and from other EU member states, not least because the same companies own plants across Europe and don't keep the same capability and capacity in every country; that would be hugely inefficient.

If you were to consider the steel in manufacturing imports such as cars and white goods rather than just steel products the UK is actually a net importer.

JP

PS - isn't this thread in the wrong section?

 

 

Edited by Captain Pegg
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4 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

 

PS - isn't this thread in the wrong section?

 

 

I think that the opening post was relevant to boatbuilding and maintenance.

Thanks for for that explanation, which I must admit I don't quite follow, which is not the same as saying that you're wrong.

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5 minutes ago, Athy said:

I think that the opening post was relevant to boatbuilding and maintenance.

Thanks for for that explanation, which I must admit I don't quite follow, which is not the same as saying that you're wrong.

 But it's in 'Build Blogs' and isn't a blog of a build. Needs moving into the main topic.

I tried hard to pitch my response at the right level too. :giggles:

JP

Edited by Captain Pegg
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3 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

 But it's in 'Build Blogs' and isn't a blog of a build. Needs moving into the main topic.

Now that I DO understand! Thank you for pointing it out.

I must add that whenever I visit CWDF I press "View new content" at the top right, and rarely notice which section a topic is in. Do some people approach the forum differently?

Edited by Athy
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  • 1 year later...

Advantage of an integral water tank is the greater capacity.

I don't like the stainless tank "biong" noise, disturbs me. And you can't get into the bow to treat any rust or stop the condensation on the tank exterior.

Always had a bitumined integral tank and always drink the water, I think it has done be no harm, lots of others disagree.

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