Above is the finished tank complete and piped up, I'm quite pleased with the outcome. Just got to find a level gauge glass.

While the fine weather lasted, I decided to touch up the white boarders and the red beading. It turned into a bigger job than expected, as you may note from the above photo. With the timber frame being Eroko, a resinous hard wood and not the easiest thing to paint. You need to use a special primer to seal it. Howerver, if the wood is slightly damp on application the results are not good. In Dove's case everything was fine until Jack Frost got in there. It detached the paint from the wood but left it hanging there and you wouldn't know anything was wrong, 'till you touched it with a sander. As you can see very little stayed intact, so, it doesn't look like we're going to Coventry, by boat anyway.

Gone and done it now!

Been a bit busy just of late, trying to condense one house and one workshop into two boats, they don't fit, so, blogging has taken a back seat till now.
We have now sold our pile of bricks and move onto the boats tomorrow, ready to explore England. We can now go places farther afield and come and go as we please and work on Dove when it suits us, not just at weekends when it's pouring down with rain.
Speaking of Dove, I got the day tank fitted and went for a tootle down to the junction and back, all of 200 yards, but it proved everything works. The gear shift is a tad long, might have to alter that, me thinks.
We're going to start splashing some paint about next week, see if we can smarten the cabin up a bit, the winter has really had a bash at the woodwork. Also, now the engine 'ole has dried out, I've got some Mid Brunswick green to paint the tanks and bottom sides. With a bit of luck and fine weather we might look quite presentable for Coventry Basin at Easter.
We wont have any new cloths though, the application for a Historic Ships Grant was turned down, so it looks like we'll be funding that too. Funny, we've never been lucky with freebies.
I'll be back with some pictures of the painting progress.

A bit more tank

Got the flange riveted in today, still got the lid to make yet. Should get it finished and fitted this weekend. Might even get some copper pipe bent up and fitted

And just to prove they are real rivets.

New Day Tank

Started making the new Day Tank today, the picture above has turned out rather un-square, must be the way I stand? With having a riveted bottom tank, I though it best to have a riveted day tank to match and, before you ask, yes they are real rivets. However, due to not having a Press Brake big enough to fold 4mm plate I have cheated and welded the corners and fabricated the bottom tray....and....welded the inside. So, really, it just looks riveted.
I've the top to make yet and that will be angle iron riveted inside, yes proper riveted this time, with the top plate bolted inside that to form a tray. The filler is to be a 3in hole with about 3in combing round it.
I don't know what to do about a level gauge just yet, I'll have to have look round to see what others do. It'll probably be somthing on the lines of a boiler gauge frame I guess, I'm open to suggestions.

Finishing things

This weekend we just tinkered about finishing bits off. I fitted the prop shaft coupling then started the engine to see what the prop was like. The one that's on at the moment is the one matched to the Gardner, which is 23x16 the correct size is 22x15. It's surprising how much an inch on diameter and an inch on pitch makes. The amount of water coming out of the back was quite substantial and the engine went in to lumpy mode at tickover, creating quite a bit of smoke. So, it looks like we'll be changing the prop, the longest part of that job is getting into the dock.
Another job we did, was get the strap fitted round the bottom tank, this is made of 2in "D" section bar folded round the tank and bolted to the engine 'ole bulkhead, this stops the tank falling over which I think would be easily done with 180 gallons (820 ltrs) slopping about.
Blimey...just a thought, 820 ltrs at 60p a ltr. That's errrr 492 quid! for a full tank. I think we might go for a bulk delivery.
We had a couple of 45 gall drums of diesel in the hold so we popped them in and checked for leaks around the bottom of the tank....none yet, just the drain cock wanted nipping up a bit.
Sunday was a bit of a slow start due to spending a little too much time in the Swan on Saturday night. Fitzy the one man entertainment system was on and you have to stay for the laugh.