Thursday 17 July 2014

Jump!


It was time for the annual trip down to Tonbridge for the South East judging session.  The Humphrey Bean had changed completely from last year, with good beer and good food.  There was a great selection of beers at the festival, and I found the new beers from Trumans brewery, interesting as I used to drink Trumans when I lived in Suffolk many years ago.

There is a sign under the toilet seat on the train that I found amusing



Hot-footing it back from Tonbradge on the Saturday morning to the brewery, and a quick diversion from brewing to climb up Holcombe Hill and abseil from the top of Peel tower. I wore my brewing overalls as I thought the logo on the back would make a good publicity shot, however this was covered by the harness!



I think sixty people did the jump in total and helped raise £2600 for the mountain rescue.

Now I have the seat frame in place, I could mount the PC.  This is an in-car PC which runs off 10-20V DC.  It seems wrong because it is so small and light, but running off DC it doesn't need the huge transformer or power supply that other PC's have.


Windows 7 is not so good though, and Office 2010 is even worse, so although I will persevere with Windows 7, I shall stick to using Office 2003, as all the useful bits have been removed or over-complicated in office 2010.

Monday 7 July 2014

You call that a seat ?

The tour de France is passing through Yorkshire.  At first I thought that they must be using a Satnav, but it seems they always do the TDF in the wrong country.  Don't ask me!


Anyway, apparently loads of people will travel to Yorkshire, walk up a mountain, early to get a "good spot", then stand waiting for 3 or 4 hours to see WHOOSH, all the bikes go past in about thirty seconds, then they all wander back off the mountain.

I really don't see the point in all of this, however, as they must be thirsty when they come off the mountain, we set up a beer tent at Littlebrough.

Lots of fun selling real ale to lager drinkers, but ~I still don't see the point...

After the beer tent was packed up I hot-footed it over to Oswaldtwistle to see Richard Digence, well, the last half of RD as I was late!

Back on the boat, I have a new 36" 12V telly, which will also do as a PC Monitor so this is bolted behind the bookcase.




Between the kitchen and the bookcase, there will be a dining area!  Two small filing cabinets fit under the seat niceley, and I built the seat frame around these.

I will have the floor betwene the seats raised by about 7" so when you are sat at the table, you can see out of the window reasonably.

This is the basic structure, needing trim around the edges of the cushoin panels, but now I am in the quandry of having to think about material, colours patterns and all sorts of technical bits!

Tuesday 1 July 2014

Everything including the Kitchen Sink

I have now advanced as far as the kitchen, and a kitchen is not a kitchen without a kitchen sink.  I decided to go for a dark coloured sink, to match the dark hob and cooker.  Having spent ages looking at the different styles and shapes available, I have gone for a square grey sink.  I think the square sinks hold more, and I even have some square plates to match.

I have had to cut quite a lot out of the cabinet top rail in order to get the sink to fit, but it should be strong enough when Chippy Paul comes over and fits the solid oak worktops.  The solid oak is coming nowhere near the boat until the majority of the painting is done, just in case, you understand.

The hardboard panel on the rear of the cabinet was cut away, and the tap, and filtered water tap connected.  All working fine, and amazing progress being made.

Then we come to the drain.

Waste pipes come in 40mm and 32mm, and I have a 32mm skin fitting, so all should be fine.  A bottle trap for the sink, and a 40-32 reducer connected to the 32mm skin fitting. Simples.

Not Quite

32mm pipe comes as compression, or pushfit, or solvent weld.  these vary from 33 to 36mm in diameter, and non of them are 32mm.  As a result, I have more water on the kitchen floor than overboard.

Plan B

I took the skin fitting down to B&Q and found that the thread on the skin fitting was the same as the thread on the 32mm compression fitting "nut".  I found a 32mm "extender" which had a male on one end and a female on the other, with one of those wedge shaped grommets.
Back to the boat and, having cut off the male end, the female fits to the skin fitting, but when I tighten it up, the pipe comes through the end of the nut, as there is nothing for the grommet to compress against.

Bugger!

Plan C (I still have another 23 letters to go after this one)

At Screwfix I found a pedestal trap, which is a curious S shaped pipe thing, but the female end has a ridge on the pipe to prevent the nut from coming off.

 Having cut off the majority of the trap, leaving a short length of 32mm pipe with a nut AND A FLANGE, the pipe fastens to the skin fitting, tighens up solid and DOESN'T LEAK!!!

Yipee!!

I hate plumbing!

Monday morning, and a last minute change of plan, as we go off to the House of Commons as we finally have found a beer to put on there which isn't offensive to anyone!





A nice little bar with a terrace on the Thames.

It must be tough working in a place like this!