B'day boating

Hallo!

This week I finally unpacked the welder, to then find it was plug-less. The manual insisted you find a qualified electrician and only use a 16 amp circuit, so I wired it up to a 13 amp lead and hoped for the best. And it’s a wonder.

But without steel I was useless, and in the meantime ordered some portholes, made in China, and I’ve a feeling they’re being sent via ship… hopefully they’ll arrive before the summer’s over.

Then, Saturday: the engine bay bulkhead. I cleaned up the areas, ground them back to bare steel and cut me some shapes to fit the holes:

Now you’re meant to tune this welder to the materials you’re joining, and let me say I tried. The second one on the left went much better, but I’m still learning:

(The holes I drilled for cabling, which I’ll seal later.)

I wouldn’t put my life on their watertight-ness, but with paint to fill in the pin-holes and insulation on top, we won’t repeat the previous sinking. Then after cleaning the welder debris and putting out some fires, the first coat of primer:

The smell of paint again was refreshing, it reminds me of progress.

It was one of those long, wonderful days, and it only continued today. For one I turned 29, one of the primes of my life, then got to fixing younger Nick’s mistakes… in February I crashed into a bridge, very slowly, but enough to bend the front T-bar cleat:

I was full-throttle reverse, but 5 seconds too late; momentum’ll get ya. So today I whacked it off, cleaned it up and re-welded it, followed by a coat of primer:

The little things, the satisfying things. I gave it a knock with a sledge hammer to check its sturdiness, and like before it’s “moor the boat” secure, just not “hit a bridge” secure.

Until next Sunday!

- Nick