I like Hammocks.

[No Idea]

Time to curl up again for another hour.

Im getting better....

Slowly.

 

[Robbi]

brilliant posts !!

your narative never fails to make me smile mate

( have you tried a small one hand operated brake pipe bender for your pipe bending scheme, they work really well and obviously don't crease or flatten the pipe )

 

[No Idea]

If its copper tubing you are trying to bend then either fill it with sand and bend it (doesnt have to be silver sand) or using an external bending spring.

Sorry Harrisp

I completely missed your post.

Im using chromed copper gas pipe just to play with while I try to work out how to build this thing, then I need to use stainless pipe as I understand copper gives off some poisonous gasses if you heat it too much.

I havent done any pipe bending before. Didnt know you could use any type of sand. Thank you.

If you bend the pipe into a coil, can you still get an external spring off?

Ive no experience with this.

 

[No Idea]

Thank you friend Robbi.

Makes it worthwhile taking the time to write when you know people apreciate it.

I have a sykes picavant brake pipe flaring tool in my medicine cabinet. Dont remember why it ended up in there.

I always bent the pipes by hand, so I havent got a brake pipe bender.

I bought one for 8mm pipe, the size Im using, but it doesnt want to bend coils or bend as tightly as I need it to go.

Begining to think this is a non starter and I need another approach.

Need to do some more thinking...

I supose I should have done that before I started building lol.

 

[No Idea]

I had been awake for several hours...

I was getting tired again.

The kids decided I should take them out on their bikes.

It was bright, but cold and manky.

I just wanted to sleep.

 

[No Idea]

As they wanted to go...

They got the job of checking tyres, brakes oiling seized gears, etc...

They put the bike rack on the car and got the bikes ready to go.

I checked they were going to stay on th eback of the car and not bounce off on the first corner....

Then drove the kids to the forest.

I saw they had loaded my bike too and just grinned.

 

[No Idea]

I took them ot one side of the forest and helped them unload their bikes but not mine.

They were surprised when they got given a compass a route map and a walkie talkie each so they could yell if they had a problem.

I made sure they knew where they were on the maps and let them go.

 

[No Idea]

I resecured my bike and drove the 5 miles or so to the other side of the forest.

As there was direct line of sight right across the forest, I was pretty confident the radios would work that far.

I had a pocket telescope with me and could already see the kids pushing their bikes up an impossible little hill still with 6 or 7 miles to go....

I should have taken a pic through the telescope of them, but didnt think of it. Sorry.

 

[No Idea]

I was still fighting to keep my eyes open...

I padlocked my bike to the back of the car as there were signs all over the carpark that the polie are incapable of preventing crime so you must secure everything.

I suppose the next step was inevitable lol

I liked this view of the trees.

 

[No Idea]

Eventually, they arrived and woke me up again.

I did try and convince them I was just reading my book.

 

[No Idea]

Funny how they never seem to believe me.

They also seem to think I snore.

 

[No Idea]

We had to stop at the pub on the way back for some hot chocolate with marshmallows and ice cream sundaes

The kids forced me to go there to eat and watch the sun go down.

Honest!

 

[No Idea]

It was raining.

A lot.

Made me start thinking about the boat.

Well, sort of after Noah.

Spent some time thinking aobut how to run a hobo stove on a sailing dinghy without setting fire to the sails or burning a hole through the bottom, and how I would get it to run with no fuel.

Could be challenging.

Ended up thinking about trying to fish off it to get fish so I could wring them out to get fish oil and then run the stove on that.

Er.....

Not sure that would be very easy.

Still....

I soon realised that hanging off the boat fishing could see me falling overboard again.

Was thinking about life lines to fix me to the boat.

Had a rummage through an online boat shop and found dinghies like mine usually have toe straps to stop people falling off in the way I did.

Decided I want some of them!

 

[No Idea]

Had a look at them on some pics I found and got out the hammer....

 

[No Idea]

Decided I needed a mount at the back.

I found a U bolt and a block of wood.

 

[No Idea]

Need to keep it as close to the floor as possible to make the loading transfer to the floor beam, rather than the bulkhead under the hatch, where there is no strength.

Need to drill two holes to let this in.

 

[No Idea]

Balls!

Just drilled a hole in a milk bottle! Better go drink some more milk.

 

[No Idea]

That panel was bending just under the weight of me drilling through it carefully.

This hull is really soft.

Marking the position of the holes in the hardwood....

 

[No Idea]

Had to mark it offset so the bung will still go in.

Being very carefull not to let the drill go through the wood and the hull....

Probably not the best thing to use as a workbench...

 

[No Idea]

Checking the U bolt will actually fit through the wood - BEFORE I hammer it in in the boat and get it hopelessly stuck.