Despite my ongoing general rubbish health (cue violins) I have made some efforts to press on with some of the jobs which are still hanging over me. One of the main ones was the removal of the steel grey water tank which was parked at the bottom of the stairs. Having drained it down as best I could and found it was still hernia-inducingly heavy, I decided it would be best to cut it into smaller sections before lifting it out of the hold. I fired up the plasma cutter and started making short work of it. Until the power tripped off. I reset it. It tripped a minute later or so. This went on for some time until the majority of the tank was cut and the petrol compressor ran out of the dregs of fuel that were left in the tank. To cut a long story short:

1) The plasma cutter works much better with a higher flow rate of air and the nozzles don't end up melting or covered in spatter
2) If you have a coiled extension lead on a drum and are pulling a lot of power from it, ensure it is unwound otherwise the breaker will trip. I am guessing something to do with inductance and physics and stuff.
3) Ensure the tank you are cutting is grey or fresh water. If you cut into an old black tank, the smell can be somewhat, how to describe it... nutty.

Yes, I believe what I thought was a grey water tank from basins etc was in fact a black water holding tank. Fortunately, black water does get better with age so it wasn't like standing downwind of the 'thunder shacks' at Glastonbury but there was definitely a bit of something in the air.

I am pretty sure that ain't fairy dust or cotton candy at the bottom of that tank...

Having finished that job, taken myself home and scrubbed every square inch of my skin with bleach and wire wool I started on the portholes. As I have mentioned before, these portholes are beautiful, heavy and solid brass, but they are 19th century technology and given any chance will condense out water in a nanosecond and drip it onto whatever lies below them. In preparation for dry dock, shotblasting and painting, I have decided to remove the portholes and get mild steel blanks made up to fill in the holes. We are not sure our portholes will be in exactly the same place so we'll plug 'em up and cut new holes when needed.

Getting the portholes out can be a trial as some of the nuts on the inside have been punched and split with some sort of metal chisel (obviously to stop them coming undone) but the nuts will not fit into a socket or spanner of the requisite size. Another headache. Sometimes the bolts spin (they have a rivet like head on the outside) so you then have to tack weld the head in order to get the nut off from the inside. All told, it's a job and a half just getting the bleedin' things out.

Anyway, once out it was time to get the blanks in place and start welding. It's been a while since I had the arc welder out and my first 2 attempts were not great. However, the joy of steel is you can always grind it back and have another go.

My first attempt. It's ugly but seems to work. It did teach me a lot though and I felt more confident going into my second one. I still need to fettle my technique as I do get a lot of 'slag holes' where the protective slag which sits on top of the weld when it is done penetrates into the weld like an ugly sore. It weakens the weld but since I am not doing anything structural, it is less critical other than for my own pride.

The next was was a biggy. The magnets weren't strong enough to hold it on the inside so I hade to resort to some 'boy scout' carpentry...

...with a piece of scrap wood bolted across the hole to stop me losing the plate into the cargo hold every 2 minutes. Unfortunately I ran out of 3.2mm rods and had to then do multiple runs with 2.5mm rods in order to build up the sides and fill the gaps. Not great. I have just purchased some more 3.5 and 4mm rods so will be able to crank up the amperage and get some real penetration with the welds.

Stuff I learned whilst welding:

1) I have been welding too cold (ie not enough amps going through the welding rod). If it looks like it is blobs on the surface rather than a lava like flow of metal you need to up the amps.

2) Positional welding is hard. Vertical fills and so on require close attention and tweaking the amps to ensure the molten metal doesn't just drip down leaving you with an enormous steel bogey hanging off the metal plate.

3) Bigger is better when filling holes.

4) Smaller rods just aren't going to cut it. You just can't get enough heat into the piece to really make the weld work.

5) Get in there and try it. You might not know how to do it, but if you have half a brain and a bit of hand eye coordination you can learn pretty quickly. Sure a professional welder could do it in a tenth of the time, but you get nothing out of it other than a bit more time and a lighter wallet.

Anyway, it has been slashing it down with rain here all morning and has just started to clear so I will venture down to the barge this afternoon with my new 16Amp extension cable, my new 4mm rods, crank the amps up and listen to AC/DC while I am welding away. For those who like that kind of thing it's a little bit of nirvana (not the band).

I suspect not much will be achieved this weekend I feel as it's the start of the 6 nations. I have a date with some real ale, the sofa and the telly...Much to the joy of my Beloved - I can already hear the harumphing and overly loud sighing already. Until next time dear reader (hopefully with a solid win over France under our belts), I bid you adieu.