Back on the horse..

Well, such a long term between posts,
My only real excuse is that I have been doing the stuff I should have been posting about...
Since finishing the caravan I have been up to lots of other varied and interesting things,
I have taken on the design and build of a particularly complicated timber frame sunroom/balcony/spiral stair contraption that I will be posting about. Also I have helped build a carbon fibre cherub dinghy for a customer and am currently in the process of building a full carbon hydrofoil moth dinghy for myself..
Probably the best thing I have had a hand in over the past year, and one of the main time zappers is my/our new daughter marcella rose,
She won't get posts devoted to her but I will try to catch up on everything else...
This is just a reintroduction for me to the blog world, and more will be following. Shortly I promise...
Cheers.. Dan.

Finished? very nearly...

Well, What a saga it has been ... After a huge push and some help from some superb people... Laurence, Kinsley Byrne, and a special mention for Ben Delap, the trailer finally made its way outside today.. The awnings are not quite working yet, but they are in, and pretty much everything else is functioning reliably, The alde central heating is kickass, the gn espace cooker is super sexy, and the shower works great, I am heading to the caribbean for a couple of months, by which time the wonderful cornish weather will have changed towards the better and we will see a conclusion to this massive project... here are some photo's which I think show why it was worth all the trouble.. cheers. Dan

Update!

Well.. sorry I haven't posted in a while.. As you can probably guess I have been very busy. I don't have much time still and will do some much more detailed writing on the caravan project at a later date, however for now here are some photo's of the trailer in its current state taken by the talented Thomas Lay. The upholstery has been done by Mat Perham of Perham upholstery and is a work of art, also much thanks to Kinsley Byrne who has been working with me on the top grade interior joinery. cheers. Dan.

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

From trailer update

Fire!! Gas bottle burners, and the making of.

  One of the first really good justifications I had for learning to weld was the need for a quality wood burner without it costing an absolute fortune,   I had seen a few burners made from used propane bottles and figured that it shouldn't be that hard to build one,
    This was a while before I owned a digital camera so no photo's of the original.  It was fairly primitive but worked well and would stay in all night.
      Some friends  where interested by my fire and asked me to make them one.

    This was a lot better than my original and had a really successful door hinge that became a model for all following it,
     I also went for a round door, as it allows the biggest log in through the smallest hole,

                        A little after I built this oneIi was asked to build one for fitting into the worksurface of a kitchen in a bus,
  I have a load of build pictures of this one,

 

 This burner was fairly successful but with a short chimney didn't draw enough  to not smoke with the door open,
   this led to a lot of  experiments with door size  and baffle placement inside the cylinders, 

   I found that the they worked best when the bottle was used upright,  and made a few  more for people,
     the strap hinge worked really well and I figured out a way of having a positive latch mechanism so the door could not open accidently when moving around.

     One of the earlier ones i built was made to sit on a wheelarch in a  mercedes truck  so had special long front legs

  There was one which had a door closure made from parts out of a motorcycle gearbox and a downwards
opening door.

 

 

  In the end I think I built around 14 of these little things and in the final ones worked incredibly well, in some cases staying continually alight for a week,  the door and valve sealed well enough that you could put the fire out, and it was possible to drive around with them lit without ending up with a fireball in the vehicle.
        






This one was for an airstream, and had the chimney offset  so  the window would not be obscured.

I really enjoyed handcutting the hinges.

  My favorite ones were made from 19 kg bottles,  and i think the proportions work best this size,  

These had the final model of catch,  which clamped the door closed.

      Sadly they work out  too labour intensive to build any more, mainly because the bottle itself takes so much processing before it can be used.

  But....  I am working on a model that can be repeat produced a lot more simply..

     More to come...... 
    Cheers . and a happy productive  new year. Dan.