Kitchen window phases 5a – 5n

The last ten days have seen the window work on Erin Mae proceeding steadily. The most satisfactory part was successfully drilling and tapping the hull with some extra holes to take machine screws that will fix the frame in place.

I've cleaned out plenty of threads before, but these were the first I'd cut myself. Having the right equipment was key – a 3.3mm cobalt steel drill bit, some cutting paste and an M4 tap that was tough enough for the job. In retrospect, I wonder what it was I was worried about. Now the positions of the holes in the frame and those in the hull match each other and I've started on the painting.

The heatwave meant I didn't try to do too much today. I had a BBQ to cook.

My best beloved took the photos so doesn't appear in shot. She looked after the salad and the strawberries. And very nice it was too!

Kitchen window phase 4

Epoxy puttying was duly completed today. No pictures of the job, basically because it looked very uninteresting, and anyway, how many photos of yours truly working on the kitchen window can you stand? The putty worked pretty well – getting my hands thoroughly wet before handling it helped.

The photo is from the Amazon page. I had some epoxy putty – Milliput – some years ago that came as two separate blocks, so it's intriguing to have it all in one roll. I'm not sure what technique they use for preventing it going off at the interface between the two parts. Perhaps there is some sort of barrier. Cutting off a slice was easy, but gave me a lot of wastage, given the size of the hole I was filling. I am also hoping that it won't have damaged whatever barrier they do have in place.

Rain again tomorrow – possibly yet another day of feet up, book out.

Kitchen window phase 3 – Dremelising

We spent longer in the south than intended, because the appalling weather was going to make window work difficult, and we didn't fancy just sitting inside Erin Mae in the marina while the storms roared outside. Today, however, work resumed.

The new Dremel immediately proved its worth. My first task is to fill a hole where some engineer or other had drilled and tapped too close to the edge of the steel. I have some epoxy putty for that but, as my friend Brian would say, preparation is everything. I attached a small wire wheel to the Dremel - one of about 60 items in a £10 variety pack from Amazon, and it powered through rusty bits and old silicone. I've applied some Fertan and should be able to do the puttying tomorrow.

I can't see any sign of how the wood inner window frame was held in place (apart from the method thoroughly dissed in a previous post!). So today I have also drilled and countersunk four 3.5 mm holes through the hull, and used stainless steel screws to hold the frame tight. I was very glad to have brought my old mains drill – it made a much quicker job of penetrating the hull and cutting the countersinks than my 18v cordless.

At last I feel I'm making some progress. I suspect tomorrow's weather will put a halt to it for 24 hours.

Dremel

I've wanted a Dremel for ages – along with electronic things it's the sort of gadget that raises my adrenaline levels – but the reading on the "need" scale never quite hit the justification mark. Until yesterday, when, observing Dave apply his angle grinder to the not-so-subtle art of cutting off a couple of rusted screw heads, I realised that a cutter with a much smaller diameter would do far less damage to the surrounding aluminium of Erin Mae's window frame.

After that, it wasn't hard to think up all sorts of extra uses for a Dremel. And once I'd done my research on the relevant websites, I was done for. I waited half an hour to allow hormones to subside, in order to conduct a reality check (well, it was a whole weekend when I bought my guitar) and ordered it.

It will be a while before it gets used in earnest, not least because we drove south today in the torrential rain because of some important medical appointments over the next week. I wonder if I can think of something interesting to do with it while we're here…

Kitchen window phase 2

Not much work on the window over the last two days – it was far too wet in the West Midlands. But today Dave Freeman combined a visit to make an adjustment on the new gas hob with helping me get out the final two screws holding in Erin Mae's kitchen window.

In the event it needed his angle grinder to cut the heads. Fortunately the scratches it left on the frame will eventually be covered up by the neoprene insert. At least we managed to remove the window.

After Dave had left I went round all the screw holes in the hull with an M4 tap to clean out the threads.

It was a satisfying job, but I'm still amazed that whoever last put the window in didn't attach it via these threads, but via wood screws going all the way through them and into the interior wooden frame. Two of those are actually still in place, with their heads missing. The up side to that is that they are holding the wooden frame in position while I work on the whole thing.

Now I have to plan the next steps. Some of the holes in the aluminium frame seem a little large and I'm concerned that the heads of the new screws will pass through under pressure. I also want to enlarge one or two holes anyway so that the screws don't have to be forced in at an angle. What I'll have to do is slowly becoming clearer in my mind. For the moment I've re-fitted the window since we have rain tomorrow and then a long weekend in the south to attend to some medical matters. The window, of course, is now even less waterproof than it was, so I'll leave it covered with a cheap tarpaulin while we're away.

Kitchen window phase 1

The indications of damage from water ingress around Erin Mae's left-hand kitchen window have been getting worse, and they have to be addressed.

One of the targets for this period was to remove the window and sort it all out. Last year's experience with a living area window gave me confidence for everything that has to be done once the hole is window-less, but I am still a bit nervous about bodywork. In particular, given the history with Erin Mae's windows, that I discovered well after we bought her, I expect to face problems resulting from the technique of those who first endeavoured to make her water-tight.

The proper method for attaching a window is to use machine screws through its aluminium frame, secured into tapped holes in the hull. The internal wooden frame (see the picture) is secured by countersunk screws from the the outside, which pass through the hull and into the wood, and whose heads are covered by the aluminium frame itself. But whoever effected the repair when the windows first gave problems chose to fix the aluminium frame with wood screws passing through the hull and into the internal wooden frame, trusting that the grip between them would be enough to prevent ingress. It never has been – I imagine that just the natural movement of the wood and the metal expanding in hot weather would be enough to cause a failure. So today, with some trepidation, I started on removing the window.

It was as I had feared – most of the screws were wood screws passing through the hull into the internal wooden frame. I tapped my screwdriver with a hammer to loosen them, and most came out fine. But on two the head had rusted too much to get a grip – I don't understand why they didn't use stainless steel screws. I tried to remove them with a screw extractor kit (thanks, Ted!) but they were too hard for that to make any impression.

So I phoned Dave Freeman, the engineer who fitted our new gas hob on Monday, and he's going to drop by shortly to see what he can do to get the screws out for me. Unfortunately, I can't yet see whether my eventual solution will necessitate drilling any more holes in the hull – the two stuck screws are in just the wrong position for me to move the frame sufficiently to have a look.

Debit it to experience, Uncle Paul would have said.

Hot

We'd intended to go to Stafford to get our bikes looked at today and had thought about visiting Stafford castle. In the event it was far too hot to be faffing around in the open with the bike carrier. We woke up late after the excitement of the night's thunderstorms and the main thing after breakfast was to take Erin Mae across to the service wharf for a pump-out – some things you can't simply ignore. But then it was back to our own jetty to consider how best to spend the day over a coffee. Other life-forms were also pretty stationary.

In the end, we didn't do a lot. Once the fiercest heat had gone I took the pram hood cover off and washed away the spiders and their residue – they get absolutely everywhere. No need to say, it all dried in a jiffy.

It seems it's going to be even hotter tomorrow.