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My digital camera was out of action for a while and so I had to wait until I could get into town to pick up old-fashioned photographs before I could do this update. Lots of pictures this time.

This is the back of the Torglow stove showing the fire cement being applied to the joints.

Base and sides assembled.

Top assembled and fire cement being smeared on joints.

Front being fastened in place.

Sides and chimney collar on. The top of the stove is still waiting to be modified to accept the large flue pipe but

this is what it will look like when I get around to it.

The following pictures show the construction of the fireplace at Deryck's workshop. If you look at the design section of the website, you'll see that Uisce will have lots of curved surfaces to not bump into (i.e. few corners on which to bruise yourself). The fireplace is no exception. I modelled the fireplace in Pro/Engineer (3D CAD) in order to work out what shape the steel should be prior to bending. Armed with a very large paper plot of the flat shape, a nearby boatbuilder cut the steel to shape for me:

This is the back and roof of the fireplace.

Bending the 3mm steel wasn't easy. Here you see the jig we made to achieve the correct curvature. We tried various means of mechanical assistance to bend the steel but in the end, we did it by hand. Note the strut up to the roof joists that was required to assist the clamps and hold the jig down as we lifted the end of the steel.

This is the finished item all welded together. The bend we got wasn't far off what I was aiming for and I'm very pleased with the final result.

The next job was to make a flue pipe. I marked the position of the centre of the stove on the roof to see if a straight flue would be sufficient. Unfortunately, the exit point was too near to the handrail and so a 'bendy' flue was necessary. The flue pipe was cut with angled cuts (above) and welded back together 180° out of phase to achieve the necessary bends.

Having welded the bits back together into the finished flue pipe, I needed an 'ole in the roof through which to poke it:

By coincidence, the diameter of the pipe is slightly smaller than a hole cutter I bought to do the roof vents! It took about 10 minutes to cut through the roof. The drill is my Dad's old 600 watt Bosch. It doesn't have speed control and so I had to put it on the lowest of two gears, pulse the trigger, and use cutting fluid to avoid excessive tooth wear and injury.

Prising the steel blank out. It was held in place by the sprayfoam on the inside.

The hole saw cut rather more quickly through the foam that was left!

Neat hole in roof!

The finished flue pipe going through the roof.

The finished stove lit (still minus lid).

The fireplace is sitting on wooden blocks and allows me to store some fuel underneath the hearth. In this picture, the steel has been painted with black VHT paint. The fireplace roof is there to allow me to build in storage space above the stove. This appears to be wasted space on most narrowboats. I'll have an air gap around the outside of the flue with vents at top and bottom so that I get convection heating the cabin air. The outside of the air gap will be insulated to prevent the contents of the storage space surrounding it being over-cooked (flue gets very, very hot!). Also, the cloak cupboard will be just behind the fireplace next to the front door and I'll divert some of the heat into this space to dry out wet coats and shoes etc.

I'm still getting used to controlling the stove - if I'm not careful, it can get too hot and before I know it, it's 30°C+ in the cabin. I'm starting to get the hang of it though. By piling on loads of fuel just before bedtime and then shutting down the air inlet, I can get it so that it's about 20°C in the cabin when I wake up.

Things that I haven't shown are cutting and installing the firebricks (don't angle grind firebricks indoors - gets a bit dusty!), cracking the castings by tightening up the bolts too much (d'oh!), and the seal around the flue pipe... because I haven't done it yet. I also need to sort out a proper chimney outside.

Refurbing an old stove (I recovered this one from a skip) has been interesting. Money spent has not been anything like buying a new stove but it has still cost a fair amount... maybe £100 to £150?

Finally, for those of you following the restoration of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, here's a couple of photos of the lock and the bridge under the road at Uppermill on December 9, 2000 (visited my Grandma who lives in Oldham).

Looking along the road over the canal towards Uppermill. The line of the canal is pretty clear, coming in from lower right to centre, underneath the road.

Looking from a temporary footbridge into the lock chamber. View is towards road away from Uppermill and towards previous vantage point.

Next update, January 2001!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!