Servicing stuff.

Not all tools have to be expensive.  This week a toothbrush was all I needed to fix Herbie's Morco gas water heater.  The heater was firing up when I turned the hot water tap on, but then cut out some seconds later. I had a good idea what to do about it as it has happened before.  I don't have a clue about the inner workings of the pressure switchs and wotnot that these things have, but fortunately I don't need to. If the Morco is left unused for some weeks there's a good chance that incy wincy spider will get in there, either through the open pilot light vent or perhaps down the chimney flue and start laying cobwebs. 

So it's off with the heater cover (don't look now if you are squeamish about naked gas heaters)

and out with the toothbrush. Couple of minutes brushing the pilot jet and the burner jets (a bit hard to get at) is all you need. And then comes the really hard bit, getting the flippin' cover back on again. Its held on by stupid little hooks at the back and they don't seem at all easy to re engage.  Anyhow I did it and now the Morco is back in action.  Regulations now forbid the installation of these heaters unless they are "room sealed", but those like ours already installed before the regulations came in are permitted. Despite making a rather alarming roar when the light up, they're super things, giving piping hot water on demand and lying idle the rest of the time. We don't normally need it when cruising though as the engine heats the calorifier tank "free of charge".

It seems to be a week for getting things serviced.  First the Morco, then our car is almost due for one, and Kath and I are about to be serviced by means of our twice a year Covid jabs and annual flu jab and on Tuesday my best guitar goes to the guitar doctor for a set up. The instrument seems to need this every tnow and then. last time was ten years ago.  Even the best wood moves about a little bit when it's under stress. Believe it or not, the strings on yer average guitar create a total tension of 150 lbs or more on the instrument and good guitars can be very lightly built in order to make them more responsive. Then if like me you keep torturing the thing by changing to different types of tuning which means slackening some strings and tightening others, the instrument eventually gets a bit out of kilter and needs an expert tweak to set it up so it's easy to play again. We're only talking a millimetre or so but it makes a huge difference. With solid electric guitars you can do it yourself because of the way they are engineered but acoustics are more of a dark art and an amateur can do more harm than good.

So because of the jabs and the guitar appointment I'm back home for a couple of days before returning to Herbie on Tuesday afternoon to carry on with the work on the roof and the handrail. I need to get a protective layer of paint over the newly exposed metal before all my grinding and sanding work is undone. Even after two days a thin film of rust is appearing over the bare metal so that'll have to come off before giving it a coat of rust treating paint.

See you next week with more on Herbie's refurb.