There maybe some of you who recall the wonderful comic song, 'There's a hole in my bucket' and it is on YouTube by clicking here. I was reminded of this song as there was a slight disaster at WMD HQ yesterday with the bathtub gaining a 6 inch split in it rendering its water holding capabilities at nil!
I won't say how it was caused but luckily I was not present at the time so am blameless!
Having reviewed the split I thought that was it for the tub. Mrs. Woody had already announced our intention to rebuild the bathroom to Phil the builder who wisely said it would be at least next year before he could get round to it so I had visions of having to have flannel bathing for the next 6 months! However, having regained my calmness a search of the internet showed that splits in baths are not that uncommon and there are ways to repair them. For something of the magnitude of the WMD bathtub a glass fibre repair seemed the best option. I had to go and put the banners for the August Bank Holiday events at Rocks By Rail (where I found there is some competition for visitors!) ....
...so it was the ideal opportunity to get the necessary repair materials. Strangely the WMD Store was out of glass fibre materials so I actually had to buy some!
I won't tell you that Mrs. W thought that I had posed for the box illustration but I was impressed by the claims made on the Big Boy repair box! This stuff should repair just about anything if the claims were right. I just hoped that it lived up to expectations.
Bad as it was that the bath was split, that split had to be on the side of the bath against the wall so the whole bath had to come out. Now I fitted that bathtub decades ago so getting it out should have been simple. However, decades ago I was somewhat more flexible than now so it was a pig of a job. With the bath out and upside down the extent of the damage was more evident.
With the split pushed back together a small hole was drilled at the each end of the split to stop the it spreading. Then the area was sanded to roughen up the surface and give the glass fibre something to adhere to. As WMD HQ has a number of cats who would love to take part in the repair process and no doubt become a permeant part of the repair patch the door to the bathroom was shut. Even with the window open I was as quick as possible mixing the resin and applying it and three sheets of glass fibre mat to the repair area and getting out of the room before I began to see strange things!
An hour later I returned to the room where vapours had diffused and the resin had set. It looked good. With the tub back up the right way I ran some epoxy into the crack just as a belt and braces approach. It may be grey but ait sanded back and as the tub will be replaced it will do as long as it is water tight.
Looks OK, from a distance!
With everything connected back up the tub was filled! No leaks!!!! Now it just requires a suitable
victim volunteer in the shape of Mrs. W to test whether it is capable of offering the full bathing experience it previously did. Mrs. W will be volunteering later!
Meanwhile, this slight distraction has meant that things that needed to dry in the kitchen rebuild have done so with these cats able to explore without leaving paw prints! I really need to get that painting started!
Despite all the excitement I have managed to construct seven track links for the Tiger 1 tank build.
Dragon even make the track links complicated! Three parts for one link with the guides being a challenge to fit. Rather than try to clean them up as I cut them off the sprue I just glued them to the track and once set will clean them up - working smarter not harder as I get older!
