15th May 2009

Progress on the water cart is being made deliberately rapidly as I want to out shop this before the summer season (and hopefully the spray cart too!).

All of the components have been cleaned, wire brushed and have received two coats of red oxide primer.

Below Davy Sheen applies the first coat of red high-build undercoat to the axle. Note that this bears its forging marks with pride, it is a extremely heavy and quite clearly blacksmith made.

Below: While Davy painted the red bits, I started on the blue ones. This is the first coat of blue high-build primer. It will receive one more, then be rubbed back. It will then have one more coat of primer before at least two coats of colour (Union Blue) and then two coats of varnish.

Below: Meanwhile David Young has his homework! He is refurbishing three of the original five taps, plus making two plugs. Two taps did not survive the removal process, the metal having turned crystalline – see the image below. David will produce a pattern for the handles and we will have these cast to give both surviving taps new handles, the original shaving long perished. From this pile of bits will be produced the usual high quality work from Dave’s workbench.