Gas Engineer

The oven on Waiouru hasn’t been working correctly and the gas engineer arrived today to look at it.  In my trade days he would have been a gas appliance serviceman.  An engineer had a university degree!  The problem with the oven was the gas automatically turned off 10 minutes after being lit.  I assisted in the removal of the oven and left him to work out the problem.  As I was departing he was engrossed in a call to someone mentioning he hadn’t previously seen this type of oven.  Forty minutes later he came into the workshop and asked me if the oven had ever been connected to a live 12v DC supply.  I reminded him I’d already mentioned the 12v system wasn’t active and we had been lighting it with a match.  He then told me the oven needed the 12v supply to work.  When the oven heats up a 12v fan starts to work to move the heat around the oven.  If it doesn’t start the system automatically cuts off the gas to the burners.  So the fault was due to a lack of a live 12v supply!  We reinstalled the oven and after he had left I modified the temporary 12v wiring to include the oven.  Everything now appears to be working satisfactorily and even with my poor hearing I can hear the sound of the fan working.

Meanwhile Richard and James have continued working on the high cabinets in the galley.

The unit above the sink is almost completed.  I like the way they cut the face of each cabinet from a single sheet of plywood retaining the pieces cut out for the cupboard doors.  These are then trimmed with solid oak and hinged back into the opening.  The timber grain on the carcass and door then match.  In the background James is working on a cup and plate rack which will go on the oven partition wall.

Richard has routered a groove on the inside of the base so I can run the cables to the downlights that will be fitted underneath.  Jan has chosen fittings that both twist and swivel (eyeball).  The groove will be covered with a false floor.

The other job Richard did in the afternoon was to go through the boat and clean off the heads of the oak plugs covering the screw holes in the wall lining and cabinets.  We have already used 500 plugs and he has purchased another bag of 1000.  Richard informed me they are likely to use all of these during the final oak timber trimming.