Got the damper back from my tame fabricator in exchange for a few beers and it now fits perfectly.
Had a slight mishap in that I'd suffered a puncture in my rear, offside tyre as a result of going to the fabricator's yard, which is littered with discarded bits of metal, one of which stuck in the tyre. Managed to get a mate at the local tyre place to plug it for £5, so there's another cost to add to the overall budget.
I decided that, rather than cutting a rectangular hole for the vent to cover, I'd drill 3 holes, providing 3 distinct vent settings and used bolts with washers to attach the top slider rail. The bottom slider rail slid perfectly and snugly behind the lower aluminium retaining cage stay and didn't require any fixing to the unit. The top rail and slider ensure it won't move from its seating.
The 3 holes make it digital, just to bring it into the 21st century, but I may yet decide, depending on how well it functions, to join the holes and make the vent control analogue - for that retro look.
I also stapled some metal mesh, salvaged from a defunct tower desktop carcass belonging to No.1 Son that was destined for the tip, over the inside of the vent holes so as to prevent hot cinders falling out through them.
All that's now required is a handle for the slider. I was thinking of drilling and tapping a screw hole to take a screw-in handle, but it suddenly struck me that a neodymium skittle magnet would be perfect, not requiring any drilling at all, plus I can move the magnet to wherever I want on the slider, or remove it completely if it's in danger of becoming too hot to handle. A pack of 6 is on order from eBay for £4, scheduled to hopefully arrive today.
OK, so it cost me a small fortune to make, but it was an experiment, necessitating some additional expenditure as I felt my way through the construction, but the next one will be much cheaper (although Hay maintains there will be no next one - I don't know where she gleaned that silly idea from...).
The bell rope has arrived, but it's pitifully small. I guess I'm just going to have to drag my memory on how to make one myself.
It's not so much the length as the girth, as the actress said to the Bishop.
Finally managed to find a couple of large, bronze bow shackles on Facebook Market for the very reasonable price of £7 each and £18.90 including postage, although I made it up to £20, which is still good value. I'm hoping they will arrive today too.
Now for the HMV, 1930s heater - it finally arrived on Wednesday after a bit of a kerfuffle with the seller, and I'm ecstatic about it. I think the seller wasn't happy with the price she got and it was telling that she had a negative review on eBay for exactly the same item a year ago, where the buyer complained she had reneged on the deal. She maintained the buyer hadn't paid her, but I find that argument somewhat specious, especially as she hadn't sent me the heater when she should have and had to be pressurised into it. You don't complain you've never received something when you haven't paid for it.
I actually found her on Facebook where she was also selling this item on her Facebook page. I left a few words. She wanted me to message her on Messenger, but I insisted she contact me through eBay, where I had an open case on the resolution centre and an audit trail. Her excuse was that she was self-isolating, which I again thought an exercise in evasiveness, as she'd made no effort to contact me after the sale.
Anyway, it is fully functional and has just a couple of minor, superficial dents, which I can remove myself with a dent puller I bought a while ago. A light polish with silver polish and it looks an absolute treat - real 30s chic.
There can only be a handful of these left in the country and I was a) extremely lucky to find one and b) as lucky as a very lucky person to get it for the price I paid.
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