Boiler Build

[potty]

Things bin a bit slow as we had a short holiday in London.

The guys at the club and the boiler inspector advised me to use rivet stays as they are far easyer to put in and just as effective, as the girder stays specified in the drawing. I couldn't get any rivets long enough so decided to make some out of 3/16 copper rod, I made a little upsetting jig this is simply a 3/16 hole in a chunk of steel, split through so that the rivet can be removed. To make the rivets I cut some 40mm length of copper bar, annealed them then put one in the jig with a short length protruding grip it tight in the vice and give it a good wallop with a hammer to upset the head. You can get the idea from the pic.



Another bit of advice was not to try drilling rivet hole through both plates at the same time as the drill just wonders and the stays end up crooked, best to carfully mark the two parts out and drill them separately, this is the boiler tube marked out.



And the set up to hold the boiler on the mill table for drilling.



Drilling the stay holes, and safety valve hole



Drilling the hole for the steam dome.



for some reason the steam dome hole was going off line so finished the job off with a file.



Steam dome bush fitted.



Steam dome bush soldered to the boiler.



Drilling the stay holes in the firebox.



And a trial fitting of the parts the stays are not fully assembled in place.



John was coming over this afternoon to help solder the stays but it was raining so we,ve put it off until Thursday.

Cheers

Stew

[potty]

The rain kept off today so manages to get the crown stays done.

The parts were given a good clean and the rivets assembled as the rivet passed through the water space I threaded a ring of easy flow solder onto it, the parts were then fluxed and another ring of solder added to the outside of the boiler tube that way the solder between the plate fed the joint with the fire box and the outside solder fed the boiler tube: so that we did the outside and the inside at the same heating.

The boiler was placed on the hearth firebox down, and with a  large torch in the firebox and one smaller torch on the end of the rivet, on a roving mission, the solder soon melted all looked good, so after 1/2 hr in the pickle this is what we got.

Inside



Outside



In between



All the joints had a nice fillet of solder 

Before I do some more I need to get a few more rods of solder.

The next job will be the throat plate stays and the side stays:- 54 in total.

Thanks for your interest chaps

Cheers

Stew

[potty]

Picked up some more silver solder yesteday I recon I will have put about £30 worth into the boiler by the time its complete. Got on with drilling the rest of the stays after carfully marking out started by drilling the holes in the throat plate, its a a real awkward position up underneath the boiler tube, so that I can reach made up a extended centre drill with a 1/8" drill at the other end:- this is the beast.



Drill a hole in the end and stuck them in place with Loctite.

They ran out quite a bit so had to get them running as best I could with a perswader  : also centre popping the hole helped because of the length it was quite flexable so it found position for itselfe.

This is the set up first all the holes were centre drilled.



And drilled 1/8 right through throat plate and fire box.



And her it is with the stays assembled.



Called it a day at that and went in to watch the footie.

Stew

[potty]

A little feed back would be nice Chaps even it was to say:- what a load of crap.

Got some more prep work done today for the next soldering campaign.

Drilled the holes for the side stays, 28 each side right through outer wrapper and fire box wrapper.
This is the set up the well annealed soft copper needed some support from Jacks, centre drill first then 1/8" drill, every fourth hole I pooped a rivet into to keep everything lined up



Gave the stays a trial fit, it looks like a hedgehog.



When it comes to soldering I'm going to thread a ring of solder over each stay as it passes through the water cavity, and one ring around the head of the rivet in the fire box that way each stay will get two rings of solder one to fill the fire box wrapper and the other to fill outer wrapper.

Made the rings by winding the solder around a length of 1/8 bar then snipping them off to make the ring.



And her they all are all 130 they used up 4 lengths of solder at 2 squid a length.



Cheers

Stew

[mjt60a]

A little feed back would be nice Chaps even it was to say:- what a load of crap ...

Not at all, it looks really good to me 

[Dinosaursoupman]

I'm sorry, it's hard to talk with your jaw on the ground and your tongue flopped on the keyboard as you sit in awe. I'm just admiring your amazing work. Keep it up and keep the pics coming.

Thanks, Randy

[potty]

Thanks Guys

Sorry about the dig but I was beginning to feel lonely with no feed back or ?, the other forums I'm posting to I'm getting lots of ?, but these are engineering based forums perhaps thats why.

Cheers

Stew

[kno3]

Nice work! What kind of locomotive is this going to be?

[potty]

KNO3

Its for a 3 1/2" gauge loco a 2-4-0 LNWR Precedent they have a fine example at York (Hardwick), the design I'm following is for a loco called Mabel by LBSC other wise known as Curly Lawrence he's long gone in fact this was the last loco he designed.

Her's a pic of a finished Model



Thanks for your interest.

Stew

[steamboatmodel]

Hi Stew,
I haven't commented much as it looks to be going so well. Mabel is considered to be one of Curly's best designs. There is one shot that I am concerned about though the last one posted on June 14, 2010, 10:52:29 AM, at the top of the photo there is a lump of solder that does not look like it received enough heat, and there looks to be gaps in the foundation bars at the corners.
Regards,
Gerald. 

[potty]

Well spotted Gerald

The lump top right is solder that flowed down from the joint after a reheat there is still plenty of solder in the joint with penetration all the way through, the lap is just over 1/4", I'm hopping the lump will melt some more when I solder the foundation ring,

 You can't get dead square bends hence the gap, I'll fill it with a small bit of copper made from a rivet, the rest the solder will take care off.

Cheers

Stew

[steamboatmodel]

Sounds good, I had thought that you had already done to foundation ring. I haven't done a locomotive style boiler, because of all the stay work, I have been following this build with interest (still not convinced I want to try one yet).
Regards,
Gerald.

[potty]

Cheers Gerald

The thought of doing the stays was really concerning me as well, one reasons being having read a few books on the subject they all made it sound complicated:-  screwing the stays in soldering then soft soldering the head etc etc, but the current practice is to use copper rivets silver soldered in place which is a lost less complicated.

With Johns help and guidance soldered the rest of the stays as for the crown stays we put a ring of solder in the water cavity and a ring on the head of the rivets positioned the boiler with the end of the rivets sticking down applied heat to the ends with the big torch and used the little torch for background heat and to locally boost heat where required, all went well, just a couple of stays needed a second heating and a bit more solder applying on the outside, the inside (fire box) all soldered well.

Here a few pics







Taking it along to the inspector this Sunday whilst there I'll buy yet more solder.

Stew

[potty]

Bin away for a few days with my 85 year old Dad just to give him a bit of a holiday did him a world of good.

Soldered the fire box back plate in place, couldn't get hold of John at short notice so press ganged my wife onto the job, she was a bit wary of the roaring gas torch at first, but she soon got the idea and carried out instruction faultlessly with no arguments, which for a strong minded woman must have bin very difficult.

This is the result





Started to mark the back head out for the fire hole and ran into a problem, The drawing for the fire box back plate is wrong it doesn't match up with the position shown an the back head, it positions it too high, I'm stuck with what is a wrong part assembled to the boiler, at the moment the fire door will foul the water gauge.

It looks like I'll have to juggle thing around to get things to fit, still thinking the problem through.

Stew

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's ....& Stew says ...."Bin away for a few days with my 85 year old Dad just to give him a bit of a holiday did him a world of good".

  Stew.......paddlers & boilers are great..........but 85 YO dads are too...I hope you had the chance to have a  & a few  with your dad

Derek