The Craftmans Shop > Model Engineering

Model steam boiler questions

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Ironhorse57:
How do you run your engines at present?  Reason for asking - I bought an engine a bit larger than my usual 'toy' size some years ago and whilst awaiting delivery I started to ask the same sort of questions about boiler building.  When it arrived I ran it via my airbrush compressor and was surprised to find it needed a much lower pressure than anticipated, enough that I was able to just build a basic horizontal pot boiler using brass tube with a commercial 15 psi safety valve.  It is quite basic but tested to 60 psi with no leaks and I was able to use soft solder throughout - the end caps are though reinforced with a central stay for additional safety.
If you are looking at anything with a higher operating pressure then Will's advice is recommended - even if you don't plan to fire it up anywhere else than your own place.

Dave   

vtsteam:
good luck  :beer:

ps. the information highway is a two way street.

Chuck in E. TN:
I run, or have run, my engines on compressed air only.

No public/meet or society gatherings. No ME Societies local to me, that I am aware of. I would only run the boiler on my private property, but I still want to be as safe as I can make it.

No model boiler inspectors near me that I know of.

black85vette:
Chuck;  not sure if it will help but I have been doing a rebuild of a larger espresso machine and in doing research found that the boilers were fairly substantial.  Not that you should use one, but all the bits and pieces are there.   Valves, electric heating elements, pressure safety valves, solenoid valves, boiler water level controls, etc.   So as you proceed you might find the parts you want at an espresso machine repair company.

fcheslop:
Hi Chuck, this site has some of Sandys designs These are all to the UK code of practice or at least were at the time of designing
http://www.vapeuretmodelesavapeur.com/accueil/index.html
Most commercial coffee machine boiler are around 2.5mm thick Iv cut a few up for material as I worked on them for many years a good source of copper as most boilers fail due to heat exchanger end cap failure or element mounting Never had one fail on the copper parts
On the John Tom site the 2inch Clayton drawings are available it has a nice vertical boiler that would run a 1inch engine with spare capacity and is a good steamer
cheers

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