Building a Boiler for a 3 1/2" Gauge Locomotive

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sbwhart:

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

Stilldrillin:
Really nice work, nicely shown, Stew! :clap: :clap: :clap:

David D

Dean W:
Looking good, Stew. Thanks for showing how you did the stays.
Maybe you've already said, but, what will fire the boiler?

Thanks for the show!

Dean

sbwhart:
Thanks Dave/Dean

Dean the boiler will be fired with Coal, you can still get Welsh Steam Coal in the UK theirs a small mine still in operation, producing good anthracite coal, its a very hot burning coal that fired the industrial revolution in the UK. I've watched the chaps a number of times at the club fire up their engines it always amazes me just how quickly they come up to steam in about 5 minutes.

Cheers

Stew

shoey51:
:bow: :bow: absolutely marvellous Stew
Im watching this thread closely :D

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