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

Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs

<< < (37/46) > >>

Bernd:
Nick,

Yes, that's it, just a plain hydraulc test. The other is a Hydro test.

The one you do is to make sure there are no leaks and that the saftey valves work. Got it straight now.

Bernd

sjb:
Hi Stew,

Having built several boilers and made some mistakes I can offer this:

The secret to a successful boiler is cleanliness and having enough heat. The seivert 2943 should give you enough therms.

Do not clean your flanged plates with emery cloth.

Mix plenty of flux with clean water.

Use citric acid, Wilkinsons sell it but you need to ask for it.

If you can get hold of an old storage heater they have lots of refractory blocks to make a hearth with. Less gas that way :D

Add bushes for the firebox door hinges.

Do not skimp on the chamfering when making the foundation ring.

Use 1/8 rivets for side stays and fit them before fitting the firebox door plate as it's easier to braze them that way.

If you can get hold ALEC FARMERS book on boiler making it's worth the read.

If you know all this already please ignore, the work looks good so far.

kind regards

Steve

sjb:

All,

Ignore my last post, Just realized there are lots and lots more pages, doh. :doh:

Steve

madjackghengis:
Well Steve, with all that boiler advise, and just noticing all the posts, we expect to see some fine work out of you now! I've been watching this build since it started with intense scrutiny, as I intend to build one for a steam engine I'm working on, and Stew has done a bang up job in both the build, with great material, and good working practice, and in the write up, showing all the details, and truly providing a "definitive build log" for any newbie who has never built a boiler, like myself, but who plans on doing one, and wants to do it right. I'm looking forward to the posts you will be putting up for us to see, consider, and poke fun at, or demonstrate our awe, which ever is the right thing at the time. Welcome, if I may, to a great bunch of guys building engines and things. :lol: mad jack

sbwhart:
Thanks for your input Chaps.

I've had this on hold for a few weeks, as I've been waiting to have some pressure gages checked out I'd acquired them over the years and was not sure if they were working OK and I didn't want to test the boiler with them not being sure if they worked. The guy who was going to check them let me down somewhat so last weekend I retrieved them.

After giving it some thought I thought the best thing to do was to make a manifold so that I could compare the gauges one with the others (I've four to choose from) that way a faulty gage would be eliminated by the other three.

I connected them to the boiler feed pump I made, like this looks a bit heath but it worked.

I couldn't get the gauges to tighten so that you could see both faces.

But this is what I got.

They were all different scales but I was able to detect that one gauge was reading 20 PSI light so that was dumped the other three were Ok and gave similar readings with each other.

Tomorrow will know be the big day:-I'll fix a couple of leeks i've got with the screw coupling on the regulator and one of the screwed longitudinal stays, then it will be fingers crossed.

This will be own test if all goes well I'll cut the end off the stays off and submit the boiler for official inspection.

Stew

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version