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| Building a Boiler for a 3 1/2" Gauge Locomotive |
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| lordedmond:
not at this time as the cab roof is off for maint to the steam fountain the bunker is done with backing straps for the plate as per full size |
| sbwhart:
OK Made a start not to exciting but every journey begins and ends with a step. You may think I'm sad but I like to plan out jobs as best I can before I start, I use to make my living designing building and testing items that could be a bit hazardous, if you didn't get your preparation right:- I just can't get out of the habit. So after much reading and talking to people and listening to advice, I made out a list of items I thought I may need I may end up not using everything but its better to be prepared than wanting. I started my To Do List I'll add to this as thing progress, and as putting a boiler together is complicated and the order of assembly is important:- I listed the order I would assemble the boiler, I may combine some of the operations or even change things round a bit as they go but the shear act of making the list helps make things clearer in your mind:- its all part of the learning curve. Her's the lists The first job I thought I would tackle was to make some clamps I want to leave them outside to go rusty so that the solder wont stick to them to easy so the sooner I get them made the better. A rummage through the scrap box turned these bits of material up. I burn the paint off the long bars and just squared the ends and sides up in the mill and drilled and tapped them as for toolmakers clamps, they will get a bit of heat so nothing too posh, as long as they will do the job. The shorter bars again were squared up and a slot milled across and the end drilled and tapped M5, I rounded the jaws off in two of these so that I could grip the rim of the tube without the sharp edges damaging the soft copper. I was going to make a pair of tongs but them I remembered these. I bought them at a car boot sale many years ago, don't know why I just thought they would be handy one day, well their day has arrived ;D Cheers Stew |
| Stilldrillin:
Stew, That posting is completely about how you do your forward planning........ Starting, long ago, with the tongs! :thumbup: Nice one! :clap: David D |
| madjackghengis:
Hi Stew, I'm really looking forward to this build, I've put off building a few steam engines because I was leary about building a boiler, yet didn't want to just build an "air" engine, and run it off of the compressor. I expect to follow this one very closely, and see if there is anything keeping me from going ahead, and building one, and finishing up a steam engine, long ago started, but just barely, and definitely calling out in desparation. The price of the kit sound's high, but from the look of it, you got what you paid for, the parts are good looking and substantial, and ought to end up making the build fairly straight forward. Good luck and take lots of pictures, a lot of us are counting on you!!! :jaw: :thumbup: mad jack |
| sbwhart:
Thanks Dave and Jack Jack like you I've been very wary about building a boiler but short of making an electric loco you can't avoid it, the guys at the club are real keen on people building their own they've all done it so they see no reason why any one can, but I still feel nervous about it, not as much now that I've started. Any way bit more progress I checked the kit of part out and to be honest the flanging is very rough, they look like a Gorilla with a sledge hammer went to work on them. The fire box tube plate should fit in the boiler tube:- No way its about 3mm big So decided to make a set of former plates and do the job myself, for one off use you can make formers from hardwood or MDF, but the last time I used hard wood I ended up with an allergic rash that took a month to clear up, so nothing for is I'll just have to use ally jog plate a lot more hard work, but one thing old Stewpot is not afraid of is hard work, so after 1 1/2 hr a sore arm, and a bucket of sweat, I got them rough cut out of the plate. The smoke box tube plate former is round so, the rough cut plate was set up for friction turning. Before taking an hammer to the copper I annealed it by taking it to a red heat and quenching it in water, this gave me a good feal for the size of burner I'll have to use when I come to solder I ended up using my next to largest burner. The build guide recommends allowing 3/64 for the plate thinning under the hammer but I gradually reduced the dia of the former trying the tube plate in the tube taking a bit more of the former bashing the plate and tryinng it in the tube until I got a nice push fit. Next job the fire box former, this is a job for the mill. I squared the plate up then dolloped some blue on the plate then I used a centre and the DRO feature on the mill and a set of compasses to mark out the shape of the former and and hole positions I then centre popped all round the line. Back on the mill to mill the shape out you could use the RT for the Radiuses but that level of accuracy is not required I used a trusty old file to bring the shape to the scribed line. Her's the former and the tidied up fire box plates. Cheers Stew |
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