Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Boiler making


Soldered boiler
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
Making a boiler is scary. This is a pressure vessel - in other words it could go bang.

The kit provides a length of copper tube and a top and bottom plate which overlap the ends. All the modeller has to do is slosh some flux in the joints, heat everything up and run solder in. This works very well once enough heat is applied - the solder wicks into the join and through the holes in the ends I can see that it's worked its way to the bottom. I probably overdid it with the solder but I'd rather that than have the thing explode on me.

(Safety note: I'm not sure what pressure this thing runs at but I think it's lower than your average balloon so I suspect the chances of me blowing up the house are slim)

The chimney took a bit of forcing through it's holes - a little easing with emery paper was required. It's then soldered in place with about 1/4 of an inch sticking out the bottom.

Finally the steam outlet tube is annealed and fitted followed by the water filler. No problems there. A quick clean with Hib Brite and it looks pretty !

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