Boiler testing day

 

I'm lucky, that my work is flexible. As long as there isn't a meeting, it doesn't matter when I work, just that the jobs get done. This allowed me to be at the model boat club in the sun for boiler testing day. Tha fantail launch sparkled as she sat on the bench, waiting for her turn with the club testers. 

We were in the company of some serious kit too. Proper boats, with steam plants that cost several time more than my model! For these, the serious testing kit is employed. For insurance reasons, the models must be tested every year, so we don't blow anyone up while sailing, especially on a public day. 

The simple plant of the fantail gave the testers a bit of a problem. Boiler pressure is low, 20-35psi, and there isn't a normal safety valve, just a length of neopropaline pipe that should be the weak link if anything goes wrong. 

Tester Chris had looked into this, and it seems the rules are sligthly different for an "Lo" type steam plant which is how mine is categorised. We discussed it a little and decided that the best plan would be to stall the engine and see if the pipe blew off. 

A few seconds before this photo was taken, the whole thing was smothered in steam. After a few seconds at stall, the pipe blew off, and emptied the boiler of hot gas. It was quite spectacular! Of course, this leave fire under the boiler and not much water in there, so I will need to point the model at the bank and hope momentum gets it there before anything melts .

All this satisfied the test, and the model has now been certified. 

I'm quite chuffed (pun intended) with this. I've never been certified before, and take this as me having done an OK job with the construction. 

At this point, I should have taken the launch for a little sail, but when reassembling it, I hadn't been realistic about the state of the rubber coupling. 

A replacement is in order, and adding the tube to my steam engine "flight box" for bankside repairs in the future.