johnsmachines

The boiler cylinder tube is the vertical cylinder which penetrates the boiler shell, and boiler end plate, and eventually houses the cylinder and piston within the boiler.

In the previous post I described cutting the hole which encloses the cylinder.

Today I made the cylinder, and brazed it in place.

Reference lines accurately marked using machinists blue.

It is 51mm diameter, and wall thickness 3.2mm.

Bronze brazed into position.

And now that the brazing is completed I can cut the boiler tube to its final length.  This was left until all the brazing had been completed, in case there was a major stuff up and it had to be repeated.  That should be the last bronze brazing join on this engine.  I can return to the easier, and lower temperature silver brazed joins from on.  I must mention that working close to a workpiece which is close to 1000ºc, for 5-10 minutes at a stretch is fairly uncomfortable.  Now I know why the bronze brazing torch is a minimum of 450mm long.  Even so, I got skin burns from the metal buttons of my jacket when I touched them after a session.   A leather apron from now on.

Measure twice, cut once.  Actually, I measured this 3 times.

Cutting with the drop bandsaw.  Very slow feed rate so the blade does not grab this very soft copper.  This removed 3 of the remaining 4 unwanted holes.  Just one remains to be filled.

Final length of the boiler.  All nicely square.