When I was making the 6″ vertical boiler, SWMBO commented, “you needn’t think that is staying in the house!”
Well, she did say, after the boiler bands went on “Hmm. That looks quite interesting”.
So I took that as my invitation to put it somewhere…. in the house….
This desk is just inside the front door. The boiler sort of melts into the background, don’t you agree? SWMBO has not spotted it , yet.
The brass bands which secure the wooden lagging strips were installed. 5 bands were required to make sure that every piece of wood is held once the glue lets go. The bands are only 4.75mm wide. The bolts which apply the tension pass through small brass blocks which are silver soldered onto the ends of the strips. (thanks Ben De Gabriel of EJ Winter for that tip! And for the band material!)
The boiler sitting on our kitchen table. I will eventually paint the ashpit door assembly and angle plate at the base.
The setup for holding the small blocks in position during silver soldering. In order to not close up the gap between the small block and the brass strap, I centre punched the blocks, raising small dimples, which produced a thou or two of separation between the parts, allowing the molten silver solder to flow. That silver solder wire is 0.5mm diameter.
And back to the Trevithick Dredger Engine….
The redesigned inspection hatch. The bronze rectangular bit plugs the hole in the end plate. I have plugged the unwanted 14 holes in the end plate, using stainless steel threaded rod. And metal worker’s hands, cut, dirty, dry thick skin (SWMBO “don’t come near me!”).
Four of the plugged holes around the firebox opening, 10 more under the inspection hatch (hidden), and the inspection hatch. I will make the inspection hatch a little bit smaller. It will be decorative, permanently attached and unable to be opened. The dredger engine in the London Science Museum has the manufacturer’s name cast into the plate. I am contemplating just inserting Richard Trevithick’s name and the date the first high pressure engine was made (1806). There will need to be a separate area on the boiler wrapper the AMBSC identification.
