Fiddle Fidd.. Fi...e

[Carrdo]

The brass steam cylinder cladding installed.

Since I have never done anything like this before, the first two attempts at this were disasters. What you see is the third and final attempt which worked. The sheet brass used was only 0.005" thick and as such it acts much like spring steel, it will bend, then spring back or just kink or crease if it is pushed too far. With the first attempt, I used a forming fixture but that didn't work - I found out the hard way that it is better to just to use your fingers with such thin sheet stock.

The brass sheet is quite easy to cut with regular scissors so the raw blank is first cut slightly over length and to width making sure you cut all straight lines (I marked out the rough blank with pencil lines), then using your fingers wrap it around the cylinders to check the fit and repeat. One thing which I learned was to start at one end and then work towards the other end pressing and smoothing the metal as you go.

On the end slots to remove cladding metal around the mounting lugs, one can use an Xacto knife on a piece of wood to cut the brass. Ensure you cut exactly to the pencil line as it is very easy for the blade to ride up and score too far.

One final trick was the location of the inlet and outlet steam holes in the sheet cladding. I first spotted them through using a centre punch and then opened them out with round Swiss pattern model makers files checking the location frequently against the threaded holes in the pump. The trick was to locate the holes in the brass sheet at a slightly shorter distance than the holes in the pump so when the inlet and outlet steam fittings were screwed home they stretched the brass sheet slightly such that it it was pulled flat and tight around the cylinders. Using finger pressure only left the sheet with a slight bulge at the front between the cylinders which looks bad. And don't try to mill or power drill these holes.

Any finish filing needed to remove any burrs etc. was done with model makers files as regular files are just to big for a job like this.

I think that's it.

[slhdsnet@dsuper.net]

Awesome article Don !! Thank you for sharing your expertise with the community.
Stephane