1.5" Scale Boiler Manufacturers

[dkellldog]

The specific issues that concerned me were twofold: a) manual adjustable hand reamers are not very precise and is a waste of time and money, my opinion, and b) Ligaments were now measuring 25-40 thousands less than 1/4" which I feared would be too low a value, subject to failure caused by tube rolling and by fracturing. No ligaments failed when I rolled in the tubes so maybe, I'm just a hypochondriac.
Tapering the boiler barrel from 14" OD down was a non starter for me. I felt reducing the boiler diameter, using thicker insulation and reducing the cylinder bore would be more beneficial. In talking with Andy Clerici. he told me his engine was a wet ride and that he thought running only one steam line down one side of the engine would cause less heat loss in the front cylinders, with less water carry over out of the stack. Hot steam will be necessary for a dry ride. Andy's engine had water droplets boiling on the top of the smokestack while running. No criticism, of Andy, he was a marvelous engine builder. He boldly went where very few men have gone before.

[Bill Shields]

I do all my reaming work with fixed size machine reamers. You can get them oversize to push the tube through

[EnidPuceflange]

I did some research and decided that it was better (for me at least) to get a boiler built in the UK, and shipped to the US - there are a substantial number of model boilermakers in operation, and the costs for a CE marked boiler even with shipping was quite a bit cheaper, and the wait was slightly less - while my prototype is a UK narrow gauge outline, it's still an 8" steel boiler, 28" long with steel tubes rolled in. That ended up being 2400 UKP plus about 400UKP for shipping so about $3700....I used http://www.miniaturesteam.com/ who most certainly do make custom boilers all the time.

I believe Station Road Steam will still sell you a boiler from their Stafford/Feldbahn range - last I looked that was about 1600 UKP (and maybe 400 UKP for shipping) so $2600....

[dkellldog]

Message was cut off. The adjustable reamer mounted in a drill caused the holes to open up .030-.040" more due to the reamer grabbing one of the holes. This reduced the ligament about by that amount on two adjacent holes, .21"OD. Insulation will bring the oiler out to the scale diameter and with 2-1/2" reduced cylinder bores and the 8.933 wheel diameter, wheel RPM will be very low, not requiring as much steam much as the full 3" scale diameter piston require. This size loco will never be loaded, so a further reduction is steam demand is assumed.
FYI, Andy Clerici told me that his H8 was a wet ride and that bringing the steam down the steam delivery piping on only one side of the loco would keep the steam hotter, with less water carry over.

[Glenn Brooks]

I have operated a stock (almost) Allen Ten Wheeler burning coal that was a steaming demon! The best boiler efficiency I have experienced.
The front third (approx.) of the grate area was blocked off to decrease air inlet volume.
The exact % blocked off had been carefully calculated based on prototype practice with scaling taken into account, and the results are highly successful.
Keith Sternberg's work, in Washington State.
RussN

+1 for what Russ said. Keith’s experience with his loco (coal fired) is exactly the same reported by Russ. Keith blocked off the front third of his grate area with fire block to reduce air intake- as the excess air was cooling his fire to much. Keith reports his steam production improved tremendously. Said Shutters around the bottom of the grate, Ala prototypical practice might do the same, but are apparently very hard to fit hobby scale miniatures.

THe other approach to look at is to improve front end efficiency to use all your existing intake air flowing over the grates. For example, I had very restricted steam making capacity on my 12” gauge Ottaway until I rebuilt my front end. It originally had a typical, standard Master mechanics 1890 ‘s single blast nozzle configuration. It never produced sufficient steam to replenish losses. And I could never maintain sufficient operating pressure. After putting a multi nozzle, Lempor style blast nozzle in the front end, it now steams like a beast. This because the multi port nozzle is up to .30% more efficient in drawing intake air flow across the gates- increasing my fire box fuel air mixture, and making fire box temperatures hotter - hence increasing my boiler evaporation rate. I relied on the research reported by Koopman, who studied ENG. L.D.Porta’s (http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/porta.html) front end testing and engineering design work in Argentina, in the 1950’s, and other National RRway testing programs from 1890 through the end of steam era in early 1950’s- from throughout Europe, and North and South america) . Koopmans (and Porta’s) research showed that poor performing prototypical coal burners usually always benefitted from improved steam generation through upgrading the front end design with some form of multi port blast nozzle. I replicated porta’s design recommendations and It more than resolved my steam generation problems…even at slow speeds on my short backyard track. Blocking my grates was to have been my next upgrade, but after rebuilding my front end, didn’t need to do this…

Glenn

[dkellldog]

All,
Got busy at work and paused the loco build. Regarding my concern about the ligaments being too thin, they were down to .22" thick at their narrowest point. The steel tubes, 13 gauge, were rolled in using Elliot tube rollers which seemed to work very well without lot of effort. The concern was the different boiler articles that advised never going less than 1/4" on ligament width. With all the work done, I didn't want to take a chance on a weak tube sheet. Has anyone else ever had second thoughts after building up an assembly?

On another issue, I'm looking at using Loctite LB8017 MO-F slide lubricant on the journal boxes, oven fired per Loctite's instructions. This product seems to be mainly aimed at the aerospace industry and is used as an anti seize coating on turbine blades. Oven firing makes the coating solvent resistant and gives it a harder surface. Does anyone have any experience with this product? If it works on the journals, it may work well on the cross head and slides. I'll still have supplementary lubrication in the areas that would possibly receive this treatment.

I'd appreciate input from the experienced builders out there regarding the Loctite product.

[Bill Shields]

I am familiar with the product, but only in areas as you have related.

Never considered using it on a steamer...since in 50 or so years of doing this, have found that just a standard 'oiling around' to be sufficient.