The Home Machinist!

End of the line for the year... You never know in the upper Midwest when you'll get that last run of the year in. The Rutland might have had that opportunity Friday, Oct. 18th. Morning temps were high 40's...with afternoon temps expect to reach 60. Decided to make the best of the situation and go f...

BigDumbDinosaur wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 13, 2019 10:51 pm

4) No crud in the new boiler to impair heat transfer into the water.

BDD...#4)...maybe so. BUT...with the crud in the old boiler firebox water legs...consider this. There was less water to heat! Carl B.

Fuel keeps going and going... One question typically asked when visitors are on the club property and they realize I'm firing the Rutland with propane is..."How long does a bottle of fuel last?" This has always been a difficult question to answer. Why? They question does not stipulate in terms of "...

The upper portion of the tube sheet is pretty much gone. It corresponds with being the hottest area of the boiler. Could be a good case for making the crown and tube sheets on the firebox end much thicker in future builds, even if one has to add a few more tubes to offset the loss in heat conductio...

Carl, have you been able to clean up the staybolts? I am curious how thick was the calcium build up around the shafts, and if you observed much staybolt deterioration ? BTw this is a really valuable thread for me. Very informative to actually see these effects - processes we all worry about but nev...

Sedimental Journey One of the puzzle pieces that I haven't described yet is in regards to the tan colored residue/sediment that's coating the boiler interior. I'll re-post the following photo... IMG_1574.JPG There is gentleman that frequents HDS Shop #2 to work on his model engineering project. We'...

Dan, Russ and BDD... Appreciate your comments. Glad to know the information and experiences (?) provided in this thread, are helping fellow live steamers! Learned at work many years ago, it's sometimes better to know what NOT to do...than to know what to do! Used to say some of the specifications I ...

A number of readers/contributors have commented about water aeration. Allow me to describe the water system at my local club. Two buildings with a combined roof area of approx. 1400 sq. ft. are used to collect rain water. This water flows to an intermediate stainless steel collection tank of some 50...

What about thickening the crown sheet, or potentially fire brick the fire box top and sides to eliminate that? Even if it means having to fit an extra tube or two into the boiler to make up for the lost heat transfer area of the top of the firebox to the boiler? Because it's directly above the fire...

One thing that struck me about this boiler design is that the builder looks to have built the crown sheet flat on top, with very sharp radius corners. My two boilers, a code boiler in 1950, the other, a riveted boiler from early 1900’s both have round crown sheets - no flat top surfaces, and very s...

I just realized something, so this boiler (the cut apart one) was originally steel tubes and they were replaced with copper. Copper and Steel are a fair distance apart on the galvanic reaction chart, i.e. the steel will be consumed as the "anode" in the "battery". Heat speeds the process, and the c...

Very interesting discussion. Ryan’s idea about using sacrificial zincs is intriguing. One thing that struck me about this boiler design is that the builder looks to have built the crown sheet flat on top, with very sharp radius corners. My two boilers, a code boiler in 1950, the other, a riveted bo...