The Home Machinist!

I am trying to find out if anyone has 2.5 inch scale butterfly firebox doors available at a reasonable price?

You might try contacting Tom Artzberger at: tac@nconnect.net. Tom used to get a set of 2.5" scale butterfly firebox doors from someone else, but that guy stopped casting. Tom might have replaced those castings with CNC machined parts. Best I can offer...hope that helps. Carl B.

There was a guy that just posted a picture of a 2.5 scale butterfly fire door on "Large Scale Railroad Builders Group" on facebook, he got it from:

http://www.alcowestlocomotives.com

I have Tom artzberger economy doors on my Engine now and I contacted Bruno platzer the one that sold the door on Facebook about his door but $825 for a door casting just seamed really high to me so I was looking for something different if there is anything .

Why not use a plain oven door? There were probably more locomotives built with them than ever had a butterfly.

Hello My Friends
I have some 2-1/2" scale butterfly doors. They were produced by Brad Bluth.
PM me if you are interested.
Jack

Pm sent Jack. Thanks

Marty_Knox wrote: ↑Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:41 pm Why not use a plain oven door? There were probably more locomotives built with them than ever had a butterfly.

I believe these firedoors were designed to swing to the right to ease firing by the fireman, who stood or sat on the left side of the cab. This design also avoided having the glare from the firebox interfere with the night vision of the engineer, who sat on the right. Nonetheless, for right-handed live steamers it would be more logical for the door to swing to the left, so that the door could be opened with the left hand while coal is shoveled by the right.
Absolute heresy, I freely admit!

I know David Moore makes a butterfly door that even has steam/air operation, just like on a full size loco! I bet that'd save us the trouble of having to manually swing the door shut after every shovelful. All you need is a connection to your boiler or air reservoir, and a momentary pushbutton type valve such as Clippard or Pneumadyne, and all you have to do is push to open, release to close!

There was a Bagley (I think) design published many years ago in Modeltec or Live Steam.

I have a 3D model of the 1.5" butterfly doors that I cast for my Mike.

I may be possible to scale them up a bit (they are already scaled up for functionality - a fist needs to fit).

Karl
www.karlkobel.com