The Home Machinist!

Yes...or a longer one piece pipe. If I were doing it again I would have started with an od threaded pipe and screwed an extension up and down until I found the final position.

Viton is just fine in steam cylinder oil.

I would also be concerned about the slide valves being run 'dry' on air.

The blast pipe extension you describe is about what I did on my Allwn based propane burner. It still goes up the stack...it just creates less vacuum in the smokebox because of where the tip of the pipe is with respect to the petticoat of the stack. It just takes some experimentation to find the opti...

The 2-4-0 belongs to a very good friend. I keep her in the winter and do maintenance in exchange for throttle privileges on weekends. Nellie is same vintage as Raritan and has the same wheel arrangement and runs on steam but the similarities stop there. Built to be manageable by old folks. The entir...

True work of art..

The loco front and center of the bottom picture is parked in my basement (for the duration of covid) 20' from where I am sitting -> George Thomas' Nellie.

One VERY trick and unique loco and more fun than a barrel of monkeys to run down any track.

See my earlier comment(s)

simply rolling the tubes will not 'flare' the ends over the face of the tube (at least in any rolling process i have seen / used)

rolling is the best way to go.

in the overall $$$ of the boiler, the roller is a very inexpensive tool.

That is it...thanks..but I doubt it is the case here

Agreed...

A polite and astute way of describing a crappy weld job

Stay bolt welds do not look terribly spiffy either...looks like something I would do

So...what would one weld the tube TO? Itself? Tubes might be proceened (spelling)...but then I have only seen that done on a model boiler once or twice in 50 years. It is a process where the end of the tibe is rolled over after the tube is rolled into the sheet. However based on what I see here and ...

Do not plan on using that chuck for anything except drilling. They are not a substitute for holding a milling cutter