2-1/2" NG class A shay.

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makinsmoke
Posts: 2260
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2003 12:56 pm
Location: Texas Hill Country

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by makinsmoke »

Man, those are se pretty welds.

Pipeline quality!
Brian Hilgert
Posts: 302
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:35 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by Brian Hilgert »

Thanks Jcbrock,

Electric is not so cheap here, but like you said, it is a lot easier for the initial setup. My garage is 25 x 31 with the barn style roof, the upstairs is about 25x25. I'm using R13 Batts for the walls 2x4 walls. I could have went with R15 but I didn't think it was worth the extra money. Not sure what I am going to put on the second story ceiling. the current old furnace that I have is 75,000 btu's.

I was in the shop at lunchtime, Darn it is cold in there. I do not think I'm going to get the heat in there before the real winter hits.

Thanks for the tip rkcarguy. I'll mention it to my friend who is actually doing the welding... Hence the Pretty welds. LOL Mine are functional but not so pretty.
Brian Hilgert
Posts: 302
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:35 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by Brian Hilgert »

I just talked to a guy this past weekend that has a heat pump for his garage. It seems that the technology has come a long way and that they do work down to 10 deg or something like that. I'm going to look into it and see how much it would be. I was told that would be able to control the upstairs and downstairs separately too.
Brian Hilgert
Posts: 302
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:35 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by Brian Hilgert »

Well, its been a long time since I have posted anything, It's been a busy year, I finally finished insulating the top and bottom of the garage and have about 70% of the drywall hung upstairs. Downstairs is 1/2" OSB board for durability. The plan is to use the upstairs as a man cave, HO or On30 layout room and small woodshop (for the shay cab and future cars). For now it will be just for storage. I finish installing the two head heat pump so now I have heat in the winter and AC in the summer. My electric bill is higher than I expected so I'll have to look into more ways of sealing up the garage. maybe new garage doors...
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Anyways, back to the shay, The Boiler is complete except for rolling in the flues. After a couple of practice welds, My welder passed me the torch and I was able to put a considerable amount of welding time into my boiler. I am very happy to say that!
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All the parts for the steam dome have been machined and ready for welding.
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Soot n' Cinders
Posts: 983
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:24 pm
Location: Marietta, Georgia

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by Soot n' Cinders »

Looking good Brian! Interesting to see the different interpretations everyone is building off of Johns drawings and castings
-Tristan

Projects
-2.5" scale Class A 20 Ton Shay

Steam Siphon: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/leavitt ... tive-works
Brian Hilgert
Posts: 302
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:35 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by Brian Hilgert »

In the last post, I have the boiler just setting on the frame and supported with wood for mockup. I am in the process now of building the mounts to officially mount the boiler to the frame.

The next set of photos show the dog bone links that mount from the frame to the smokebox.
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The next part is a flange that was part of a casting. This casting mounts to the smokebox and is where the dog bone link connects to.

The flange was machined flat and then pressed and massaged to match the curvature of the smokebox.
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The rivets are just temporarily shown.
Brian Hilgert
Posts: 302
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:35 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by Brian Hilgert »

Soot n' Cinders wrote: Tue Jan 08, 2019 3:41 pm Looking good Brian! Interesting to see the different interpretations everyone is building off of Johns drawings and castings
Thanks!. Just like the real one, no two were the same.
Last edited by Brian Hilgert on Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by rkcarguy »

Great to see an update, looking good! I hadn't visited this thread since you posted the pics of the shop/equip, that's great you have most of the toys at home to build this beast.
I'm not sure what kind of garage doors you have, some of them can have insulated panels popped into them. I thought I was going to have to replace the door on my last place, but when I showed the picture to the garage door guy he told me they carried these panels for them and that you just flex the plastic backing and they pop into each panel. I just bought those, made sure the seal around the edge of the opening was tight to the panels, and then insulated the rest of the garage and it made quite a difference.
I wouldn't even be against putting up some foil backed foam insulation board with construction adhesive if that will save some $$$.
Brian Hilgert
Posts: 302
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:35 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by Brian Hilgert »

that's great you have most of the toys at home to build this beast.
Thanks, I have been very blessed on finding someone else's junk. Or what they thought was junk. All my metal cutting machines were, at one time or another, scheduled to be scraped.

My Garage doors are solid wood. I was thinking of replacing them with insulated aluminum ones, but I'm open to ideas.
Also, I am thinking of closing off the upstairs and only heating the downstairs... for now.

Thanks,
B
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by rkcarguy »

All your heat is likely going upstairs, if you close it off I bet you would notice a big difference. My first workplace was like that, we'd be cold on the machine shop floor and then all the lofts upstairs were ~80*. Wood isn't a great insulator, but aluminum is far worse. I'd almost bet there will be a lot more savings in closing off the upstairs than insulating or replacing that garage door, providing all the edge seals are tight when the door is closed.

That's cool you got some deals on "junk" :) I'm dying to have a lathe of my own but I just haven't been able to find anything suitable. Here we seem to have a good demand for machines still, so only the really big 3-phase machines seem to lag on the market and go cheaply. My only great find has been my late 60's Miller 430A TIG Welder, it was retired from a shipyard and the guy that got it bridged the transformer for 440V when he was plugged into 220V and it obviously never worked right. I got it for scrap price, took it home and discovered the issue, bridged the transformer correctly and it's been working fine since. It's output gage goes to 500 amps it's a beast. I rolled over my cooling hose with my chair by accident when welding aluminum and melted the ceramic cup to the tungsten! It's lacking all the fancy settings and options of the newer machines, but it's all transformer, mechanical contacts, switches, and knobs that I can replace and care for myself so there is no expensive boards to burn out.
Brian Hilgert
Posts: 302
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:35 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by Brian Hilgert »

Took a look at the garage seals last night. yeah, they are shot. I am going to make a trap door for the upstairs and shut off the upstairs head unit and only run the heat down stairs... maybe in the summer, I'll reverse it and only run the AC upstairs.

Nice find on your welder. its a great feeling knowing that if something goes wrong, that you can actually fix it.

More parts for mounting the boiler.
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Soot n' Cinders
Posts: 983
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:24 pm
Location: Marietta, Georgia

Re: 2-1/2" NG class A shay.

Post by Soot n' Cinders »

Wow! Your mounts are fancier than mine. I just dressed up some angle iron
-Tristan

Projects
-2.5" scale Class A 20 Ton Shay

Steam Siphon: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/leavitt ... tive-works
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