Tender Build Advice

[Bill Shields]

Agree on top not riveted. Held in place with a dozen screws here and there.

Gotta get at the pump valves filters and piping

[Bill Shields]

all together, cover in place, pump ready (but not piped);
cover is 4 separate pieces...3 are screwed down.
the section with the hatch' just sits there and can be removed easily to service inside.

[Fender]

Looks great, Bill!

[NP317]

For advice on riveting a tender, Locoparts had (still has?) explicit instructions for building their tender kits.
I built two of them and followed those instructions. Worked fine both times.
I suggest you contact Locoparts and ask if they will sell you a set of their instructions.
They can also supply the necessary Cleco clamping tools. Required in my mind. And They have continued to be useful in my shop.
RussN

[Bill Shields]

there is no sane tender building life without cleco clamps

[Fender]

Note that if you use an impact hammer to set the rivets, it is important that the hammer be “exactly” perpendicular to the surface, to avoid denting the sheets. Also, dial down the pressure to the minimum that will set the rivets. As with getting to Carnegie Hall, practice first!

[Bill Shields]

ugh....been there, done that will never do it again in a brass tender...copper rivets and one whack with a smallish ball pein and....

[KarlKobel]

It seems that things I learned in grade/high school, I had to relearn again.

I got a bunch of stainless steel for my tender at a junkyard (but that's a different story).
A good friend gave me a LOT of brass rivets and I had just finished the top.
I was showing it off at my local machinist group and someone asked "what are you going to do about the dissimilar metal problem".
There it was, that Galvanic Corrosion condition I learned so long ago - any dissimilar metal in an electrolyte (tap water) will cause the less noble metal to migrate (electroplate) to the more noble, the tin in the brass rivets will eventually migrate to the stainless steel leaving a copper mush. I switched to stainless steel rivets set with a rivet tool in an air chisel.

BTW - any rivet I was able to set perpendicular to the plane was water tight. All the rivets near the bottom I was off angle, I had to seal.

Agree with Russ and Bill - couldn't have done it without Cleco clamps.

http://www.karlkobel.com/Tender/TenderTank/index.html
Karl

[Bill Shields]

if you paint the inside and keep the rivets dry-ish...seriously doubt and all of us together will live long enough to have to worry about it....even if you leave the tank full of water 24/7/365

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Here is something you may find useful, a link to the Disney American thread. It picks up where the tender tank started. There is also some tender tank info in the Nickel Plate Berkshire thread from some time ago.
Happy Model Building
Jack

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=84771&start=96

[ccvstmr]

Anybody ever consider or use...Phil Swift's Flex Seal...in a tender? The stuff is not available in cans that can be applied by brush or roller. Available in different colors too. Black and white would seem fitting...but gray has distinct possibilities.

Reason for asking, have an old RRSC (I believe) fiberglass tender that's was in the process of a makeover before the bug hit the US. Carl B.

[makinsmoke]

Doesn’t anyone solder their tenders after riveting anymore?

Done right, it seals just great.