Tag Archives: technique

Steamboat Crankshafts – Lessons & Manufacture Pt#2

Leave a reply

This post continues/concludes the story of manufacturing a new crank for Befur from the last post.

Here we can see the re-assembled engine with new crank. We are still to install all the ancillaries (reversing gear, lubrication, condenser and feed/air pump & alternator drive.)

It took 6-man days from receiving the crank back from the grinders to reach this stage.

Once we have tested it on air, we will reinstall it on the boat and undertake this year’s boiler test and check all is as it should be.

Machining Crank Pins

Continue reading →

Tube Expanding and Economiser Headers

1 Reply

Just an update on progress with the boiler and other (interrupting) activities.

Tube Expanding

Nigel was good enough to make the trip north and assist with the tubing of the first boiler.

This was actually a simple, if repetitive, job.

Fitting the tubes

Continue reading →

Boiler tubes (in profusion)!

Leave a reply

The tubes are ready to fit…!

After what must have been an epic session, Nigel and his assistants in the southern group of the “Boiler Collective” have now cut, deburred and bent the 600+ tubes for the three boilers we are building.

The pictures below show the extent of this activity, and the bending jigs they made…. (thank you men)!

We first made a trial set by measurement from and comparison to the drawings (yes, yes, I know “never scale from drawings“), we then test fitted these and they were good. So then the team cut the rest using an angle grinder in an adjustable jig. Then cleaned up the ends with a bench-mounted wire wheel, and finally bent them to the appropriate angles using the bender we “pre-calibrated” in the trial run.

EPIC….

First cut some cunifer to length
Tube ready to be bent
First bend in at correct angle.
Enough tubes for the 3 boilers

Shiny Things

Leave a reply

While we await the 600+ cut and bent boiler tubes from the other members of the “Boiler Collective” beavering away in Sussex, we went back to the engine to try and close off the final list of “to do” jobs….

Cleading/Lagging/Cladding

I think Cleading is the official word for this, even though WordPress objects! Continue reading →

Boiler Begins!

2 Replies

Sorry for the long silence, we have been working hard to relocate to Cumbria and convert the garage into a workshop – with that approximately complete it allows me to get started on the boiler for Befur. So this post concerns itself with this topic. Continue reading →

More fitting out – and symmetry

Leave a reply

Just a quick note, the last week or so have been dedicated to the building of the cabin on Befur, and the first stages of internal fit-out.

This has involved the fitting of the cabin sides (as seen in the last post’s pictures), and the fitting of internal bulkheads, (e.g. the walls of the loo and heads for the bunks.) This has involved more “spilling” to get the shapes from the hull for cutting of the bulkheads (a remarkably accurate process) and fitting these too the hull using epoxy filets. Continue reading →

Relief Vales and Drain Cocks

1 Reply

An experiment – Steam Operated Combined Drains & Relief

Much earlier in the process I baulked at drilling the cylinder castings for the cylinder drain cocks because they looked hard to drill with out risking damage to some rather expensive castings. Moreover, previous experience with manual cylinder drain cocks on the loco had been poor (leaky, difficult linkages etc.) and on the steam launch most people seem to opt for 4 manually operated cocks which involves a deal of “faffing” in use. Continue reading →

Fuel Tank, Mast Structure and Galvanizing

Leave a reply

This is a hotchpotch of notes on progress we have made in the last few weeks.

I am now focusing my attention on the internal fit-out. We need to get Befur in a state to move her on a trailer to our new home in Cumbria in August, this is adding some needed pressure, to ensure we get everything done in time… Continue reading →

Retirement Beckons!

5 Replies

A change of pace and circumstance

Well it seems I have not posted since November and the arrival of Befur’s trailer. Since then a lot has happened (so Happy Xmas, and Happy New Year)… I have had the fortune to be made redundant, and have (with Louise’s kind support) agreed to turn that into retirement – so from the end of February there will be no more working interruptions, and as I am only “on call” now, progress should be faster. So with the shingles finally subsiding, and hopefully the last of the winter colds and the left shoulder starting to free up,  there can be no more excuses – so 2015 looks bright indeed 🙂 Continue reading →