Strip & Inspect (October 2014)
When taking on a project where very little of the history was known, one of the first main jobs is to take the thing apart and spend many hours measuring and inspecting until you are confident that any mating parts can be made to fit and any errors can be chased out. As it turned out and in the light of the very basic kit my grandfather had for marking the overall accuracy was very good and the tolerances between mating parts was excellent.
To keep track of all the parts that were about to be removed from the engine, I invested in a range of different size plastic zip lock bags bought very cheaply off eBay. These turned out to be a great help as not only can the part be given a nice bath in oil, they can be sealed off from the rusty environment and the plastic acts a wrapping so each part was protected from the rest.
The majority of the disassembly was a straight forward affair only requiring light force to remove the tiny screws allowing the parts to be lifted off, measured and bagged. However, it was not all plain sailing.
Steam Chest Removal
At first I was planning to leave the steam chest in place however, when embarking on the pressure test I discovered that the gasket was leaking slightly in the place where realistically only replacement would solve the issue. So it had to come off. I removed all the nuts and studs from round the steam chest and discovered the gasket was well and truly stuck. This was a problem as the soft copper boiler would not take well to any levering force, nor would the delicate steam chest take any hammering force. I couldn't remove it by tugging on it and thus I was stumped. The engine sat like this for a few weeks whilst I assessed the options. My father said that a gasket needs to be pealed away, and therefore this was the method I should try next. This was easier said then done and the only way to achieve this would be to pull the chest away from the boiler. I considered a number of different 'frames' to transfer the load to various points on the boiler but nothing really concluded in a sensible option. Therefore I had to use gravity!
I essentially suspended the chest from a shelf above the bench and loaded the boiler by placing some large steel bars in the smoke box. Once the system was loaded I then waited! Now not many mechanical issues 'cure' themselves over night, and to be fair I didn't expect this to work, however I hopefully locked up the workshop and left it to its own devices. The following morning, and to my amazement the boiler had gently dropped the few mm I had left it and the chest was hanging free.
When taking on a project where very little of the history was known, one of the first main jobs is to take the thing apart and spend many hours measuring and inspecting until you are confident that any mating parts can be made to fit and any errors can be chased out. As it turned out and in the light of the very basic kit my grandfather had for marking the overall accuracy was very good and the tolerances between mating parts was excellent.
To keep track of all the parts that were about to be removed from the engine, I invested in a range of different size plastic zip lock bags bought very cheaply off eBay. These turned out to be a great help as not only can the part be given a nice bath in oil, they can be sealed off from the rusty environment and the plastic acts a wrapping so each part was protected from the rest.
The majority of the disassembly was a straight forward affair only requiring light force to remove the tiny screws allowing the parts to be lifted off, measured and bagged. However, it was not all plain sailing.
Steam Chest Removal
At first I was planning to leave the steam chest in place however, when embarking on the pressure test I discovered that the gasket was leaking slightly in the place where realistically only replacement would solve the issue. So it had to come off. I removed all the nuts and studs from round the steam chest and discovered the gasket was well and truly stuck. This was a problem as the soft copper boiler would not take well to any levering force, nor would the delicate steam chest take any hammering force. I couldn't remove it by tugging on it and thus I was stumped. The engine sat like this for a few weeks whilst I assessed the options. My father said that a gasket needs to be pealed away, and therefore this was the method I should try next. This was easier said then done and the only way to achieve this would be to pull the chest away from the boiler. I considered a number of different 'frames' to transfer the load to various points on the boiler but nothing really concluded in a sensible option. Therefore I had to use gravity!
I essentially suspended the chest from a shelf above the bench and loaded the boiler by placing some large steel bars in the smoke box. Once the system was loaded I then waited! Now not many mechanical issues 'cure' themselves over night, and to be fair I didn't expect this to work, however I hopefully locked up the workshop and left it to its own devices. The following morning, and to my amazement the boiler had gently dropped the few mm I had left it and the chest was hanging free.
Once the main parts were removed, i.e. the horn plates, motion, steam chest etc etc, the boiler was sufficiently visible to properly inspect. One issue that would need to be worked around was that the fire box had dropped slightly when being soldered and now sits at a few degrees off of straight. Not ideal, but I'm sure it can be compensated for through the rest of the build.