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1998
~ Mechanical Restoration Started Questions or Comments? Please Email Me!
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| 1999~A | Work Done |
|---|---|
| Friday, January 1 |
Made new bolts (one for each pilot) to hold the nozzle box-pipe to the pilot. Bolts are 3/8"-24 x 2" long with 1-1/8" threaded. Drilled 7/64" hole 1-3/4" axially into the bolt; drilled a 1/16" hole through the bolt mid-way along the unthreaded shaft; and cut 1/16" off the diameter of the bolt for 1/4" length around the 1/16" hole to allow gas vapor to pass through the center of the bolt and out the side to the nozzle pipe. Rough assembled both pilot assemblies for the purpose of seeing what needs to be replaced. Ran flexible wire rope through both nozzle box-pipes to make sure they were not packed with carbon. Located necessary bolts which can be used to replace those in poor condition on the pilots. |
| Saturday, January 2 |
Removed the handle from the old boiler automatic bypass valve shaft and installed the handle on the new stainless steel valve shaft. Reinstalled new valve shaft in brass body, replaced packing, and reinstalled the assembly in the valve body in the dash. Installed two 1/4"-20 all-thread rods at the regulator to hold the regulator cover in place. Rough assembled the boiler-side burner ring so that it can be used to locate holes in the new boiler being built at M&P Custom Design. Will need to be assembled with insulation and proper bolts before final installation under boiler. Disassembled second burner main nozzle for purposes of rebuilding it. |
| Sunday, January 3 |
Investigated how to mount turn signals on rear of car. Loose assembled the spare tire holder and realized the brackets are not identical resulting in a 3"
vertical difference in the spare tire saddle locations. The brackets
differences also cause one bracket to be further away from the rear of the car
than the other thus making the spare tire sit at an angle to the rear of the car
instead of parallel to the rear of the car. Rough installed turn-signal switch unit and cut and painted flexible metal wire conduit. Investigated the wiring arrangement that will work best with the new fuse panel mounted under the dash. For both pilot assemblies, cut down the length of the bolt that holds the pilot nozzle casting to the nozzle box-pipe. Drilled out the clean-out port in the bottom of the pilot nozzle casting -- 1/4" x 20 threads were mostly destroyed so holes were drilled out and tapped for 5/16" x 24 bolts. Assembled parts and pieces for Tony Alvarez to work on -- removal of mixing tube in pilot, specialty 3/8" x 24 hex bolt that interfaces the pilot fuel line to the pilot casting vaporizer porting, pilot casting rear access cover. |
| Sunday, January 10 |
Drilled the firewall and installed the fuse panel. Installed the connection box for the front headlights behind the front license plate panel. Machined the threaded section of the 1/2" x 20 bolts that plug the pilot fuel vaporizer clean-out ports to about the same length as the originals. Wire calculation for 14" length of boiler shell shows 18.5 strands per inch; diameters: 23.054" for the first layer, 23.108" for the second layer, 23.162" for the third layer; circumferences: 72.389" for the first layer, 72.559" for the second layer, 72.729" for the third layer; lengths: 1,568' for the first layer, 1,572' for the second layer, 1,575' for the third layer; 124 feet per pound weight. |
| Tuesday, January 12 |
Machined the hex-head thickness of the 1/2" x 20 bolts that plug the pilot fuel vaporizer clean-out ports to about the same length as the originals. Figured out a set-up to hold the pilot nozzle casting in place on the lathe table so that a cut-off wheel running on the mill/drill head would resurface the seat of the 5/16" x 24 bolt hole. Surfaced one nozzle casting. |
| Wednesday, January 13 |
Surfaced the seat of the 5/16" x 24 bolt hole on the remaining nozzle casting. For the past couple of days Tony Alvarez has had the pilot castings at his home shop attempting to bore out the internal mixing tube so that it can be replaced. The mixing tube is mounted at a slight angle to the flat top surface of the pilot so that any raw pilot fuel getting into the tube will run out and into the air intake. Through much trial and error he and I have worked to having a tapered "T" plug made to fit the end of the existing tube (where the pilot slides onto the guide pin) and a second tapered plug to fit down inside the air intake and plug the internal end of the tube. A 3/8" hole drilled in each plug is intended to provide a path for a rod attached to the mill chuck to run in verifying exact alignment of the centerline of the mixing tube with that of the mill chuck. |
| Saturday, January 16 |
Spent the day at M&P Custom Design. Mike DeFazio welded the 1-1/2" and 1" wide piano wire retaining rings to the bottom and top respectively of the boiler shell. He completed all the remaining welding, clean-up, etc., necessary for the shell and flue sheets. Interesting that both the top and bottom flue sheets have "bellied" inward to the shell about 1/8" at the center with respect to the circumference. As I've seen some of Tom's flue sheets
either concave or convex, I know this to be common. I spent most of the day cutting an additional 375 flue tubes to the proper length and sanding and finishing each end of each tube. The boiler and tubes were brought back to Bruce's shop so that I can work over the next couple of weeks installing the flues. I have to clean any weld slag out of the flue holes, drill both flue sheets for the plumbing fittings (about 10 holes for 1/8", 1/4" and 3/8" pipe), install all the flues, and use the roller to set each flue in the fire-side sheet at a 1/16" lead beyond the face the the sheet for Mike to TIG weld. |
| Sunday, January 17 |
Worked all day cleaning out the flue tube holes in both flue sheets. Slag from the welding process made its way into some hole and needed filing out so that a flue tube would slide through the hole. Also marked the boiler up for the drilling of piping holes. As an experiment to test the Aplexior #1 paint, the inside of a Campbells soup can was coated. Placing the painted can on a hot plate alongside an identical can that is not painted on the interior, both with the same amounts of water in them, should indicate if the paint makes any difference to the heat transfer characteristics of the metal can. I'll monitor the heat rise of the water in both cans and see if any difference exists. To test the rust preventative nature of Aplexior #1 two short pieces of flue tubing material were dipped in the gallon can to paint them inside and out. They will be placed in a plastic container along with a pair of unpainted tubes to see how rusting progresses when both are subjected to water immersion. |
| Wednesday, January 20 |
Drilled and tapped five 1/4" NPT water ports in the burner (bottom) flue sheet. Four will serve as boiler blow-downs and the fifth will include a 3" long stand-pipe that can be used to insure there is at least 3" of water over the flue sheet. Used Bruce's 3/4" Black & Decker magnetic base drill to make the pilot holes prior to tapping. |
| Friday, January 22 |
Drilled and tapped seven steam ports in the smoke box (top) flue sheet. Three are 3/8" NPT and are provided for the main steam supply to the throttle; pressure relief valve, and boiler water feed. Three are 1/8" NPT for the steam side of the water automatic; the syphon and burner main vaporizer enema (both valved); and to supply the steam side of the water indicator, stack blower, pressure automatic, and dash steam pressure gauge. The final steam port is a 1/4" NPT to supply the steam whistle. |
| Saturday, January 23 |
Started installing the flues. The process involves wiping down a flue to remove the oily film from cutting them to length. Then the cleaned flue is inserted through a burner (bottom) flue sheet hole, pushed through the boiler, and using a probe for alignment is inserted to the matching hole in the smoke box (top) flue sheet. It is tapped roughly into place with a hammer. A complete row of flues is inserted as just described and then a 1/16" thick flexible magnetic refrigerator business card is placed alongside the flue on the burner flue sheet. This allows the flue to be tapped with a hammer such that its end can be made even with the surface of the magnetic card. One a complete row is properly set in this manner they are ready for rolling. The flue roller is inserted into the flue and a pneumatic driven socket wrench is placed on the roller drive. When the socket wrench is operated the central pin of the roller "walks" into the roller body causing the roller to expand against the flue. As the roller operates it causes the flue to stretch in the flue sheet hole until it takes up tight. The roller indicates that the flue is fully expanded when the speed of rotation quickly slows. The socket wrench is reversed and the flue roller removed. A complete row of flues is rolled in this manner. 128 flues (8 rows worth starting at one side of the boiler) were installed over about 4 hours, the first flue being installed at 11:00 AM. Spring thaw type of day as it got near 65F and I was able to turn off the heat and open the garage doors after lunch. Once all the flues are in place the boiler will return to Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design so that each flue in the burner flue sheet may be TIG welded. Once the welding is complete the boiler will return for rolling of the flues in the smoke box flue sheet. It is interesting to note that once rolled, hammer tapping of the flue will not move it in the burner flue sheet. The boiler has started to pick up weight as the flues are being added which makes is positioning and movement more difficult as the weight is not evenly distributed until most of the flues are installed. |
| Sunday, January 24 |
Continued installing flues. 177 flues (10 rows starting from the side opposite where flues were installed yesterday) were installed in a little over 5 hours. Total now installed is 305 flues. The boiler is very much heavier to move on the fork lift table. It is not quite as heavy as the 14" high boiler currently in the car but it won't be long before that changes. The roller was disassembled and left soaking in kerosene. No signs of wear were indicated on the shaft and the three rollers look to be fine. Metal shavings from the tubes had gathered inside of the roller shell making it harder to operate. Before continuing with flue insertion the roller will need to be well oiled and then reassembled. Performed a monitored boiling water test on the soup cans where one had the interior painted with Aplexior #1. 250mL water at 68 degrees Fahrenheit was placed in each can; the cans sat on 3/4" washers to improve heat transfer from the hot plate. Water temperature in each can was monitored as was the hot plate surface temperature. At 3 minutes into heating the painted can's water was 1 degree warmer than the non-painted can (painted - 81F, unpainted - 80F, hot plate - 303F). At 11 minutes the difference increased to 2 degrees (painted - 139F, unpainted - 137F, hot plate - 394F). The temperature difference remained the same till 18 minutes into heating when the difference dropped back to 1 degree (painted - 191F, unpainted - 190F, hot plate - 407F). Light boiling started at 20 minutes and by 21 minutes both were boiling well with the two temperatures the same (painted - 197F, unpainted - 197F, hot plate - 411F). A difference in the boiling patterns was noted; the painted can had large bubbles in the boil while the unpainted can had much finer boiling with a slight foam on the surface from the quantity of bubbles. Aplexior's claim that the paint makes heat transfer more efficient seems to be true. |
| Monday, January 25 |
Continued installing flues. 98 flues (4 rows continuing on the side that was started on Saturday) were installed in 3 hours. Total now installed is 403 flues. The following information is stamped on each length of steel tubing from which the flues are cut; BENTELER -- GERMANY -- 0.500" OD X 0.049" -- AVERAGE WALL -- SAE J524 -- AMS 5050T -- A179 -- SA179 Following the above either of the below followed; 579239 -- 8/8 -- WAZ or 302349 -- 348 -- WAZ Catalog information of the tubing indicates it is made from cold drawn 1010 steel (UNS G10100). It is seamless, soft annealed, low-carbon steel for heat exchanger, condenser, or hydraulic fluid line applications and pressure tested to 1000 PSI. It meets AMS 5050-G, JIC Specs and SAE J524. |
| Wednesday, January 27 |
Continued installing flues. 128 flues (5 rows continuing with the side that was started on Sunday and completing at the center row) were installed in 3.5 hours. Total now installed is 531 flues which leaves 105 remaining to do. With the flue sheets being slightly concave the flues at the center of the boiler are projecting out of the smoke box flue sheet more than flues at the perimeter. This will mean that they will be a problem to roll and flare if they are not shortened. The excess length is about 3/8". Working with Tony Alvarez, we fixed up a 3/4" counterbore with a custom pilot bit sized to just fit inside the flue. I tried it with Bruce's 1/2" pneumatic drill and it seems to work fine for cutting down the flue. It leaves the end a bit jagged with metal flashing at the OD. A light sanding with a disk sander and relatively fine sanding disk should do fine once they are trimmed to the proper length. A collar will need to be fabricated to fit over the counterbore and act as a stop so that all flues can be trimmed to the same length. I'll have to work out a design that allows the chips to clear so that it can be fabricated. While the drill was slow speed I believe its speed to be a little faster than we really should be using so a regulator in the airline should cut the flow to the desired speed. |
| Thursday, January 28 |
Completed installing the remaining flues; the last tube expanded at 3:30PM. 105 flues (4 rows continuing with the side that was started on Saturday and completing with the center row) were installed in 3 hours. |
| Friday, January 29 |
Using a custom punch that Tony Alvarez machined, the rolled end of each tube was slightly flared in the burner flue sheet. Painted the boiler shell with 1,200 degree Fahrenheit black paint to keep it from rusting. There is a nice bell-like ring to the flue sheet and shell when struck with a hammer. Looked up Elliott Tool Technologies on the internet. Found an extensive web page of their products. I contacted them by e-mail to see if they had any additional information regarding the tube rollers they produce. Keith Mitchell of Elliott called back to discuss operation of my tubing expander. Elliott recommends using a torque limited method of tube rolling where the rolling process is halted when the torque required to turn the center pin of the roller exceeds a given amount. The amount of rolling is determined by taking the initial ID of the tube, adding the amount the tube is to be expanded based on Elliott recommendations, and setting the torque limit for the roller drive to halt when the desired expansion ID is reached. Either pneumatic or electric roller drive motors may be used. Elliott is mailing their technical literature on rolling of tubes to me along with their product catalog. Based on Elliott's recommendations, my tubes with a 0.500" OD, 0.402" ID, and 0.049" wall thickness should be expanded to 0.410" ID nominal. Should they be expanded to 0.420" ID then the possibility exists for adjacent tubes to be affected through deformation of the tube sheet holes. Using a set of inside diameter micrometers, I measured the rolled end of tubes for expansion data. Readings of a random sample of rolled tubes (on the order of 10% over all parts of the tube sheet) provided expansion measurements between 0.410" ID and 0.413" ID as typical. A low of 0.408" ID and a high of 0.416" ID were observed. The base diameter of unexpanded sections of tubes provided measurements of 0.401" ID to 0.403" ID. |
| Saturday, January 30 |
Delivered the boiler to Mike DeFazio
at M&P Custom Design for welding the flue tubes to the burner flue sheet. Picked
up the four unused 20' lengths of 1/2" steel tubing that the flues were cut from
from M&P; sprayed a light coating of CR-56 on them to inhibit them from rusting;
wrapped them as a bundle with paper towels; stored them in the rafters of the
garage. Installed the decorative cover around the winker in the dash. Installed the dash light. John & Mark Hopkins dropped by driving Tom Marshall's 1913 Model 76. Interesting to see the steam plume trailing about two car lengths behind in the 38 degree weather as they pulled away. |
| Sunday, January 31 |
Completed installation of the cable harness from the dash to the headlight junction box at the front of the car. Made up the flexible cable shields for the circuitry from the dash to the stoplight switch and on back to the stoplight. |
| Saturday, February 6 |
One of those days were a lot more time is spend thinking about what and how to do what has to be done than actually getting things done. Soldered ring terminals on the wires to the dash light switch and installed the light switch assembly in the dash. Mounted a "T" electrical junction box under the floorboards near the brake rigging for the brake light circuit. Routed the tail light and brake light flexible conduit and wiring from the dash to the "T" electrical junction box. Soldered the various circuit wires to their respective fuses on the fuse panel. |
| Sunday, February 7 |
With the exception of the horn circuit (which needs the horn rebuilt, the floorboard switch installed, resistor for 6-volt operation, and the wiring done) all dash wiring is complete. Installed the ground block under the dash and terminated all the various ground leads. Connected the remaining circuits to their respective fuses on the fuse panel. Mounted and wired the accessory jack which is a conventional cigarette lighter receptacle and will be used as a charging jack for the battery as well as a jack to connect accessories such as trouble lights. Bolted the fuse panel to its mounting location under the dash. Will need to add a couple wire-ties to keep things in place once the fuel & steam lines are in place under the dash. Installed the ammeter and connected it to its leads. Wiring remaining to be completed includes termination of the generator leads, horn circuit, stop light switch and wiring to the stop/tail light, turn signal mounting and wiring to their junction box, and installation of the battery and its connection to the regulator enclosure under the back seat. Mounted the speedometer permanently in the dash. Mounted the steam gauge and fuel gauge into the dash -- still need to connect the tubing lines to them. The dash is complete with the exception of the pilot thermal meter. |
| Saturday, February 13 |
Stopped by M&P Custom Design to see how boiler welding was progressing. Mike DeFazio had not started the welding but was prepared to weld. He welded about two dozen tubes to see how things went. Mike planned on welding the rest of the afternoon as well as some on Sunday. Connected the steam tubing between the firewall bulkhead connection and the back of the steam gauge. Connected the pilot fuel and main fuel gauge lines between the air fill valves under the floorboards at the firewall and the ports on the pilot/main fuel gauge. Worked on the lathe to shorten the two 5/16" x 24 bolts which will plug the holes on each pilot nozzle casting. Also machined an adapter tube to insert at the end of each main burner nozzle assembly where the nozzle assembly fits to the end of the vaporizer with a copper washer as a seal. |
| Tuesday, February 16 |
Cut-down two 1/2" x 20 bolts to length and drilled and tapped them to 1/4" x 20 internal threads. They will be used on the main burner nozzle tubes opposite the gas nozzles to hold the pin which serves to clean out the nozzle hole. Also cut-down two 5/16" bolts to serve the same purpose for the pilot nozzles. |
| Saturday, February 20 |
Picked up the boiler from Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design after all the flues had been welded into the burner flue sheet. Set-up for trimming the flues projecting from the smoke box flue sheet to 1/4" length. |
| Sunday, February 21 |
Started trimming smoke box flue projections to 1/4" length. Noted with the 2nd flue that lubrication of the pilot would be needed. A slight galling was occurring with the pilot. Trimmed 140 flues in about 2 hours. Flues will need to be slightly countersunk to remove the ID burrs and a slight countersinking of the OD as well to remove burrs before flaring can be accomplished. The flues at the piping ports and at the very perimeter of the flue sheet will not trim due to the height of the pipe hole plugs or the welded bead that attached the flue sheet to the shell. Will need to go back at the end of the trimming process, remove the stop collar from the countersink, and trim these flues to height by sight. With the 141st flue the steel pilot galled and locked into the flue. Inspection revealed the pilot had a sizable splinter at the end and it had dug into the flue rather badly thus distorting the OD of the flue to some extent. Decided to replace the flue. Removal required driving out out the flue from the burner end of the boiler. Ground off the weld at the burner flue sheet and drilled the flue in the burner flue sheet with a 1/2" bit. Was able to drive the flue from the boiler. The burner flue sheet hole is a bit ragged from the drilling and grinding and will need to be filed somewhat back to smooth. A replacement flue will be cut from the stock left over, inserted in the boiler and flared at both ends; and it will need to be TIG welded back into the boiler by Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design. Will have Tony make a new stainless steel pilot for the flue trimmer and a part of that design will be to have him taper the ends. |
| Wednesday, February 24 |
Had Tony Alvarez make up a new pilot for the counterbore. This time the diameter was reduced to 0.390" OD (was 0.395" OD on the first version) and the pilot was made of stainless steel. Tried the new pilot and had a bind-up on the first tube where the pilot contacts the counterbore. Believed that to be caused by the cutting action of the counterbore and the chips getting into the space between the tube and pilot. On the 15th tube another seizure occurred. Not quite as bad as the previous one but bad enough that the tube needed replacement. The scored tube was removed -- having done one and having learned in the process it was much easier. I ground down the weld on the surface of the burner flue sheet. I then ground out the weld from the ID of the tube without cutting into the tube wall. Starting with a 13/32nds drill (0.406") and stepping up by 1/32" (0.0312") drilled the tube free. It was then pushed out and the flue sheet hole finally drilled to 1/2" diameter. In thinking about the design of the pilot I believe that the problem is the heating going on during cutting along with the friction between the pilot and the inside of the tube wall softening the pilot and/or tube. A little metal that is hot from the cutting action gets into that space and a seizure occurs. A new pilot design that has a 0.25" drill rod as the shaft on the end of the counterbore running in a 0.395" OD x 0.25" ID x 3" long Teflon sleeve may solve the problem. The intent is to have the drill rod act as an axle inside the Teflon sleeve while the sleeve stays stationary in the flue tube. Using a spring to keep the Teflon sleeve some distance from the end of the counterbore should allow room for the metal shavings to accumulate while not interfering with the rotation of the counterbore. |
| Saturday, February 27 |
New pilot design works well. At least it did until the counterbore got dull enough that the ends were being ground down rather than cut down. 93 tubes were trimmed. There's about 5/16" of length being removed from the center tubes due the the concaveness of the flue sheets at the center axis of the boiler. To sharpen the counterbore's three cutters the 3-jaw chuck is mounted on the rotating index which is then mounted to the cross slide on the lathe. A carborundum grinding drum is fixed in the mill chuck and the mill tilted at a couple degrees to match the rake of the cutter. The counterbore is moved under the rotating grinding drum for sharpening. The set-up works well with one pass sharpening a counterbore cutter. Indexing of the counterbore by 120-degrees allows the next cutter to be sharpened. This set-up should insure that all three cutters on the counterbore are sharpened to the same height so all three cutters cut equal. Purchased a 1/2" wood plug cutter for removing the burrs from the tube OD after shortening. The plug cutter was put in the lathe and a slight angle machined into the ID of the cutter so as to slip over the end of each tube. The edge that cuts the wood was ground away to give the cutter a flat bottom. The cutter is put on the OD of the tube after the ID has been deburred with a countersink; the air drill run and the cutter wobbled over the tube end to remove all the burr. |
| Sunday, February 28 |
The two sharpened counterbores worked well. The sharpening set-up is fine. Across the center (diameter) area of the boiler it appears that only two rows of tubes can be trimmed before the counterbore needs sharpening. Cutting oil is being used and makes cutting go a little faster and seems to help keep the counterbore sharper longer. 127 tubes were trimmed with two counterbores. There is a lot of pushing needed to trim the tubes and the vibration and pressure is hard on the hands. Putting a pressure regulator set to 75 PSI just before the air drill slows the cutter to a good speed for the trimming operation. All trimmed tubes had the burrs removed from the ID with a countersink and from the OD with the dowel plug cutter that I modified. The next boiler -- if I ever do a next boiler -- I'll be sure to see that the tubes are closer to the correct length prior to their placement in the boiler. The problem this time was the assumption that the two flue sheets would remain flat after welding. Their slight concave shape (about 1/8" on either end) was was enough to make the tubes too long at the center of the boiler but the right length (1/4" extends beyond the smoke box flue sheet) at the perimeter. Didn't get as much done as hoped as the heavy rains gave PECO energy an electrical problem somewhere that resulted in the electric being off for just over 2 hours. Set up the tube roller and rolled 53 tubes. Have decided to use the mechanical method to roll the tubes whereby a stack of washers is placed between the mandrel drive shank and the back of the roller cage & bearing assembly. Nineteen 0.217" ID x 0.50" OD x 0.052" thick flat washers were needed to provide an expansion of 0.412" to the tube ID. The 0.412" ID roll dimension is based on the Elliott formula for a tube 0.500" OD x 0.402" ID in a 0.500" ID flue hole. Actual measurements indicate the flue holes to be 0.501" ID to 0.503" ID while the tubes are running 0.499" OD to 0.500: OD with the inner wall running 0.400" ID to 0.402" ID. Tube compression for a steel tube in the flue sheet is recommended to be 7% to 8%. Operation of the roller was found to be best with Bruce's right-angle 3/8" air drill. The air pressure was regulated to about 60 PSI such that by the time the washers became tight on the mandrel the torque had increased enough that the drill would either stop or the mandrel would just start to slip very slowly. When the drill is first operated and the roller is loose the mandrel speed is fast. Once the tube has been expanded and makes contact with the flue sheet the rolling speed slows considerably and continues to slow and the tube wall is slightly crushed against the flue sheet. The limited air supply provides a rough torque control of the rolling while the washers on the mandrel provide for a positive stop when the tube is expanded to the proper amount. The concern is not to over-roll a tube too much and start a deformation of the six tubes that surround it so that they may leak. After rolling the rolled tube ends are flared to a 45-degrees cone with the special drift I had Tony Alvarez make for the purpose. |
| Tuesday, March 2 |
Trimmed an additional 177 tubes to length in 3 hours time using both counterbores. Five rows of tubes remain along with tubes around the perimeter where the weld slopes do not allow trimming to proper length. For these tubes the stop will need to be removed and the height trimmed by eye to those already trimmed tubes in the same area. The Teflon sleeve on the pilot has taken its share of wear. It is mostly down to 0.380" OD from its original 0.395" OD when Tony Alvarez made it. As the trimmer shortens the tube a burr is created both inside and outside the tube. Pulling the trimmer pilot out of the tube when trimming is complete means that the ID burr needs to be pushed out of the way. As the pilot comes past the burr, the burr acts as a knife edge and shaves a small amount of the Teflon off the pilot. After 2/3rds of the tubes being trimmed nearly 15-thousands of the diameter of the Teflon sleeve has been shaved off. As the trimmer wants to wobble more in the tube than it was originally a new sleeve needs to be made as a replacement. I'm tempted to try something like brass for the sleeve but I think any hard plastic will work well if it will stand up to the little bit of heat generated and won't start to foul with the metal chips. |
| Thursday, March 4 |
Trimmed the remaining flues to the proper length in 3.5 hours of work. |
| Friday, March 5 |
Rolled 177 tubes. Cut to length and installed replacement flues for the two flues that were damaged during trimming. Cut to length and prepared two copper tubes for the heat exchanger in preparation for silver soldering. |
| Saturday, March 6 |
Took boiler back to Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design for welding two replacement tubes to the burner flue sheet. Also had the 3/4" steel rod welded to one of the plates that will be used to handle the boiler; the second 3/4" steel rod had a washer welded to the end so that it may be removed from the steel plate. Left the tubing for the heat
exchanger water line for silver soldering. Discussed water tank construction. Rolled the remaining flues (about 4 hours work). Flared approximately half the flues at the smoke box flue sheet. Pressurized the boiler to 50 PSI with air to check for bad leaks. A couple flues were leaking air but additional expansion with the boiler taper punch resolved the leaks. |
| Sunday, March 7 |
Completed flaring the remaining flues at the smoke box flue sheet. Assembled the 1/4" steel plates with 3/4" shafts to the flue sheets using six 1/4" all-thread rod sheathed in 3/8" OD x 1/4" ID plastic tubing inserted into six of the boiler flues. Rigged the boiler to the propane fork lift forks and poured the gallon of Aplexor #1 into the boiler. Rotated the boiler in both directions to distribute the paint internal to the boiler. Rigged the boiler such that the smoke box flue sheet was down so that the excess paint could drain. |
| Tuesday, March 9 |
Hooked up a small low-pressure, low-volume air compressor to the boiler to effect a change of air inside to improve the drying of the interior paint. Air compressor operates from a time clock with a four hour on and four hour off duty cycle. John Elenbark constructed a mechanical poster board model of the pump drive shaft cover between the pump drive gearbox and the pump box to check fit before actual sheet metal pieces are fabricated. Fit was perfect. Original cover was single piece but for the new one (original was lost somewhere along the line) it will be a two-piece assembly. |
| Friday, March 12 |
Created two 1/2" x 1/2" x 3" connector blocks that mount to the pilot casting and connect to the 3/8" pilot fuel line. |
| Saturday, March 13 |
Assembled wooden "reel" to hold piano wire for unrolling when boiler is wrapped. Located some dowel pins to act as pegs to secure the piano wire to the 1/2" thick steel bands that are at either end of the boiler. Located 3/8" copper tubing nuts for each of the 1/2" x 1/2" x 3" connector blocks that mount to the pilot casting and connect to the 3/8" pilot fuel line. Ground the 1/4" hole end of the blocks to a radius. Blocks are now ready for Anthony Alvarez to thread. Took the 2" brass pipe fittings for the water tank to Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design. There is the concern that the 2" pipe plug that I have may stick down too far and be a caught on something in the road. Mike indicated that a 2" fill cap from a fuel oil tank might be better suited for my need. I am going to try and locate some. Small air compressor continues to provide air to the boiler on a four hour on, four hour off cycle. |
| Tuesday, March 16 |
Created two 9/16" hex pieces that connect the 1/2" x 1/2" x 3" connector blocks to the pilot casting. Pieces are 3/8" OD on either end with a 5/16" x 24 ID thread on one end and a 3/8" x 24 OD thread on the opposite end. |
| Thursday, March 18 |
Procured on a scrap pass a Bodine DC drive and controller card from a DuPont DDP x-ray film processor being scrapped at work. Unit operates from
120 volts and drove the film rollers. Duplicated the applicable pages from the Service Manual for reference. Motor specifications: 83 RPM, 135 lb-in (11.25 lb-ft) rated torque, 318 lb-in (26.5 lb-ft) peak torque, 130 VDC winding, 1.8 amperes, 30:1 gear ratio, p/n 42A5BEPM-E3 Cleaned up the motor and mounting base of film processor chemicals. Attached a line cord for 120VAC and bench tested unit. Had Tony Alvarez make up a coupling out of a piece of 1-1/4" steel round stock with 3/4" holes in either end. I drilled and tapped the coupling for 1/4" x 20 set-screws. Unit will operate from a small variable transformer so it will be possible to vary the voltage to the drive board and control the speed of the unit. At full line voltage adjusted the control pots for a high speed at maximum autotransformer output setting. |
| Saturday, March 20 |
There are days that things seem to go
well and then there are days like today. While nothing went really wrong,
winding the piano wire on the boiler did have its share of problems. The day
started with a visit to M&P Custom Design to deliver the drain plugs for the
water tank. Mike DeFazio has not welded the heat exchanger piping nor has work
on the tank started. Good thing that I'm not waiting on their completion but
then quality work does take time and that's what is more important. Mike did TIG
weld the two main burner nozzle cleaners that I'm working on so that machining
can continue. I guess when I went to start the propane fork truck and the battery was totally dead that I should have realized the day was to be wrought with problems. With the battery charger connected I proceeded to disconnect the boiler from the air compressor and move it to the main shop where the wire wrapping would be done. The two steel plates that will tension the wire during wrapping were drilled for 1/4" bolts and a groove was cut into one plate for the wire to ride in. The bundle of wire was then unwrapped and the end located. Unfortunately it would be part way through the winding of the first layer that I would realize that I hadn't found the tail for the OD of the roll but rather the tail for the ID of the roll. Now with the propane fork truck runnable it was relocated in the main shop and the boiler was positioned on the forks. The mounting plate was attached in reverse to the DC drive motor such that it hung below the fork but when the motor runs the plate rides into the fork thus locking the motor and allowing the boiler to rotate. The motor hangs at the end of the shaft free-floating in space since the shafts are not perfect in alignment and the motor can move to compensate. The next task was to drill the six holes needed for the roll pins to which the wire will attach. My drill bits are dull and it took several of Bruce's bits of different sizes before I could get holes deep enough for the 3/16" roll pins I'd be using. Next task was to make a loop in the end of the wire once the roll was in position on the electric fork truck forks and routed through the tension plates. It took a couple of tries heating the wire cherry red to make it softer to bend and making the end loop before I got the process down. Actual winding of the wire on the shell went well to start as the drive was only run at a low level so that the wire could be positioned between the pins and the boiler shell at the start of the wind. Wire wrapping started at the burner flue sheet end of the shell. Once clear of the pins I attempted to add a little more power to the drive motor but the circuit breaker kept tripping. The breaker is one ampere and the nameplate rating of the motor is 1.3 amperes. A trip home was necessary to get the bench variac which has a much higher ampacity. It works fine and a voltage of 60 VAC provides sufficient power to the drive motor to wrap the wire. The fact that the boiler axle plates were cut square and not triangular as I had designed them makes the boiler have a heavy side. The rotation is slower while the heavy side's weight must be raised by the motor but the boiler's rotational speed picks up when the heavy side's gravity can add to the power of the electric motor. During wrapping problems started to develop with the spool of wire due to the fact that I was pulling wire from the ID of the coil and not the OD of the coil. Bruce, in attempting to help, thought a little more speed on the drive would help and this along with my first of may wire snags on the roll inadvertently allowed the wire to not roll properly on the boiler shell. While rather tight, the snags created "lumps" in the wire which made it difficult to tension on the boiler shell. I got this worked out and winding the rest of the boiler shell's first layer went well. I made stops to insure the wire coming from the roll was feeding acceptably and that the layers on the boiler shell were tight to each other. All in all the first layer appears tight and looks rather good except for some raised strands due to the wire's bending during snagging on the roll. The second layer was wrought with problems. The uneven form of the initial wrapping of the first layer did not allow the second layer to form properly. I also found that I had compressed the first layer too much and that I couldn't get all the wire to lay properly. Removal of one ring of wire on the first layer corrected the problem but also allowed the wire to be a bit looser than ideal. After several attempts to get a good start on the second layer the boiler was turned 180-degrees on the forks and I started wrapping the second layer from the smoke box flue sheet end of the boiler where the first layer had ended wrapping. Only partway into the second layer's wrapping the wire supply roll really started to screw up. The couple of times I took the wire off the shell and rerolled it onto the roll didn't help and now several large loose loops of wire had formed. I now had a snag that looked at first like the complete second layer would need to be removed and the wire roll would need to be totally uncoiled and recoiled on some sort of drum. I found how the snag had occurred and was able to undo it. A couple of strings wrapped around the larger loops to hold them to the side of my homemade spool appears to keep things in order. Of course now the end of the roll that I should have been using has come out of the roll and wants to flop around. If I can get through the rolling of the second layer I may give serious consideration to using this end for wrapping of the third layer. Only real concern is that the roll now appears really messed up and I may be better to stay with the end I am using. I'm not sure I can get the OD end of wire out of all the loops it has managed to get entwined with. As the wire unrolls it is necessary to keep a constant vigil on the supply roll to insure one of the loops doesn't get caught and cause a severe kink or a knot. At 5:30 PM it was time to stop, clean-up and leave for dinner at Mom & Dad's. Jennifer & Brittany were waiting to ride with me so with about half the second layer in place everything was shut down. A couple of #3 Phillips screwdrivers were placed in the flues and against the forks to keep the boiler from turning while the tension clamp was tightened to keep the wire from going slack and loosing tension on the boiler. Red shop cloths were hung on the wire as a warning that it was hanging through space. Hopefully my luck will be better on Sunday. |
| Sunday, March 21 |
Today turned out to be a continuation
of Saturday. The rest of the second layer was rolled on top of the first layer
but problems developed near the burner flue sheet end of the boiler due to the
looseness of the first layer. It became impossible to wrap the second layer in a
proper fashion over the first layer. As the supply roll continued to foul during the winding of the second layer even more than it had done on Saturday I decided the best course of action would be to simply wind all the wire onto the boiler shell then to backwind it onto a better spool. It only took a short time before the supply spool became hopelessly entangled to the point that further progress was impossible. The only solution, cut the wire. At this point I really figured that it might be best to order all new wire and have it come spooled so that I could start this process over from the start. Once the wire was cut the next step was to get what was on the boiler off -- both layers. As Bruce had an old wire spool from the tig welder the wire was unwrapped from the boiler and onto this spool. A quite tedious process as the spool was only a foot in diameter with the core perhaps six inches in diameter. Once both layers were on the spool I decided to rewrap the first layer since there was enough wire. I'd do the second layer as well since there should have been more than enough for that layer as well. The first layer was wrapped with much more tension than before. The drive now ran at 80 to 90 volts to overcome the tension. This layer wrapped much better than tit had the first time. While it would have been nice to have perhaps another wrap available to fill out to the 1/2" steel band, the tail turned out to be about six inches longer than needed as a result of the tighter winding that had taken place. Once terminated the second layer was applied. It too went smoothly with the only problem being the drive was now overheating from the increased loading and it was necessary to take a break and cool the drive core with a flow of compressed air. As it was time to quit and clean up no more was accomplished. The question remains as to if it would be a wise move to try and untangle the remaining spool of wire and use it or simply order a replacement length for the top layer. My thought is to attempt to untangle the roll as I do not believe it to be all that bad yet and with the small welding wire spool it may be easy to accomplish. |
| Friday, March 26 |
Machined the 1/4"-20 clean-out screws for the main burner nozzles. With the exception of the cutting to length of the threaded ends and the locking of the acorn nut on the end of the threaded end, the main burner nozzles are ready for installation in the burner. One will go on the burner the other will be an in-car spare. Joh Elenbark fabricated a matching set of pump drive rod covers. The covers go between the rear axle where the pump drive is located and the back of the pump box. The covers required a compound bend as the end are ovals of different diameters where the cover attaches to the drive case or a flange on the pump box. Quite a fantastic bending job. |
| Saturday, March 27 |
Rather slow day. Wire for the boiler is in a UPS distribution warehouse in Illinois having been shipped from Connecticut so continued boiler work is not possible. The heat exchanger tubing still is not welded at M&P Custom Design so reassembly of the feed water heat exchanger is not possible. As the old boiler needs to be removed from the car, that was accomplished today. All the fittings and plumbing was disconnected and the boiler lifted from the car. When the new boiler is finished it will be possible to simply drop it in place. Glass beaded the two water pumps to clean them up a bit. Primed the pump drive covers so they wouldn't rust. Generally cleaned up the garage area. Machined a pair of 5/16"-24 bolts with 1/8" ID axial holes and a 3/32" cross hole that will hold the 1/2" x 1/2" pilot feed to its mounting bolt. |
| Sunday, March 28 |
Assembled the pump drive covers and drilled the flanges for 1/4" x 20 bolts. Cut the top flange in the area of the engine cross-rod. Removed the flange from the inside cover while bending the outside cover's flange over the inside cover to close the opening. Drilled the pump drive cover for a pair of 3/16" dowel pins to hold the covers in place. Sanded and painted both covers flat black. |
| Wednesday, March 31 |
Tony Alvarez completed all work associated with the two pilot castings. The internal mixing tubes are complete and in place. The 1" square access cover has the three new mounting screw locations (the existing screw locations were badly stripped. Opened up the inside diameter of #10 copper washers for the nozzle casting plug bolts, the bolt that holds the 1/2" x 1/2" pilot fuel supply to the hex standoff, and for the hex standoff. |
| Friday, April 2 |
Wound the new roll of wire onto an old MIG welding wire spool. Wire is supplied as a donut and one free end is at the bottom of the coil while the other free end is at the top of the coil as it lays on the floor. It is not wound from ID to OD as originally assumed for the first coil. A propane tank was placed in the ID of the coil and the spool was laid flat on the top of the tank. The wire was lifted around the OD of the tank and onto the spool as the spool was rotated. All 30 pounds filled the spool. Wound the third and final layer of wire on the boiler. Put #6 sheet metal screws with flat washers into the roll pins to keep the wire ends from popping off the roll pins. Wound a run of soft wire around each set of three pins and through the piano wire loops to insure everything remains intact. Disassembled the complete winding set-up and put everything back in storage for a future time. Boiler was positioned on its side on the forks of the electric fork truck in preparation for the hydrostatic pressure testing. Coated all the boiler port plugs with pipe dope and tightened them in place. Installed the 600 PSI gauge, a 3/8" tubing port for connection to the hand pressure pump, and a pressure release valve at the top of the boiler. The preliminary pressure test to 250 PSI indicates that there are several flues leaking at the smoke box flue sheet. Rolling should tighten these sufficiently. The real surprise was the numerous fine mist leaks at the burner flue sheet. The leaks seem to be coming from the pinholes in the weld rings. As the hand pressure pump check valves are not holding it was difficult to maintain boiler pressure for more than 30 seconds. The pressure was also enough to cause the pump handle to want to blow back out of the pump. A pressure valve between the boiler and pump should correct much of this problem so that testing can be carried out in more earnest. I made a phone call to Tom Marshall about the mist leaks. Tom believes I should either attempt to caulk them like a steam locomotive boiler is caulked or have the welds touched up as necessary. There is a remote possibility that the boiler simply rusting may be sufficient to close them. Tom indicates that his experience is that if a flue sheet is simply "wet" during the hydrostatic test that it will usually self-seal when fired. Spraying leaks must be corrected. |
| Saturday, April 3 |
Played with pressure testing of the boiler. First on the agenda was installation of a valve in the line between the pump and the boiler that could be closed to prevent water from bleeding back through the pump check valves. I found that getting much more than 400 PSI was impossible due to leaks on both flue sheets. I attempted to roll a couple of the more leaky flues and found that the removal of two of the washers on the roller (now 17 washers instead of the 19 originally used for the rolling process) seemed to seal the flues so they would stop leaking. This made the ID of the rolled tube about 0.414 inches (whereas the first rolling produced 0.412 inches -- see February 28). All of the flues were rerolled to the new roller setting. After all flues were rolled the pressure was able to be raised to about 600 PSI for a very short period. Leaking at the hand pump valve dropped the pressure to 100 PSI in about 30 seconds. A slightly longer handle will improve operation. An 1/8-inch ball valve was used between the pump and boiler and it leaked at pressures over 400 PSI so a standard rotating handle valve with a seat similar to a Stanley valve was installed. The pump was mounted to a 1" x 8" x 4' board for better stability during pumping. This arrangement allowed me to get the pressure up well over 600 PSI and for it to drop to 300 PSI in about a minute. I'll need to get a higher pressure gauge for continued testing. With the rerolling of the smoke box flue sheet the leaks here are basically stopped. One or two flues do create a drop of water and if these don't completely seal during the first firing it will be rather easy to insert the roller and tighten them a little more. This leaves the burner flue sheet leaks to deal with. About six or eight flues actually have pinhole streams of water flowing out of a bubble in the welds. Others seem to be leaking but it is difficult to tell where. Setting the boiler on the smoke box flue sheet and pressurizing it may reveal where these leaks are. I'll need to talk with Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom to see how to approach touching up the welds which are still leaking. At least it didn't go into a loud bang when the pressures went above 600 PSI which will be the normal operating pressure for the car. |
| Sunday, April 4 |
Removed another washer from the roller and rolled perhaps a dozen flues which still showed droplets forming. All that now shows at 600 PSI are a handful of flues that are wet but not dripping water. Two 1/4" plugs were removed from the burner flue sheet so that the boiler could drain of water. As repair of the welds will require the boiler to be placed on its smoke box flue sheet end, the boiler was prepared for turning. Disconnected the copper line between the boiler and the hand pump and removed the 600 PSI pressure gauge. The plug in the 3/8" steam port at the center of the smoke box flue sheet was replaced with a standard valve for draining the water out of the boiler once it was turned on its top. All other ports were plugged. The 1/8" plug that had its Allen socket stripped was removed and replaced with an 1/8" plug with a hex head. The pressure gauge and water feed ports were plugged with hex-head brass plugs. The boiler was flipped onto its smoke box flue sheet end and placed on 1x2s to keep the flues from contacting the forks of the electric fork truck. The wire was coated with WD-40 for protection and wrapped with plastic stretch wrap to keep any water that might run over the edges during hydrostatic testing from getting into the wire wrappings. The pressure gauge and water feed line was reconnected and the boiler filled with water. A pressure test better revealed the flues which have leaking welds. There are three or four that have fine streams spraying while there's perhaps upwards of two dozen that have minute weeping occurring. |
| Monday, April 5 |
Completed the opening up of the ID on the copper washers to fit all the bolts, etc. that are part of the pilots. |
| Friday, April 9 |
Machined a pair of pilot nozzle clean-out screws. |
| Saturday, April 10 |
Worked with Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design at Bruce's to weld the leaking flues. The hand pressure pump I had assembled failed (again) this time through the bending of the 1/4" plate and the twisting of the two 1/4" supports to the cylinder casing. Had to borrow Tom Marshall's pump as an emergency replacement. The boiler was tested to 1000PSI. After numerous tests all flues which had leaking welds were rewelded. Mike indicated that 4130T filler rod had been selected for the TIG welding of the flues. This rod had too much impurity allowing minute bubbles to form in the weld as it cooled. For the filling of welds that leaked he later used stainless filler which did not seem to leave inclusions in the weld. Test Data at one minute increments; 1000, 920, 860, 820, 770, 730, 680, 640, 590, 550, 500 (10 minutes). The leak-down was occurring at the hand pressure pump due to no valve and the check valves slowly leaking back There was no water showing on the boiler flue sheets nor dripping on the floor. One of the contributing factors to the weld leaks is that the flues are not rolled as tight on the bottom flue sheet. These flues were rolled before the proper rolling ID had been determined via pressure testing. The better way to construct the boiler is to install all tubes and perform a low level pressure test (possibly only to operating pressures). Determine if additional rolling is required and basically get the boiler and flues to hold some level of pressure. Once this is complete, perform the burner flue sheet welding. Once the welding is complete the boiler can be retested to higher pressures and the smoke box flue sheet rerolled as necessary to insure a watertight boiler construction. |
| Sunday, April 11 |
Cleaned up from yesterday's pressure testing operation. Disassembled the hand pump that I had made so that it can be beefed-up even more. Worked on assembling the two pilots into the burner checking for fit, etc. Found the vaporizer plug at the side of the pilot casting will need to be cut down to no more than .160 from the face of the port. The 1/2" square fuel feed to the pilot casting projects beyond the end of the main burner casting so the hex standoff will require shorting by 3/16" in order that the pilot access door may be closed. Each of the two main burner nozzle assemblies were installed on the burner and fit reasonably well. It was discovered that both contain holes in the in-feed pipe that mates to the new stainless steel block. The flexing of the tubing necessary to properly align each nozzle was enough to open holes in the infeed tubing of each nozzle assembly. Both showed signs of previous repair. I would have thought I would have discovered this problem before now. As both look like the pipe is not in a robust enough condition for TIG welding repair a new set of in-feed blocks and tubing will be made and welded onto the existing main burner nozzle assembly. Annealed the batch of copper washers that will be used at various locations on the burner. Initially used the rosebud end on the acetylene torch however it almost instantly heated the washers such that the cherry-red condition couldn't be determined before some started melting. A standard propane torch was next used and it allows for a more slower heating to occur. Once cherry-red the washers were dipped into a water bath for immediate cooling. Originally not able to be bent in the fingers, it was now much easier to bed the washers by hand. |
| Thursday, April 15 |
Machined the pair of pilot nozzle clean-out bolts and dry-fitted both assemblies. |
| Friday, April 16 |
Machined a pair of 5/8" diameter cylinders to replace the ones at the ends of the existing main burner nozzles when the 1/2" tubing is replaced. Shortened the hex standoffs for the pilot fuel infeed connections to fit properly in the burner casting. Shortened the 1/2" square pilot fuel infeed connection attachment bolts. Machined down the heads of both right rear 1/2" x 20 pilot casting clean-out bolts to 0.160" thick. |
| Saturday, April 17 |
Coated the boiler wire with a generous coating of steam oil. Applied a single 1/2" thick layer of high temperature ceramic fiber insulation blanket to the boiler and covered it with 304 stainless steel pipe insulation 0.010 thick x 14" wide x 7' long. Installed the boiler in the car (12:20PM). Installed all the boiler restraint clamps. Reinstalled and reconnected the burner fluesheet blowdown piping. Tom Marshall dropped by for a short visit to check on progress. Tom raised the concern that the stainless steel covering on the boiler might not allow the insulation to breathe and might cause the wire to rust prematurely. Tom indicated that on boilers with a pair of 2" wide steel bands to hold the asbestos insulation in place he has seen the wire under the bands rusted while the rest was still clean and bright. As I intend to insulate over the stainless steel it may not pose the problem it does when the bands are on the surface. I'll have to watch how the boiler wire does over use. Traced the spare tire bracket onto grid paper and made a drawing of it for Tony Alvarez to use in fabricating a new pair of brackets. New design uses a 3/8" thick steel plate that is triangular in shape and has a 1" diameter steel rod welded to it. The spare tire "shoe" will fasten to the 1" rod as is currently done. Between the welding of the rod to the plate and some plastic body filler I believe a pair of replacements may be fabricated close to the originals in appearance. |
| Sunday, April 18 |
Figured up what piping is needed for the higher boiler and put together an order for McMaster-Carr. As the new boiler is 2" higher than the one previously in the car, the support rod for the throttle will need to be longer. Cut the 1/2" OD tubing off of both main burner nozzles and cut to length and flared the replacement tubing lengths. The new tubing will be TIG welded to the existing nozzle casting and to the new 5/8" steel infeeds Fit the superheater ring to the underside of the boiler. Cut a fifth opening in the superheater ring sidewall for the added blowdown valve which will indicate at least 4" on water in the boiler. The ring is ready for insulation, mounting to the underside of the boiler, and the installation of the superheater piping. |
| Friday, April 23 |
Worked most of the morning with Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design. We welded up the stainless steel water tubes for the heat exchanger. Mike welded the tubing and in feed blocks to the existing nozzle bodies. The two 1" round rods which will eventually be welded to the spare tire mounting plates were each bent to a 45-degree position. During the afternoon all of the plumbing on the top (smoke box end) of the boiler was put in place (pop valve, steam whistle feed, water automatic steam feed, water level/steam automatic feed, and valved feed for the siphon and burner enema). The throttle was mounted to its new rod and connected to the throttle linkage and is ready to have the supply and discharge tubing installed. Dry assembled the newly welded nozzles to the burner. Everything fit as intended. The only work remaining for the burner is to formally assemble the pilots and then to assemble a pilot and the remaining components onto the burner directly. It should then be ready to hang under the boiler once a plumbing pressure test is complete. |
| Saturday, April 24 |
Installed the throttle piping -- 1/2" OD x 0.065" wall #4130 alloy steel tubing. Flared both ends and bent to fit the steam supply line between the top of the boiler and the throttle. Flared the throttle end and fitted the steam line running between the throttle and the superheater. |
| Saturday, May 1 |
Worked on how to install the master cylinder for the hydraulic brakes. It looks like the best location is under the floorboards and mounted in line half way between the brake pedal and the lever arm on the cross-connect rod. Will need to do a CAD drawing of the existing brake pedal hardware and superimpose the master cylinder geometry at the proper location so that the design of two mounting plates can be determined. Removed the 3/16" steel tubing brake fluid supply line from the top of the master cylinder, drilled and tapped for 1/8" NPT and installed elbow brake line connection. Cleaned casting of metal chips from drilling and tapping. Assembled the water tubing in the heat exchanger and painted the exchanger exterior with 1200-degree F flat black paint. |
| Sunday, May 2 |
Completed assembly of the heat exchanger. Put graphite packing and never-seize on the end-caps and installed. The exchanger was relocated towards the rear of the car by about 10" to another mounting hole already in the frame. This allowed the water line connections to be just in front of the main fuel pressure tanks and not up against the boiler so that piping would be easier. Moving the exchanger to the rear means that an elbow will be needed at the engine exhaust manifold pointing towards the rear while a second elbow will be needed on the exchanger pointing forward. The rubber hose that interconnects the engine with the exchanger will run parallel to the exchanger making the run a little longer and much easer to work with. Installed more water and steam tubing. Installed the water automatic and the tubing between it and the boiler (both steam from the top and water from the bottom). Connected the water automatic valve to the firewall water bypass manual valve. Also connected one side of the heat exchanger water tube to the water supply check valve. Connected the low water shutoff to the boiler. Cleaned up the boiler check valve, packed the valve stem, installed it on the boiler. |
| Monday, May 3 |
Final assembly of the two pilot units and main burner nozzles. All bolts, etc. were coated with never-seize and installed using copper washers as required. |
| Sunday, May 9 |
Slow day -- allergies kept the work somewhat limited. Put the exterior wooden panel back on the pump box now that the heat exchanger was reinstalled. Temporally placed the condenser on its mounting plate so that positioning of the oil separator could be determined. If the front passenger boiler blow-down valve is installed such that if the handle is in the wheel well the steam exhaust line can exit the heat exchanger, run forward to just in front of the boiler support channel and then turn upwards and enter the side of the oil separator. The separator can be placed between the boiler and the condenser centered about the centerline of the boiler. An aluminum block (2" wide x 2-1/2" deep x 8" long) welded to the side of the separator can with a 1-1/4" pipe thread to accept the exhaust pipe can serve as the inlet to the separator. A short pipe leaving the top of the separator and making a right angle turn towards the condenser inlet will complete the run. Also examined the condenser water return line routing to the water tank. Unsoldered the old "plumber's nightmare" from the brass casting block that serves as the attachment to the condenser. A 1-1/4" copper forty-five will work well to route the water from the bottom of the condenser to the driver-side frame channel. A union and a ninety will turn the pipe back towards the water tank. |
| Friday, May 14 |
Visited Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design to check on progress of the new water tank. The bottom and top are made. We discussed the installation of the various pipes to and from the tank along with the clean-outs. Dry assembled the 1-1/2" copper pipe connections between the engine and the inlet to the heat exchanger. The pipe and fittings will be TIG welded together with brass rod and a 1-3/4" ID high temperature hose used as the flexible connection between the two units. The brake drums and backing plates were shipped to Tom Marshall by Bob Barrett arriving at Tom's yesterday. Disassembled the brake shoes from the backing plates and checked their fit on the axle. The left side fit well and with a little grinding on the ID of the plate the right side fit. Both plates were sprayed with red primer. Assembled the mounting plates to the master cylinder. Drilled the four mounting holes in the lower floorboard where the cylinder will be located. Drilled a second hole in the clevis so that one clevis pin will go through the existing brake arm and the second clevis pin will hold the brake pedal return spring. Painted the master cylinder, mounting plates, and extension arm and clevis flat black. |
| Saturday, May 15 |
Painted hydraulic brake backing plates for both rear wheels flat black. Reassembled the master cylinder piston and valves. Made up the fluid supply line to the top of the master cylinder. Mounted the hydraulic brake fluid supply reservoir to the front seat wooden support frame next to the driver door. Installed a brake light stop switch to the rear of the master cylinder. Assembled the mounting plates to the master cylinder and mounted the assembly to the floor boards. Installed and adjusted the actuator arm for the master cylinder. Connected the hydraulic brake fluid supply line between the reservoir can and the master cylinder. Reassembled the brake drums to the wheel hubs using new bolts with anti-sieze. Bolted both rear wheel backing plates to the axles with bolts and anti-sieze. The original expanding drum brake actuator arm was positioned vertically and locked in place. The actuator rods will need to be reversed so that the hand brake rods now actuate the exterior band brake which will become the parking brake instead of the car's main brake. Reassembled the brake shoes, springs, and adjusters to the backing plates. Set the wheel hubs & drums on the axles to insure clearance of all parts. Bob Barrett indicates the parts used are from a Volkswagen -- 3/4" (19mm) application. The wheel cylinder is Wagner #F38926; master cylinder is Beck/Arnley #072-8024 or World Auto Parts # 071-207. The master cylinder is stamped "Varga Ind Brass -- VFCC 121Z-9 320K". Stamped on the wheel cylinder is "Wagner FD36830". The brake shoes are 12" x 2" size with 1/4" thick linings and are stamped "21629". Bob Barrett 334 N Main Street Angola, NY 14006 |
| Wednesday, May 19 |
The new water tank suction line is 1/2" pipe (old tank line was 1/2" tubing) which means the old filters won't work unless the hole in the end plate that slides over the suction line is opened up. As the filter is not is the best condition a replacement is being made. It will be 2" OD instead of the original 1-1/2" OD and it will be the same length. Machined new end plates for the new filter. Also machined flat the exterior surface of the brass pipe cap that will be used to mount the water tank level gauge. |
| Thursday, May 20 |
Cleaned out and tapped the four 12-24 screw holes that hold the main burner nozzle cover in place. Cleaned the lathe chuck in the shop parts cleaner. It had become hard to open and close the jaws due to the metal filings getting into the internal threads and guides. Lubricated the moving parts and gear teeth with grease. Assembled chuck now opens and closes easily. Assembled the hydrostatic hand test pump that has been rebuilt stronger for the 3rd time! Figured out the best routing of the hydraulic brake lines from the master cylinder to each rear wheel cylinder. Installed brake lines from the master cylinder, along the left frame member to the left rear wheel and across to the right rear wheel. Ordered the brake hoses (CarQuest p/n SP4734) needed to interconnect the brake lines on the frame to the cylinder brake lines. Bruce checked out the assembly and installation of the rear hydraulic brakes to insure they are properly assembled before the wheel drums are installed. |
| Friday, May 21 |
Completed the assembly of both the hydraulic and the mechanical hand brakes. The hydraulic brakes need to have a pair of brake hose mounting brackets made before they can be installed. Once installed the brake adjusters can be set and the system filled with brake fluid and bled. The mechanical hand brake needed cleaning and adjustment so that the latch would release. The brake rods to the rear drums were inverted so that the rod connecting the band brake would not be actuated by the hand brake. The rod for the foot brake was reinstalled but left disconnected under the car. The band brakes were reinstalled on the car and adjusted. All threaded parts were coated with never-seize to hopefully limit rusting in the future. The hand brake seems to allow the band brakes to lock down on the drums tightly so they should be effective as a parking brake. |
| Tuesday, May 25 |
Ran thermal experiments on the dash pilot light temperature meter. The meter indicates temperatures in degrees centigrade. Used a small stove burner and attached the Type K thermocouples that I intend on using on the pilot to the burner element. One thermocouple was connected to a temperature meter borrowed from work and the other attached to the dash pilot temperature meter. Heating up the stove element the pilot meter temperature was within 10 degrees centigrade of the calibrated meter from work. The stove element full on reached about 460 degrees centigrade. The pilot meter is a 45.1mV full-scale meter movement. Labeling indicates an 8 ohm resistor should be used in series and lab testing with a power supply indicates that this meter requires 45mV to reach full scale with an 8 ohm series resistance. A K-type thermocouple has sufficient mV output to match the meter's response with the 8 ohm series resistor installed. The voltage drop across the resistor causes the indicated temperature to be displayed about 50 degrees centigrade lower than the actual temperature being measured. No resistor will be used for the Stanley installation. The original thermocouple that was with the meter and on the car was an E-type thermocouple of British design (the meter is also British and has metric hardware) as evidenced by the brown and blue thermocouple leads. The mV output for an E-type thermocouple should require a series 4 ohm resistor however it seems to read nearly correct without any resistor and there was none connected in the car. |
| Friday, May 28 |
Painted the four metal brackets that will hold the brake hoses in place. Installed the metal brackets and brake hoses. Brake installation is now complete with the exception of setting the adjusters and filling and bleeding the hydraulic lines. Loose installed the two spare tire brackets and marked them for where the welded 1" rod needs to be welded to the 3/8" steel plates. Took both brackets to Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design to weld. Water tank parts are all fabricated and everything is awaiting Mike to weld it together. Dry installed the superheater pipe in the superheater ring under the boiler. In order to fit better the pipe needed to be heated and a little more bend applied. Dry installed the steam expansion loop between the superheater and the steam delivery pipe to the engine. Dry assembled the flexible connection between the steam delivery pipe and the engine. The rear leg of the expansion loop needs to be shortened about an inch. Two copper pipe bracket mounted under the floorboards will work to hold the steam delivery pipe in place. Should be able to get the steam supply to the engine all worked out and hopefully installed in the next two days. After the cylinder oil pump on Tom Marshall's Model 76 failed last night during a training run I learned that there is a check valve past the winker. As I hadn't seen a check valve as part of the Model 735's winker assembly which is how Tom described the Model 76's design, he indicated that for my car it is located just after the oil line enters the engine compartment through the firewall. It is a 2" long hex fitting attached to the elbow fitting coming through the firewall. Removal indicated it is a gravity design and must be mounted vertically. I disassembled the check valve, cleaned it, and reinstalled it. |
| Saturday, May 29 |
Installed stainless steel cover plates over the piping cutouts in the superheater ring to protect the elbows from the direct heat of the fire. Installed a 1/4" stainless steel pin in the side of the superheater ring for the superheater coiled pipe to rest on. Cut insulation and final assembled the superheater ring. Installed the superheater and associated ring to the underside of the boiler. Shortened the rear leg of the expansion loop by 1-1/2" so that the steam supply pipe to the engine can fit closer to the underside of the car. Insulated the steam supply line expansion loop and the pipe that goes to the rear of the car. First layer of insulation is 1" wide ceramic fiber insulation tape secured with a 50%-50% mixture of heavy duty vinyl wallpaper paste and wallpaper paste activator. Second layer of insulation is 1" wide exhaust header wrap also secured with the paste/activator combination. Once wrapped the exterior surface was hand-wiped with a coating of the paste/activator combination as an overcoat. |
| Sunday, May 30 |
Installed expansion loop and steam supply pipe between superheater coil and engine. Also installed the flexible steel line between the steam supply pipe and the engine. All that remains of the steam supply piping to do is to flare the dry pipe at the superheater end, insulate the pipe, and install it. Installed the 1/4" copper loop and line between the oil check valve on the boiler side of the firewall and the top of the expansion loop. The steam exhaust line from the engine to the heat exchanger is 1-1/2" copper pipe. Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design TIG welded the fittings together on May 14th making for a pair of fixed L-shaped arrangements. Each assembly's threaded ends were coated with never-seize and installed. A 1-3/4" ID by 4" long length of radiator hose was secured with a pair of radiator clamps on each end between the two pipe sections to permit engine movement relative to the fixed mounting of the heat exchanger. Looked for tires for the car -- 34x4 for 26" rim. Cooker doesn't have anything. They referred me to Universal Tire (1-800-233-3827). Universal has a run of 34x4 tires being done and should have them by August. Placed my name on the list to be notified when they arrive. |
| Sunday, June 6 |
Started off doing odds and ends. Put wire bands on the wrapped ends of the steam expansion loop and the line back to the engine so the header wrap would not come loose. Packed three valves -- 4" water level, siphon, and main vaporizer enema. Installed the short flexible conduit between the junction box and the master cylinder switch. Insulated the top of the smoke box. Sat the smoke box on top of the boiler and marked all cutouts necessary for the piping. Removed the smoke box and cut all cutouts with cut-off wheel. Drilled smoke box top for boiler water feed clean-out pipe. Positioned smoke box on top of boiler to insure proper fit, etc. Jacked burner into position under smoke box ring and secured it to check fit, etc. Fit is good with the exception that the hanger at the left rear interferes with the pilot fuel connection and perhaps the pilot access door. Sat the condenser in place and secured it with its mounting rod. Set the brass condenser grill in place. Photographed the underside and boiler of the car with a digital camera. |
| Friday, June 11 |
Cleaned up the car and the garage area in preparation for Wilhelm's Antique Gas Engine Party. Washed down the dusty surfaces to remove all the dust. Made up a series of paper tags for all the components on the car which described what the component does and how it works. The tagging generated a lot of interest but were too numerous and it took too long to read each one (all though many did). What might be more effective is to make up a drawing of what is under the hood and then put the descriptions on that -- something they can take away with them to read later. Talked extensively with Dave Reed on the gas tank sealing material. It is the base PVC plastic that is used to make plastic pipe. It should be put on thin as that is how it works best. MEK is the ideal solvent to remove it from a tank should it be necessary to do so. Dave also has an extensive collection of piston rings and he can make whatever is needed. Talked with Carmen of Carmen's Body Shop in Elsmere. Carmen will be retiring in September and he is looking for side jobs to keep occupied. He's interested in taking on the Stanley painting job this fall and winter. Purchased two blow-torches in excellent condition -- one at $5 and the other at $15. They will make excellent "ignition key" displays for the car. |
| Tuesday, June 15 |
Removed all the labels from the engine show. Put things back to "working order." Assembled steam oil separator. Cut and dry fit copper pipe and fittings between heat exchanger and steam oil separator and between separator and condenser. Separator fits nicely between boiler and condenser on right side of the car. Piping is straight with no fancy offsets or such required. |
| Friday, June 18 |
Cut and fit copper pipe from the bottom of the condenser to the water tank. Removed the steam oil separator and prepared all copper pipe and fittings to take to Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design for copper TIG welding. |
| Saturday, June 19 |
Took the exhaust line copper pipe and fittings to Mike DeFazio at M&P Custom Design for welding. New water tank is partly welded and the target date for completion of all the work is Saturday June 26th. Ground the welds on the tire brackets and readied them for body filling. Installed stainless steel ties over the wrapped ends on the steam expansion loop and the line to the rear of the car to keep the insulation wrapping from coming off. Flared the superheater coil end of the dry pipe between the throttle and the superheater. Set the brake shoe adjusters for both wheels. The adjuster on the right side of the car is rotated down to expand the brake shoes. The adjuster on the left side of the car is rotated up to expand the brake shoes. Filled the hydraulic brake reservoir and bled the brakes. Pedal moves about an inch or so before resistance is felt. Brakes should work well. Jacked up the car and removed the jack stands from under the car so that it would be sitting on its wheels. With Bruce's help we were able to rock the car and break free the sticking steam engine and get the car to roll. I shot JB-80 on the piston rods, valve rods, and into the cylinders to help with lubrication. Milled the edge of a 5/16" thick by x 1/2" wide brass bar to act as an "L" clip to hold the circular viewing glass plate in the burner access door. |
| Sunday, June 20 |
Rocked the car forward and backward to insure the engine was free. Positioned the car slightly forward of where it had been sitting to allow sufficient room to reinstall the fuel tank at the rear. Jacked the car up and returned it to the four jack stands. The engine turns over easily by holding one rear wheel stopped while rotating the other wheel with one hand. Reformed the main burner vaporizer coil to properly fit over the burner and to properly align with sidewall hole at the infeed and the exit hole in the stainless steel block at the pilot. Applied body putty to the two spare tire mounting brackets. Cut the brass bar milled yesterday into three equal segments. Sanded the sides and ends of the segments to size. Once drilled and tapped for a 6-32 machine screw they will be attached to the burner access door to hold the viewing glass in place. Disassembled two blow torches purchased at Wilhelm's Antigue Gas Engine Show and glass-beaded the nozzles. Fuel can on one will need to be TIG welded and both cans polished. |
| Saturday, June 26 |
Stopped by M&P Custom Design to
hopefully pick up the water tank. Nothing has been done since last weekend as
Mike DeFazio had been home since Wednesday ill. Filed the body filler on the two spare tire brackets and applied what will hopefully be the final layer of filler. Examined the kerosene tank. Upon close examination and a little investigative work with a file it turns out the tank is not in as good a condition as I had believed. There is body filler on the tank with what appears to be a fair amount on the bottom indicating the tank probably rusted through and was leaking. When the car is painted the tank will need to be sand blasted to prepare it for painting and that will reveal its true condition. It may need to simply be patched or it may need to be refabricated. As it was not leaking when I got the car I've decided not to coat the inside with gas tank coating as that would make repairs later much harder to accomplish. Assembled and painted the steam oil separator. The new 1/2" hex stock rods holding the top to the bottom are a much better design than the rods with just the ends threaded. Cleaned and sanded the two metal straps that will hold the water tank to the underside of the car. |
| Sunday, June 27 |
Applied second coat of high-temperature flat black paint to the steam oil separator. Applied primer coat to the two spare tire saddle castings. Drilled and tapped to 10-32 size the ten screw holes in the bottom of the burner that hold the insulation cover in place. Broke a tap in one of the holes as I'm beginning to become so adapt at doing. Cleaned the exterior surface of the burner insulation cover. It is a stainless steel sheet (obviously not original Stanley!) and had plastic body filler in places on it. The body filler was sanded off and the whole cover wire brushed with a wire-cup wheel on a disk sander. Installed a 1/2" think layer of insulation to the bottom of the burner and installed the insulation cover using 10-32 Allen cap screws which were coated with never-seize. A simple sounding task that simply took a lot of time to complete. |
| Monday, June 28 |
As yesterday the screw between the pilot air intake tube and the main burner mixing tube didn't seem long enough I tried a longer screw this evening. I came to discover that the side of the casting were the screw goes had broken out. This means that there is a through hole into the chamber below the grate from the outside. I don't believe this to be a problem but we shall see. Took a body file and smoothed out the body filler on the two spare tire brackets then sanded them. A very smooth finish with slight imperfections resulted which gives them the appearance of being an old casting which is good. As it had showered earlier, the temperature was still 80F at 10 PM, and the humidity was nearly 100% applying a primer coat of paint will have to wait till later in the week. |
| Tuesday, June 29 |
Soldered together the new filter for the water tank. |
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1998
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