Member postings for Brian John

The PMR boilers are quite expensive but I must admit they are very good..

The ebay ad does say '''Boiler includes a pressure relief valve''.

Some of the youtube videos of the completed PMR engines have them running at very low PSI (about 5 PSI) which is why I thought I might get away with using the Midwest Steam boiler.

I have never built a boiler before and I was not really keen on having something that runs at 30 to 40 PSI on the bench. I thought it might be safer to have my first boiler run at less than 10 PSI

Edited By Brian John on 10/04/2014 17:51:41

Thanks, I had done a search but I was not coming up with anything much.

I live in Cairns, Australia and I am pretty sure that it has a safety valve.

Edited By Brian John on 10/04/2014 14:05:02

Has anybody built the Midwest Steam engine and vertical boiler kit ? I want to use this boiler to power the PM Research model stationary engines 3BIM and 7BIM.

1. How many PSI does this boiler generate ?

2. Could I use a methylated spirits burner in this boiler ? Midwest Steam recommend sterno but I want to use something else if possible.

3. Is the boiler made of copper ?

Edited By Brian John on 10/04/2014 06:44:52

I am currently building two fully machined kits by PM Research : 3BIM and 7BIM. I have a few questions relating to painting these machines.

1. Does etch primer go off ? I have a 4 year old tin of Wattyl Killrust etch primer suitable for brass, aluminium, copper and other non ferrous metals.

2. Could this etch primer be used on the cast iron base ? Yes, I know cast iron is a ferrous metal

3. What sort of primer should be used on cast iron ? I have spoken to the major paint manufacturers here and none of them have a product specifically for cast iron. It sounds like they are wary of it and do not want to put their name to any product used on cast iron.

Okay, I will give this tool a miss. I have not bought a drill press yet but I do have a Sieg C2 lathe. It is still sitting in its box on the living room floor. It is much bigger and heavier than I thought it would be I have to buy a suitable workbench before I set it up.

I thought all lathes came with a spindle handle but apparently not so it looks like this will be my first job on the lathe, then I can use the lathe for tapping.

Who has used one of these tapping fixture tools ?

**LINK**

1. Are they any good ?

2. Who makes a vice small enough to fit (60mm centre to centre) ? Chronos say that they do not have any vices that small.

I am new to model engineering and I think that tapping without the right tools will cause problems.