Member postings for John Baguley

Right, I've done a quick drawing with the major dimensions of the one I did but you can make it to suit: Hope you get the idea.

The body is a piece of rectangular brass bar, the two inlet bosses are also brass, in my case threaded 1/4 x 40. The spigot that screws into the boiler bush is bronze (I never use brass for bits that screw into the boiler) threaded to suit the bush. The balls are 3/16" dia. stainless or bronze. The holes for the ball seats are reamed and the bottom of the ball housing machined with a D bit or end mill to make sure it's flat. The caps are machine to allow the ball to lift 1/16" for injectors or less for pumps.

John

Edited By John Baguley on 21/09/2014 21:48:42

No, just the one common drilling. IIRC think the back is drilled something like 1/4" diameter to take the threaded spigot that goes into the boiler and this drilling intersects both the ball chambers. I'm out at the club today but I'll try and knock up a quick drawing tonight when I get back. I've still got the loco at the moment so I can measure the clack for some dimensions.

John

Might have been one of those things that I just made out of my head but I'll have a look back. It's basically just a brass block for the clack housing with a bronze spigot soldered in the back to fit the clack bush and two more threaded spigots soldered in the bottom for the pipe connections.

John

Thanks Jason,

That's all useful to know. We'll look into all of it before going ahead.

I would imagine the guy has his own codes as he does work for a lot of companies, often stuff that other welders won't/can't touch due to lack of expertise.

John

Jason,

You will probably know the answer to this as I know the traction engine people do this quite often. If I provide all the materials cut out, do the weld preps etc. and then pay a welder to stick it all together for me, what's the situation regarding CE marking of the boiler. Is it necessary, in other words, would it still be classed as a home built boiler?

I need to get a new copper boiler made for a 5" loco (KIng) that I am completing for a friend who runs a small engineering business. He has a coded welder come in to do work for him on a regular basis and he would be more than capable of Tig welding it all together. To say he was good would be an understatement!

Our club boiler inspectors say they would not have a problem testing it so long as material certs were provided and copies of the welders qualifications etc.

John

Yes, you need a clack on each injector.

If the original clack is on the backhead you may be able to fit a double clack which would be a better option than two inline clacks feeding into the original. I did this on a loco I worked on.

John

Edited By John Baguley on 19/09/2014 11:13:13

Hi Clive,

No, Dolgoch wasn't in LLAS.

John

EDPM is used for pond liners as well so must be pretty safe around water. I bought one recently for a wild llife pond.

John

For steam use Viton seems to be the prefered material for O rings. I gave up on O rings for piston seals a long time ago and now use rings made from PTFE for gunmetal cylinders.

John

Hi John,

As Julian says, you will be really struggling to silver solder stays now the backhead is fitted. Access will be difficult even with oxy acetylne/propane. There is nothing in the boiler regs that says you cannot use Comsol in a boiler but unfortunately some boiler inspectors make their own rules.

You might find the construction of my Helen Long boiler of interest as that uses threaded and nutted stays:

**LINK**

I theaded copper rivets for the stays which wasn't difficult to do, much to my surprise. The heads are actually silver soldered outside as that was easy to do but the firebox ends have brass nuts fitted and then caulked with Comsol.

You do have to keep a watchful eye on the water level but it would have to get pretty low to melt the solder.

John

I bought my ML7 new in 1973 from the old Reeves when they were in Marson Green? I paid about £150. No motor but the price included tray, raising blocks, 3 jaw chuck, tailstock chuck, vertical slide, and a set of lathe tools. I was on a course at the time and when I came home one weekend the lathe was in the front room. The chaps from Reeves had delivered it to Derby foc! It's been in constant use since then and is still going strong. The only thing I've replaced is the cross-slide leadscrew and nut. It's now got a 3 phase motor and inverter though which has improved it no end.

John

Hi John,

As Julian says, choose a loco that you actually want to build. If not, you'll soon lose interest. My philosophy is that a 4-6-0 is no more complicated than an 0-4-0, it's just got more bits to make and will take longer! You can get a lot of parts such as frames laser or water jet cut which will save a lot of time.

Britannia and Don Young's Black Five are both good designs and many have been built. The Duchess by Michael Breeze is also a good design but it's a big loco with a lot of work. The boiler is quite complicated. Galatea is horrendously complicated as it is based on works drawings and will take a long time to build. It's not a design for the faint hearted.

Blackgates don't sell the B5 drawings as Reeves have the copyright on the Don Young designs but anyone can sell castings as they are not copyrighted.

John

Carr's do a very useful range of soft solders with lower melting points than the usual plumbers solders. Joints require less heat with less chance of distorting anything. I've used their 145 solder on tanks with either the appropriate Carr's flux or ordinary Bakers fluid. I've also used standard electronics 60/40 solders but the resin flux makes a bit of a mess.

John

Hi Mark,

It would be possible to drill out the old bushes and fit new ones or silver solder in a bush that can be rethreaded. The silver soldering might be best done with oxy acetylene to keep the heat local. Depends where the bushes are.

Can you not simply tap the bushes the next size up and make/buy new clacks to suit? Alternatively, drill and tap the bushes to as large a size as possible and fit threaded adapters to bring the thread back to original size?

John

Edited By John Baguley on 12/08/2014 09:28:37

Hi Brian,

Good work!

I notice on some photos that you haven't put a 2½" gauge rail in. Are there any plans to do this or have you decided not to bother with this on the new site?

John

Hi Steve,

Right, here's some photos:

I realised as soon as I took the photo of the speed plate that the serial number is on this plate! I would guess that the serial number you have found is not the Denham number but a Ministry of Supply. MInistry of Defence, or similar number. The crown would suggest this. Mine's got a brass plate on the door which says Ministry of Supply with another number on it.

Mine is 8205 making it 1943 which seems right to me.

Anyway, hope the photos are of some use.

John

PS must clean those plates up!

HI Steve,

That's looking very nice indeed I remember I had a right job to get the saddle gear box etc. to pieces! That extra centre height would have been useful on mine as I could have then used some big indexable tool holders that someone gave me. As it is they are too thick.

I'll collect my camera on the way home from the pub tonight and get those photos for you tomorrow.

I notice that your workshop floor is blue as well so I don't feel so bad about mine now!

John

Hi Steve,

Glad the write up was useful for you

My camera is at my brother's house at the moment (I left it in his car!) but I'll get you some photos of the plates as soon as I can.

I upload photos into an album on this site and then import them into a post using the black camera icon at the top of the reply box. Think there's been quite a few posts on how to do this.

I found an image for the change wheel plate that goes on the stand door on the web somewhere so I'll try and find out where it is. Mine doesn't have that.

Edit - just realised the changewheel chart is on the Lathes.co.uk site!

John

Edited By John Baguley on 08/08/2014 20:36:24

Hi Steven,

Ok, found a number but it's pretty much worn away. The first two digits are 10 and the third looks like a 6. According to Lathes.co.uk that would put it around 1958 but I'm wondering if I'm reading it upside down. It must be earlier than that as it has a plate on it saying it was reconditioned in November 1955.

John

Hi Steven,

Thanks, I'll have a look tomorrow. I did have a quick look earlier tonight but couldn't see anything obvious.

Re the brass plates - do you mean those on the various control levers? If so, I can take some photos for you.

Mine is ex Ministry of Supply and came from the Royal Radar Establishment. A friend of mine, sadly no longer with us, bought it from a government surplus place 40 odd years ago and it sat on his garage floor all that time. It had been refurbished in Leicester before he bought it and was still covered in thick protective 'goo'

John