Member postings for DAVID POWELL 4

Mine's 3 inches

I had exactly the same problem with an M8 die (HSS) although other sizes from the same source work OK. Is it permitted for contributors to say where they buy quality taps and dies from?

I use oxy with MAP gas obtained from CWB a plumbing wholesalers in Caldicot Gwent.

The heat is almost equivalent to Oxy/acetylene and there's a range of very small (jewellers type) to very big nozzles available. Advatage is no rental costs on the bottles.

The guy who owns the place tells me plumbers who work with air conditioning love it because the gasses last a long time (compared to what was available previously).

Works really well on a 3.5" boiler.

Dave, had exactly the same problem when making a 3'5 inch boiler for Juliet.>>

Practicing on 6 " strips of copper with the yellow gas bottle from B and Q worked a treat. BUT when using it on the boiler the heat would quickly dissipate and there was no way I could get the temp up.>>

Tried those small gas bottles from Cup alloys, no good. Spoke to 2 of the professional boiler makers who attend the shows and they both said the same thing. They blast the boiler with a big sievert then dive in with oxy/acetylene. Now the oxy set up is very expensive for the casual user but I found an alternative which is Mapp gas and oxygen from CWB's in Caldicot, near lace w:st="on">Newportlace>. Once you buy the setup circa £250 you simply pay to fill/replace the bottles about £15 each. No rental costs.>>

Using this setup and the biggest nozzle I now blast the boiler with the Sievert and dive in with the Mapp/oxy. So far it works fine. Bigger boiler may be more problematic and I am thinking of building a 'proper' grate and possibly have a gas ring(s) underneath to give a constant heat supply. Anybody got any thoughts on that?>>

When building Juliet 3.5 gauge loco the boiler was made from flat copper (available up to 10 gauge pretty easily). By luck chance or coincidence my dad came across a council workman cutting down trees. Managed to get a suitable branch which was then turned to the right diameter. Copper was then annealed and bit by bit 'turned around the branch. We held it in place using large jubilee clips. It didn't take long before it was wrapped nicely around the branch. Then drilled and riveted and then silver soldered. Worked OK this was the first time we had made a boiler.

With reference to the comments about the die, does a die cut both ways?

If not is there a correct 'way round 'to use the die. I was looking at this only a few days ago and the die seems to have the same 'start' both sides.

Thanks John Baguley, answer is spot on and I shall follow your recommendation. Nigel Jones 2 too (sounds wrong but is grammatically correct?) has a very useful idea so thanks for that.

MGJ makes the point about dezincification. I was aware of this which was another reason why I posed the original question as this loco is an LBSC, a guru amongst model makers. Did he get it wrong? Was dezincifiction known in his time?

As for the semantics, I think Dusty has a point. The trouble is whose definition do we follow. Brazing is defined as ‘solder with an alloy of brass or zinc’ so if I use a ‘silver solder rod’ is that brazing? But there again isn’t brazing a French word and translated means soldering. So silver soldering and silver brazing means the same thing?

Anyway I need to Hoover the shed, no, I’m going to Electrolux it, on second thoughts I’ll just vacuum it.

We are saddened to report the death on Friday 21st October 2011 of
Dr George Daniels CBE, MBE, FBHI, widely regarded as the greatest watchmaker of his time.
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