ME Boiler

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement gents.
So far it all seems to have gone better than I was expecting for my first attempt, so fingers crossed I don't mess it up before crossing the finishing line

And yes Leslie, the amount of heat was the most surprising difference from smaller bits of silver soldering.

I've had a torch set for ages, but never used any larger burners until now, and the step up in heat produced is massive.
Not just from the torch itself, but the amount of heat being emitted back from what is a relatively small boiler.

On the other hand I actually found the actual soldering part itself to be easier than I was expecting.
The larger mass of metal makes the temperature more stable once it gets up there, so you have more control of what happens,
more time to examine the joints and run a scratch stick around or add more solder to get a neat joint.

I wasn't sure what to do about mounting the boiler on a base, but then I found some stone mosaic tiles in the local DIY store which seemed like they had a suitable size and appearance.

These come already stuck to a mesh backing to get the grouting gaps the correct size, which of course would be too large for a model. So I stripped them off and then made a base to contain them when they were packed together with just a slightly loose fit.


I also decided to add some fake strengthening hoops to the tower by soldering some half round brass beading, which breaks up the plain sides and gives a more 'scale' appearance.


The tiles were stuck to an 18mm ply base, with just a few strips of paper here and there to get even packing and gaps between the tiles. Once the base was assembled and varnished I was able to work the grout into the very fine gaps by running the end of a cocktail stick along them. Which you can see below with the finished base and the boiler and water tower sitting roughly in position.

Finished!







I now just need to make a displacement lubricator, so I can actually run the engine on steam rather than air.

That's all looking rather good and hiding the pump was a great idea, Stone floor came out well too.

Made up the parts for a lubricator, loosely based on a design I found on the internet.


All the parts silver soldered an assembled


So finally time to stick it all together and see it run...


Link to Video