ME Vertical Boiler & Hand Pump

Hi all,

As a soldering novice I'm hoping to get a little bit of advice:

I have just completed the first big soldering job on the ME Vertical Boiler - soldering the fire tubes, bushes and stays to the smoke-box end plate.

All the joints seem to be sound with good fillets - but I have a bit of a problem with one of the bushes: solder appears to have found its way down the thread between the bush and the thread protection plug - soldering the plug into the bush.

Any ideas as to the best way is to rectify this?

Regards

Dom

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Were the protection plugs made with a small hole in them - then if they did get soldered in theres a guide hole to drill them out and run a tap through.

Other wise drill out and fit a new bush - put some tippex (typist correction fluid) on the thread that usually stops the solder creeping .

Pete

Many thanks for the replies - sounds like drilling is the way to go.

I don't have a pilot hole in the plug - it just has a screw head.

Do you think it would be feasible to turn down a guide for a drill though? One side reamed to fit over the proud portion of the plug and the other to accept a spot drill to make a pilot hole on centre?

Having got the fire tubes soldered OK I'm keen to avoid applying any more heat to that end!

Regards

Dom

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Quick update: the drilling guide jig worked perfectly and I was able to drill out the plug and re-tap the bush.

Many thanks Bill and Peter for the pointers

Dom

I'm making the smokebox cap former in part 16 and am slightly confused about the layout of the holes as shown in fig41. This says it is a view from INSIDE but when looking at the pictures 89 and 93 it looks the other way around or am I reading the drawing incorrectly? As they are not symmetrical it makes a big difference.

I do seem to remember discussions at one time that the one shown in the photos was not the same as the one drawn

Thanks Jason, however I couldn't find any reference to this issue in the forums. I suppose the photos should be correct as I have found the drawings to be in error in the past?

Regards

Andrew

I can't find where it was mentioned before but as the design and author of both the ME and EiM boilers are the same there is likely to be some mixing of drawings and or photos.

Not the opposite handing of the fittings on the top.