Juliet build diary

Yeah I've found the button

have made a short video

Edited By Oliv on 07/10/2016 22:21:17

https://youtu.be/ciE1mkD2j_Q

Hi Oliv,

I think you are rather hijackicking Dan's excellent thread of his own build, and your own boiler problems ought to be a seperate thread.

A few detailed further pics of your boiler plus inside the firebox would be of interest.

Cheers,

Julian

Not to worry, progress has been made on my own engine.

Over the past week or so (whenever the last update was?) I have been dedicating some time to the LH side tank and the axle pump. I made a right angle union for the bottom of the axle pump and made a union with piece of gauze soldered on top and fitted this in the bottom of the tank. The gauze used is fairly fine stuff and made of brass so soft soldered on to the union. The union was kept as close to the inside edge of the tank as possible (close to the frames). This is fairly important if you want neat pipe work otherwise it's quite a struggle to bend the necessary angles. So I bent the suction pipe from the side tank to the bottom of the pump and silver soldered the nipples into the ends. I must say I am quite happy with the results I've had with the pipe work so far, imho it makes a huge difference to the appearance of an engine if there is neat (-ish!) pipe work.

Next I made the top pump union. This is a double 45 degree "Y" shape job, but see the pictures in the album as they describe it easier than I can. It's 5/8" long x 1/2" dia brass cronstruction with two 1/4" x 40 unions silver soldered in. In made sense to me to do it this way rather than a tee piece because it uses one less piece of tube and no more brass and solder than making a tee (plus it looks fancy! ).

I just have to make the by pass pipe work and the pump-clack valve pipe work to finish off that LH tank and pump assembly.

I've made the whistle clip and whistle plumbing which looks good so in terms of plumbing only two more pipes to make.

The ash pan and grate have been fitted into the frames and the pin made to hold it all up. The pump eccentric only just clears the ash pan which is somewhat a relief but not much work to get extra clearance.

Photos uploaded soon!

Cheers,

Dan.

Lots of progress has been made on the Juliet in the past few weeks, however this does mean that the build thread is coming to a steady close.

As the time draws closer to having the loco in steam, I thought it was about time to start taking things off, cleaning, painting, sealing, gasketing, gland packing and eventually reassembling. So off came everything more or less, I started getting into the motion and packing the glands with graphite yarn and I packed the pistons with yarn as well rather than rings. I made gaskets for the cylinder covers and the valve chests and reassembled the inlet and exhaust pipes to test the chassis on air for a quick check. It was luck I did this as nothing worked, no power to the pistons at all, just going in and coming straight out of the exhaust. My thoughts were that the valves weren't seating properly so I stripped the valve chest off and had a look; this is where I found that I hadn't cut the hole in the gasket large enough to let the valve pass through it and so it was resting on top of the paper, letting the air blow past. So recut the hole, put it back and I tried the air again, power this time but no motion running. So had to time the engine again although I'm sure I didn't touch this when I took it apart!? Oh well managed to get the chassis running in the end.

Next up I set to painting the running boards, smokebox, door and saddle using some halfords spray...not bad stuff really. Once these were finished with they were fitted back to the chassis. All looking a bit posh now!

So on with the job (the aim to get it instead before a full paint), and started sealing the boiler fittings like the blower union and the wet header union. The super heaters were fitted and the blower put into its correct position (not a vital position on the Juliet- just don't block the blast pipe). I then marked out the boiler bands on brass sheet and cut these with the hacksaw, filed, drilled, tapped 7BA and bent round and fitted. They look good as they are made out of heavier gauge brass than standard bands.

The side tanks were then fitted to the running boards and sealed with a form of car windscreen sealant. The pipe work was fitted to the pumps and sealed up with ptfe tape (had to make the bypass and clack feed pipes for the axle pump). Once these were all fitted, the engine was basically ready for water and fire.

So outside on blocks, blower fan on and a fire lit. Within no more than five minutes the loco was in steam and running nicely. There were a couple of steam leaks from fittings but nothing that I didn't expect or already know about. The engine ran so well that I quickly made the decision to take it down to the track. Bundled my way down there, lit the fire, got a head of steam, got on the track and I was off. The loco didn't really struggle pulling me at all!

So in general, I was extremely impressed and very happy with the result...not bad for 2 years and a complete loco novice with a beginners engine!

Cheers,

Dan.

Hi Dan,

Congratulations for this successful project ! Please add photos to your album, as I look forward to see this. Could you also post photos of all your pumps pipings ? It may be a good help for someone

Oliv

Well done Dan!

Neil

A couple of videos to prove it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl7leLmEFP4&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJV0bJrBt00&feature=youtu.be

I've also uploaded a couple more pictures to my album for those interested in seeing it. I wish I had taken a video of it on the rails...! Oh well, next time.

Oliv, good idea- I'll take some later on this evening.

Cheers,

Dan.

Plumbing pictures are added for those interested...

Dan.

Many thanks Dan,

will you make a video of the Juliet running on the track ?

Cheers Oliv