Re: SILVER SOLDERING BOILERS
Trent: You might be remembering MAP gas, a common substitute for acetylene in the building trades. Jim
Re: SILVER SOLDERING BOILERS
In a message dated 4/30/2000 10:38:05 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > Brownel's (of gunsmithing supplies fame) has a product that is a paste, > specifically designed to be a heat soak called Heat Stop There is a product put out in the jewelry trade known as Ruby Sand. It must be pretty much the same thing. When you heat it up it gets hard but will wash off with water. As long as you don't get it too hot it can be reused. It is great for holding parts together and also if you heat it up to the hard state you can do small castings in it by pressing masters into the wet material. I got my supply at Quartzite a few years ago but I have seen it in Rio Grande jewelry supplies catalog www.riogrande.com They call it garnet sand. Incidentally if you ever want really high content and high temp silver solder get hard solder from a jewelry supply. Commonly used is 75% silver. Also jewelry supply places sell annealing pans, about 12" in dia. with small pieces of pumice in them. Very good for heat reflection. Bob
Re: SILVER SOLDERING BOILERS
Hello Everyone, The oil soak is cheaper (around here anyway). > You mean there's something other than cat litter to soak up oil? I think I missed something, but the hearth is used for protecting your work area from the heat and flame and to retain as much heat as possible into the work area, and the clay (oil soak or cat litter) is used as a heat soak to prevent un-soldering what you have already done. Correct? At least that's what the oil soak is used for at work (other than soaking up oil). If it's used as a hearth, wouldn't the pressure from the torch blow it everywhere? If there's a way to use it for a hearth it would be a lot cheaper and easier than the refractory brick. > If you get your hearth or cat litter bed or whatever set up properly, > you may not need this, but keep in mind that you may need even > more heat than one torch can deliver. Brownel's (of gunsmithing supplies fame) has a product that is a paste, specifically designed to be a heat soak called Heat Stop (catchy name, huh?). I've only used it a few times, but it works well. It's used to prevent de-soldering the vent ribs and magazine rings on shotguns and preventing heating surounding areas when repairing other parts of the barrel or gun. It doesn't run or sag during use and cleans up with water. One claim that they made that we tried was putting the Heat Stop on center part of a steel rod, heating one end cherry red while holding the other in your hand. It worked! We always put a lot of the paste on the work and after using it, put the paste back in the can. I don't really think you're supposed to do that but don't remember for sure. At over $9 for a 1 lb. can, you try to save as much as possible. Later, Trent
Re: Plastic loco drivers
Well Many steam locos have plastic or composition insulators on the
axles where the drivers are pressed on. Do they ever melt from heat?--I
know they sometimes make the drivers wobble--before any steaming! With
"superb" effort I managed to "melt" the insulators on the front drivers on
my Merlin Hunslet (with a rampant butane fire going down instead of up the
stack) -now replaced with brass bushings and JB Weld. Anyway, if I used
plastic drivers they would have to made by NASA!!.--probably at $5 a
driver!!
Geoff the Melter.
>In a message dated 4/30/2000 4:29:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
>> So in other words, "Try it and see"? {:)
>I would sure hate to take a locomotive apart just because the wheels melted!!
>
>
>
>
Re: SILVER SOLDERING BOILERS
> At my place of work (and most home shops), oil soak is much more > prevalent than cat litter. You mean there's something other than cat litter to soak up oil? Man, living in the 21st century is amazing! > On the subject of refractory (fireplace) brick, you might have a difficult > time finding them anymore. That's a discouraging report. I just bought a bunch three or four years ago, and it seemed like just another transaction to them. (But I did have to call a couple of places to find the one that carried firebricks). I guess I'll have to lock them in the toolbox with my other valuable and easily stolen tools! On the topic of brazing hearths: often the dissipation of the boiler (esp. large boilers) is too much for your torch -- even a big one. It's often useful to have a helper with another torch (handheld plumber's seems to work) to give it more therms. Someone over on the large- scale steamers mentioned brazing over a barbecue grill, will the burners on that turned up full blast to provide the auxiliary heat. If you get your hearth or cat litter bed or whatever set up properly, you may not need this, but keep in mind that you may need even more heat than one torch can deliver. Has anyone compared a fancy-pants rig like a Sievert with those weed-burner monsters from the mail-order tool houses? They, too, connect to your propane bottle. I recall that they delivered a whole lot of BTUs through a rather large head -- which fairly describes the rosebud heads generally recommended for boiler work. -vance-
Re: steam oil?
If anyone on the list is interested, here's the reply that I received from John Foskett at Jensen concerning steam oil. Sounds as though you had better be very specific about needing steam oil if you order from them. Obviously, his reference to most small steam engines not using cylinder lubricators was pertaining directly to their line of stationary engines only. Later, Trent [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hello Trent and many thanks for your inquiry...we do, in fact, have two > different oils, custom blended for us by Pennzoil. As you correctly pointed > out, most small steam engines do not use cylinder lubricators...the one > exception in our engine line-up, is our Models 50 and 51 series...they do use > cylinder lubricators, thus use the special oil expressly for that purpose. > All other engines we manufacture, including the 50/51, use the other, > external lube oil for the running gear, etc. > Since the true stream oil we have is used on so few engines, (50/51), we > don't make general reference to it in our catalog of materials. > I hope this answers your question... > > Happy Steam'n...and Best regards, > > John Foskett, Gen. Mgr. > http://www.jensensteamengines.com/">www.JensenSteamEngines.com
New Accucraft loco?
Hello Everyone, In the latest issue of Garden Railways they say that Accucraft is going to add another live steamer to it's line. Supposedly a Ruby in saddle tank configuration, named Ida. Sounds like they are perhaps following Roundhouse's lead with Sammie. Anybody seen her yet? There's also an article about Diamondhead with several really great pictures by Carol and Peter Jobusch. I don't think pictures could ever do Soni Honegger's D&RGW K-27 justice. If you haven't seen it, you're really missing out. It's the most amazing engine I've ever seen. Later, Trent
Re: SILVER SOLDERING BOILERS
Hello Everyone, My two cents worth: At my place of work (and most home shops), oil soak is much more prevalent than cat litter. I've seen it used many times at described by Vance. On the subject of refractory (fireplace) brick, you might have a difficult time finding them anymore. With the new fireplace inserts that everyone is now using refractory brick for fireplaces is becoming a thing of the past. When I finally found some, I bought all that they had. A whopping 14 brick! They didn't have any refractory cement, and in fact, I never found any locally. I ended up buying the cement from the company that built our heat treat furnaces at work. Believe me, if you can find another source it will be MUCH cheaper. I built a frame out of angle iron to keep my hearth together. This wouldn't be necessary if you didn't use refractory cement between the brick. I stacked the brick in the needed configuration for a long time and that worked really well. The remaining brick that I have are usually just stacked as a back stop as required for the job. I use a short piece of flat stock to use as a support to stack brick above the work if a wide opening is required. As an afterthought, a piece of flat sheet could have been placed in the bottom of the frame to provide a surface in which to lay a thin bed of refractory cement for leveling the brick. Sure wish I had thought of that sooner. I checked the thickness and curvature of each brick that I had available (brick are far from perfect) and used the ones that matched the best for the hearth. After the cement had setup properly, I took an abrasive disk in a right angle grinder and faced them off as best I could. WEAR A DUST/PARTICLE MASK, A FULL FACE SHEILD, AND A LONG SLEEVE SHIRT! This provides a flat surface in which to work. Another advantage of cementing them together. If you just stack the brick to use as a hearth, stack them tightly to make sure you don't leave cracks between them and never use them on a wooden work bench. The flame and heat will find it's way through the cracks and char your workbench. Experience talking. You might consider a small piece of steel plate or sheet under your brick to prevent damage to whatever they are sitting on in the event that the brick get moved or bumped during soldering. Bob is right about the concrete popping pieces loose when heated. My Dad's shop floor is testament to that. If you really must know, e-mail me. For the life of me I can't think of the mixture right now, but our burn table at work uses a gas mixture that has a very high BTU rating. Until we started using it, I had never heard of that particular mix before. We burn material slightly over 8" thick at times and it works very well. We were having problems cutting it with acetylene with the same set of torches. It is also used for welding (although, not in our shop). We've found it very efficient for the cost. The canisters that we get are very large stainless steel canisters of around 24" diameter and about 5' tall and I have no idea if the mix is available in smaller quantities or not. I'll get the mix info and pass it along in hopes that it might help someone at some point. Like someone else mentioned, check with Bob Paule (Sulphur Springs) on your needs. He supports our hobby in any way he can so we should support him anyway we can. Besides, he can probably get it for you without you having to make a dozen phone calls to people who didn't even know that anyone still made boilers. Later, Trent
Re: Re: SILVER SOLDERING BOILERS
What about the Butane-Nitrous torches. Are there full size versions of these? My hobby torch is super easy to use and I've soldered 45% silver solder with it without a problem. Trot, amature repair fox... >What a relief to see someone mention oxy-propane. I've been using it for >years, especially in the "home" shop. The soot from acetylene is not welcome >in the confines of domestic habitation. I happen to be using a Smith's torch, >very old but still usable. The oxy-propane is a little more difficult to >regulate, but with a little practice you'll learn to get the proper 'roar' >from the flame, and it's CLEAN. >PLEASE, do not use concrete paving stones, blocks, sewer tile, etc. Get some >of the new lite weight fire bricks and keep them dry. A little bit of >moisture in rocks or concrete can produce some devastating shrapnel. >Keep you steam up! >Walt & Lunk -- TrotFox \ Always remember, /\-/\ AKA Landon Solomon \ "There is a ( o o ) [EMAIL PROTECTED] \ third alternative." >\./<
Re: SILVER SOLDERING BOILERS
What a relief to see someone mention oxy-propane. I've been using it for years, especially in the "home" shop. The soot from acetylene is not welcome in the confines of domestic habitation. I happen to be using a Smith's torch, very old but still usable. The oxy-propane is a little more difficult to regulate, but with a little practice you'll learn to get the proper 'roar' from the flame, and it's CLEAN. PLEASE, do not use concrete paving stones, blocks, sewer tile, etc. Get some of the new lite weight fire bricks and keep them dry. A little bit of moisture in rocks or concrete can produce some devastating shrapnel. Keep you steam up! Walt & Lunk
Re: Re: Plastic loco drivers
>In a message dated 4/30/2000 4:29:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
>> So in other words, "Try it and see"? {:)
>I would sure hate to take a locomotive apart just because the wheels
melted!!
Ah, but to a 'basher' there's just that many more spare parts! Besides, it'd
be a trial loco anyway. For me, it'd mean practice building the various
systems if nothing else.
Trot, the fox who has pretty low standards... ;]
--
TrotFox \ Always remember, /\-/\
AKA Landon Solomon \ "There is a ( o o )
[EMAIL PROTECTED] \ third alternative." >\./<
Re: Plastic loco drivers
In a message dated 4/30/2000 4:29:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> So in other words, "Try it and see"? {:)
I would sure hate to take a locomotive apart just because the wheels melted!!
Re: Plastic loco drivers
So in other words, "Try it and see"? {:)
Trot, the grey, fox...
On Sat, 29 Apr 100, Gary Broeder wrote:
> Regarding the possible use of plastic drivers:
<>
> GaryB
TrotFox \ Always remember, /\-/\
AKA Landon Solomon \ "There is a ( o o )
[EMAIL PROTECTED] \ third alternative." >\./<
