At 12:24 PM 10/11/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Terry,
>It all depends on what size boiler you are talking about! If you are
>building a 3/4" scale raritan, it will be fine!
I don't think anyone with any experience in copper would consider
1/32" sheet to be fine for 3/4" scale. It will of course work in theory,
but then only where the forces on the boiler are radial, and perpindicular
to the central axis of the shell. That shape is self-staying up to failure
point. Otherwise the need for staying and reinforcing of such thin sheet
to compensate for forces other than radial would completely negate any
possible benefits the material might have. There are many other strength
considerations besides "will the shell tube walls hold". It makes no sense
to go to all the trouble of building a locomotive only build the boiler out
of whatever happens to be handy or cheap. As scale increases, unlike what
is typical in Ga1, the boiler is called upon to contribute an increasing
amount of the structural spine of a locomotive and for that 1/32" simply
won't do.
Regards,
Harry Wade
Nashville, Tn
