# Birmingham Dribbler/Piddler build



## Kaleb (Jul 28, 2010)

For a while now, I have had a bit of a soft spot for Birmingham Dribblers, but the old ones are pretty much out of my reach. So now that I have my lathe, I thought I would build one myself! Unlike the two other projects I started, this doesn't seem too daunting. Like the originals, this will run on the floor, but I'm not going to try it on carpet, parents wouldn't be happy if their carpet was soaked with oil and condensate, not to mention what would happen if it hit the furniture and tipped over! 







I plan to build it similar to this one, with a Wilesco safety valve and whistle on the boiler. I don't think I'll fit a regulator or reverse to it, but that may come at a later date. Aren't these things supposed to take off anyway? Does anyone know if these had rolling stock sold to go with them? If so, I might build some based on that hauled by the Rocket. The loco Zee is building is basically a dribbler also.

Anyway, I'll have to wait till this afternoon before I can start building.


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## Deanofid (Jul 28, 2010)

I had a dribbler once, but she's all grown up and married now.

I don't know anything about these engines, Kaleb. Is it really called a "Dribbler", or is that a nick-name?
Whatever the case, it's really cute. Hope you'll show us how you progress on it!

Dean


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## zeeprogrammer (Jul 28, 2010)

Deanofid  said:
			
		

> I had a dribbler once, but she's all grown up and married now.



I'm becoming a dribbler but that's another story.

Very cool Kaleb. I'm looking forward to the thread. I did a quick Google..."dribbler' because they had a habit of leaving a trail of water (and fuel) across the floor. (See previous reference.)

Be sure there's a safety valve. Apparently a number of them have exploded!


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## Kaleb (Jul 29, 2010)

If you read over the post again, you'll see that I will fit a safety valve. I never build a boiler without one.


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## Captain Jerry (Jul 29, 2010)

I thought they were called "Piddlers".

Jerry


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## zeeprogrammer (Jul 29, 2010)

Kaleb  said:
			
		

> If you read over the post again, you'll see that I will fit a safety valve.



Sorry about that. I got so engrossed in reading about the Dribbler on Google that when I came back to my post...I'd clean forgot.


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## Kaleb (Jul 30, 2010)

Anyway I've made some progress over the last couple of days, here are some pictures:






One of the driving wheels, and what will become the cylinders






Setup for facing the brass bar to make the leading wheels






Turning one of the leading wheels from solid.

I'm having some trouble getting these to resize, so please bear with me.


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## Kaleb (Jan 8, 2011)

The Dribbler project has been on hold for a long time, but now that I have the workshop back, I've been busy.






The main frame is made from brass flat bar and angle, held together with steel bolts. I made most of it before the fire, but I have done some work on it just recently.

Notice the extra bits of brass bolted to each side. These will be the portfaces. I'm doing them this way so that if I drill the ports wrong, I don't need to make a whole new frame member, just that small section.






These of course are the cylinders and pistons. The cylinders are of a silver soldered 4 piece construction(cylinder barrel, cap, port block and trunnion.), all made from brass.

The pistons, including the rods and big ends were turned from a single piece of brass rod, about 12mm (1/2") in diameter. I have yet to drill the ports, but these slide nicely and seem to have a good seal since the piston comes out with a loud "POP!" made by air rushing in as the vacuum inside is broken.






The driving wheels are made from parts of a photocopier drive wheel kit that already had the holes drilled in them.

I originally thought they were aluminium by the way they cut, and the finish they had before I machined them, but when I tried to silver solder the brass hub to the axle, the wheel attached started to melt before it was hot enough to apply the solder! It's some sort of low temperature alloy, zinc perhaps? This meant I had to make a new wheel, but that's no big deal, since I have a whole stack of these drive wheel kits, and there's plenty more where they came from(My Dad works as a photocopier and office machine technician)

Now that I know this property of the metal, I'm going to stick the wheels to the axle with some Loctite. On that note, there seems to be a few different types of Loctite, which one should I use?


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## 4156df (Jan 9, 2011)

Happy to see you're back in the shop. I'm looking forward to watching your progress on the Dribbler.
Dennis


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## SignalFailure (Jan 9, 2011)

I'm looking forward to this too (being just up the road from Birmingham). 

Neat idea with the separate port faces 

Paul


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## b.lindsey (Jan 10, 2011)

Nice to see you back in the shop Kaleb. This looks to be a great project...looking forward to further updates.

Bill


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