American LaFrance Steam Fire Pumper

[LaFrance4]

Absolutely beautiful !! Thank you for sharing.

 

[LaFrance4]

Greetings, I thought I would share where I am at with the LaFrance project. Need to put stripes on the back of the right wheel and put stripes on the left wheel. Then I can work assembling the rear axle and suspension.

 

[LaFrance4]

Greetings, some more pictures of where I am at with the LaFrance project. Was able to finish the rear suspension this afternoon. Next is the assembly of the pump and associated plumbing.

 

[ajoeiam]

Greetings, some more pictures of where I am at with the LaFrance project. Was able to finish the rear suspension this afternoon. Next is the assembly of the pump and associated plumbing.

curious as to your method/technique as related to welding on the 'features' on the 'tank' (not sure as to what to call it - - - the black cylinder) - - please?

 

[LaFrance4]

Absolutely, the black cylinder is the boiler for the steam engines that will operate the positive displacement pump. I used TIG (tungsten inert gas) welding techniques. The entire boiler is made of steel except for the flu tubes. They are copper and “rolled” into place. Various bushings were made for the many fittings that will be on the boiler. The bushings were also TIG welded into place. I hope this answers you question.

 

[ajoeiam]

Absolutely, the black cylinder is the boiler for the steam engines that will operate the positive displacement pump. I used TIG (tungsten inert gas) welding techniques. The entire boiler is made of steel except for the flu tubes. They are copper and “rolled” into place. Various bushings were made for the many fittings that will be on the boiler. The bushings were also TIG welded into place. I hope this answers you question.

Thanks!!

 

[minh-thanh]

A great project

 

[LaFrance4]

Good evening, some more pictures to view. This time they are of the assembled pump and the pump mounted in the main frame of the engine. The first two pictures are of a check valve. There are 8 altogether.

 

[LaFrance4]

Good evening, been away from the LaFrance project for quit awhile. So many other things to do that absorbed one’s time. Today I cleaned up my nickel plating tub and it’s various components. I need need to plate a bunch of model hex head bolts and nuts for the connecting rods the the eccentric assemblies.
Blessings, Larry

 

[ddmckee54]

That's a nice small-scale professional looking plating setup you've got there. It looks like you're using an aquarium pump to circulate the plating fluid. Since I see a thermometer, is it safe to assume that there's also a heater in there somewhere?

Do you do any plating besides nickel? If you do, does each have it's own setup like this? If not how do you avoid cross-contamination between them?

Don

 

[LaFrance4]

Thank you for your kind comments. You are correct on all your points. Right now all my plating is nickel. I would have to set up a complete different tank assembly because I am sure there would be cross contamination.
The plating solution is made up of Nickel crystals and distilled water. The bath setup I have is 2 gallons of solution. The anode is a strip of pure nickel wrapped in gauze and connected to the positive side of the DC Power supply. The cathode is the piece being plated and is connected to the negative side of the power supply. I run the bath at around 115-120 degrees Fahrenheit. The voltage, amperage and time in the plating solution varies according to the size of the Part being plated. I hang the part on a piece of copper wire and then hang that on the copper wire that is between the two brass rods. The main factor that I found out is the pieces need to be very clean and free of any grease, oil or finger prints.
If you or anyone else has any suggestions or helpful hints, please share. This is still all black magic to me.
Cheers, Larry

 

[ajoeiam]

Thank you for your kind comments. You are correct on all your points. Right now all my plating is nickel. I would have to set up a complete different tank assembly because I am sure there would be cross contamination.
The plating solution is made up of Nickel crystals and distilled water. The bath setup I have is 2 gallons of solution. The anode is a strip of pure nickel wrapped in gauze and connected to the positive side of the DC Power supply. The cathode is the piece being plated and is connected to the negative side of the power supply. I run the bath at around 115-120 degrees Fahrenheit. The voltage, amperage and time in the plating solution varies according to the size of the Part being plated. I hang the part on a piece of copper wire and then hang that on the copper wire that is between the two brass rods. The main factor that I found out is the pieces need to be very clean and free of any grease, oil or finger prints.
If you or anyone else has any suggestions or helpful hints, please share. This is still all black magic to me.
Cheers, Larry

Very useful - - - thanks for sharing.

But - - - where do you get the chemicals?

 

[LaFrance4]

Believe it or not, I was able to purchase everything I needed from Amazone including the DC power supply. YouTube has many videos about the plating process

 

[ccolby]

Thank you for your kind comments. You are correct on all your points. Right now all my plating is nickel. I would have to set up a complete different tank assembly because I am sure there would be cross contamination.
The plating solution is made up of Nickel crystals and distilled water. The bath setup I have is 2 gallons of solution. The anode is a strip of pure nickel wrapped in gauze and connected to the positive side of the DC Power supply. The cathode is the piece being plated and is connected to the negative side of the power supply. I run the bath at around 115-120 degrees Fahrenheit. The voltage, amperage and time in the plating solution varies according to the size of the Part being plated. I hang the part on a piece of copper wire and then hang that on the copper wire that is between the two brass rods. The main factor that I found out is the pieces need to be very clean and free of any grease, oil or finger prints.
If you or anyone else has any suggestions or helpful hints, please share. This is still all black magic to me.
Cheers, Larry

I buy all of my nickel plating supplies online from Caswell Plating. Their somewhat expensive plating manual is worth the asking price. Their plating supplies are reasonably priced and work surprisingly well. Cleanliness and controlling the plating bath temperature and plating current are important details.

https://caswellplating.com/

 

[LaFrance4]

Absolutely correct. Could not remember the name !!

 

[LaFrance4]

Been able to spend some quality time on the LaFrance project the past 5 days. I have all the linkages installed except for the right hand pump linkage. I will do that when I turn the model around. Added some of the other attachments to see what was needed in the way of bolts and nuts to be plated and small items to make.

 

[LaFrance4]

Finished the installation of all the connecting links this afternoon. I turned a flywheel by hand to show how the linkages work together. I am running out of parts to bolt to the Fire Engine. This is a good thing.

 

[LaFrance4]

Couple of pictures of the business end of the LaFrance.

 

[LaFrance4]

This past weekend was spent trying to design a belt that holds the rubber tubes in place in their respective cradle. When I built the cradles I solder a piece of brass tubing .062 OD with a .032 ID to the front and back edges of the cradle. I finally came up with an idea of making a small bending jig to bend .032 diameter brass rod to fit into the tubing. The attached pictures can explain it better. The leather is pig skin. Very thin and pliable and extremely strong. I used 2 jump rings to weave the leather through just like the an old fashion belt buckle.

 

[LaFrance4]

This past weekend was spent trying to design a belt that holds the rubber tubes in place in their respective cradle. When I built the cradles I solder a piece of brass tubing .062 OD with a .032 ID to the front and back edges of the cradle. I finally came up with an idea of making a small bending jig to bend .032 diameter brass rod to fit into the tubing. The attached pictures can explain it better. The leather is pig skin. Very thin and pliable and extremely strong. I used 2 jump rings to weave the leather through just like the an old fashion belt buckle.

Well, the top end is starting to shape up very nicely.