Werowance attempts Myfordboys traction engine

[werowance]

This Finally arrived.

 

[timo_gross]

Umm just to knock this on its head, Myfordboy is not a jerk, just protective of his income. I've dealt with him on many occasions and he is a pleasant guy who will help if he can.

I ordered castings for the myfordboy steam engine some time ago. I think it has a similar cylinder and valve as the traction engine. I do not remember the exact cost, but I thought it was reasonable and making it worked out fine ( if compressed air counts ). Pdf-files always multipy and spread fast.
I consider myself a happy customer, all good. I think it is a good beginner project because it is not overly complicated, comes with good drawings and video instructions.
Thread dimensions I changed to metric.

 

[werowance]

i to am a happy customer (refering to myfordboy) and wish i had worded things differently on those posts so as to not have stirred all that up.

Those taps and Dies were from ebay / India (not myfordboy) and took for ever to come in. i could have ordered from China and gotten them much quicker. usually tools i get from India arrive very quickly. but not in this case.
hopefully i can start moving along more quickly now that i have those.

 

[werowance]

slow progress.

got the cylinder made and lapped to a nice shiny finish on the inside

 

[awake]

Some more info on the site in the link
Just use google if needed to translate
I like cutting my own gears but will admit to having the odd 64and a 1/2 toothed one
Steam45 - Presentation - engine

I have not found a use for a 64.5 tooth gear, but a 63.5 tooth gear is perfect for translating between metric and imperial threads on the lathe!

 

[awake]

This Finally arrived.

View attachment 124922

How's the quality on these?

 

[werowance]

so so just by looking at them. i have not used them as of yet. putting in the garden, just replaced all windows in my home and just a ton of other things going on.

 

[awake]

so so just by looking at them. i have not used them as of yet. putting in the garden, just replaced all windows in my home and just a ton of other things going on.

I hear that! My shop time has been limited both by job and by garden and home, and when I have gotten in the shop the time has been consumed by other projects, leaving my latest model engine stranded for many months now. Someday ...

 

[werowance]

just a little bit more done. finished the hornplate studs and made several BA nuts .
ill trim the studs to be right once i actually mount the hornplates. they are extra long and also if you notice i tapered the tip alot to make it easy to start the die on them so that end will be cut off later on

just about got everything done to start brazing up the boiler.

 

[werowance]

question, i used super glue to hold one of the end caps in the tube so i could drill all the holes and tap the hornplate stud holes. i then used a torch to heat and burn off the glue. after that i used a wire brush, steel wool fine sand paper etc to clean things back up. i also ran the tap back through the horn plate stud holes. the small parts and end cap i put in a jar with acetone in it to soak over night. had some dykem to remove and such. also thought it might help get rid of any super glue residue.

but that question is - is there anything i should soak all the parts in to be sure i am rid of that super glue residue? i heated it to a dull red to burn it off. will the acetone bath take care of any burned super glue residue? im more worried about the stud holes/threads having residue in them - cant really get steel wool in them and i dont think the tap would clean the treads completely.

once i feel everything is clean then ill pickle in a citric acid bath until it looks ready to braze.

 

[werowance]

got the boiler all brazed up.
Jasonb you were right the safetysilv 56 with black flux was easier to use.
on the first about half of the boiler i used a large propane torch. but i had a large mapp gas torch that was given to me along with a large bottle of gas about 1/4 full so i used that and a huge difference with mapp gas. ive used oxy accetalene with a jewelers torch before and have to be carefull not to melt parts, propane is just a tadd bit to cold and hard to get it flowing but mapp gas was just right. would recomend that for silver brazing.

Whiteout correction fluid works great at keeping the solder out of the threaded areas and where you dont want it to go.

i need to build a preasure tester like myfordboy did using a spray bottle but not sure of 2 things.

1. will this air tank presure gauge pictured below work?
2. how the heck did he get the copper line in the spray tip of the bottle and it ever hold? i may email myfordboy directly and ask that one but if anyone has suggestions im open.

 

[fcheslop]

He probably uses a Goodall valve. The 16mm loco guys use them a lot
https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/my-version-of-a-goodall-boiler-top-up-valve.22272/

 

[Jasonb]

I'd be a bit worried about the solder joint around that end bush and the flat plate, does not look like the solder has flowed anywhere near as well as it did on the end plates you soldered previously. Should be an even small fillet all round with no gaps or thick bits of solder that have not flowed completely. looks like tube got upto temp but bosses and plate were a bit cold.

Valve will be OK for a rough idea of pressure.

 

[werowance]

it did flow into the bushes, and into the inside, jsut didnt fill the gap where the sides of the bushes are flat and the tube is round. looking from the inside though which you cant see, it flowed pretty good.

on the engine mount, it flowed into and around the 2 screws holding it on, also on the inside 2 rings of solder were put on the protruding screws like washers and brazed first which coated the entire screw and flowed outward onto the pipe from the inside, on the outside i just flowed some to make sure the 2 screws got coated as well the rest ran down the side of the pipe.

what i tried to do is braze bushes, studs and screws holding the engine pad from inside first using rings of solder. once all that was done i cleaned everything again and did the end caps and tried to flow a little more from the outside.

and the end caps were brazed from outside only

 

[bobden72]

got the boiler all brazed up.
Jasonb you were right the safetysilv 56 with black flux was easier to use.
on the first about half of the boiler i used a large propane torch. but i had a large mapp gas torch that was given to me along with a large bottle of gas about 1/4 full so i used that and a huge difference with mapp gas. ive used oxy accetalene with a jewelers torch before and have to be carefull not to melt parts, propane is just a tadd bit to cold and hard to get it flowing but mapp gas was just right. would recomend that for silver brazing.

Whiteout correction fluid works great at keeping the solder out of the threaded areas and where you dont want it to go.

i need to build a preasure tester like myfordboy did using a spray bottle but not sure of 2 things.

1. will this air tank presure gauge pictured below work?
2. how the heck did he get the copper line in the spray tip of the bottle and it ever hold? i may email myfordboy directly and ask that one but if anyone has suggestions im open.

View attachment 126696

View attachment 126697

View attachment 126698

Looks like a fine bit of silver soldering, well done.

 

[Jasonb]

Fare enough if it's just cosmetic on the outside but that was all I could see in the photos.

Has the design been altered from what Myfordboy shows on his videos as your first image seems to show a central stay and there is no sign of the flue tube? Your questing about the test gauge would seem to also suggest that you did not need to test the flue before building it into the boiler so has something changed?

 

[werowance]

he has altered the plans from his original build videos eliminating the flue and replacing it with the stay.

here is the video with information on that on his youtube site.

Simple Steam The Myfordboy Traction Engine Part 20 Improved Burner - YouTube

also i did some more cleanup on the boiler and checked closer on those joints, everything looks good. it just didnt fill in the gap reall good. but where it actually touches to the pipe it flowed good. guess what im trying to compare to is that it didnt fill the gap like you would with caulk say when replacing a window seal or putting in new counter tops. so there is that visible gap but it did seal. really hard for me to put in words.

any rate got started on the preasure test rig. myfordboy used a very similar rig that fsheslop showed in his post above. so im working on that now.

 

[CFLBob]

i need to build a preasure tester like myfordboy did using a spray bottle but not sure of 2 things.

1. will this air tank presure gauge pictured below work?
2. how the heck did he get the copper line in the spray tip of the bottle and it ever hold? i may email myfordboy directly and ask that one but if anyone has suggestions im open.

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking, but a way to pressure test is with a slide in fitting on a pump with a pressure gauge on it. I don't know what they're called but they're sold with bike tire pumps. Bike tire pumps, the manual kind, go up to over 150 PSI. The only tricky part is there are a couple of valve types that are different sizes and pumps, too. Found this picture at Walmart. I don't own one, no connections to their sales, yada yada.


I have a Ryobi tire pump for the cars, bikes and whatever else and it came with one of those. It goes up to 150 psi, too.

Of course, as a guy with a machine shop, you could make something like that out of brass or a handy piece of scrap and use the pump to check how well it holds pressure.

 

[werowance]

Bob thanks for showing that but in this case i want to use the squirt bottle with water to preasure the boiler. for one reason is that some folks also use this same bottle as a boiler feed pump so you dont have to cool down and de preasure the boiler to fill it up. with this pump you can fill it while under preasure so it doesnt take as long to come back up to temp.

Myfordboy has some videos of doing this as well. he also used the same rig to test the boiler for leaks.

Myfordboy shared this photo of his setup and gave me permission to post the phot.

first photo is his setup note there is a schrader tire valve inline between the green cap and the gauge

second photo is my start showing the parts as they were / cutout and some machining.

what i used was a long bolt in brass tire valve like a tractor / trailer big rig would use, i cut the bolt in part off and threaded that end. the end where the valve stem cap would go i put it in the lathe and cut it down to get rid of the cap threads. i then made a sleeve with a lip on it so the spray bottle cap would hold it in the nozzle.

next i have to make a T block for the gauge and this valve to screw in, then on the output i will solder some copper tube to it.

 

[CFLBob]

What you're doing is way more impressive. I'm amazed you can get enough pressure out of one those plastic sprayers.