Marine boiler build

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Johnny O, What is the reason to use some times the white and other times the black flux ?
Hilmar
 
Hi Gus
I'm in Philadelphia area, worked in fossil plants that had XLE'S from 1950 thru 1985? I think. We had four at our eddystone station and scrapped two for an Atlas Copco turbine style and sullair. I kept an access door for cast iron material and cut out the raised I/R lettering to hang on shop wall. An I/R field Tech. in Windsor once told me they were the cadillac of I/R's line, last one made around 1994.

Hi Hilmar
The reason for black flux is it holds up under longer times at higher temps then the white flux. Used it on the larger copper joints as they take more effort to maintain a wicking temp. for the 56 stay-silv. The white might have cooked out before achieving success. I also read here about its use on most joints you would use the standard white flux with good results. I only used it on carbides before trying it out on this boiler. It did work out well as I seemed to have to hold a glowing red color at times to make solder flow.
 
Got this late christmas present, now need to cut circles out for heater. Will have to experiment a bit, plan on using it for ceramic insert in gas boiler burner. It's from a MrBuddy heater, someone suggested using these so I ordered one. Have plugs to make first for hydro test but this gives me something to think about.

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Hi Gus
I'm in Philadelphia area, worked in fossil plants that had XLE'S from 1950 thru 1985? I think. We had four at our eddystone station and scrapped two for an Atlas Copco turbine style and sullair. I kept an access door for cast iron material and cut out the raised I/R lettering to hang on shop wall. An I/R field Tech. in Windsor once told me they were the cadillac of I/R's line, last one made around 1994.

Hi Hilmar
The reason for black flux is it holds up under longer times at higher temps then the white flux. Used it on the larger copper joints as they take more effort to maintain a wicking temp. for the 56 stay-silv. The white might have cooked out before achieving success. I also read here about its use on most joints you would use the standard white flux with good results. I only used it on carbides before trying it out on this boiler. It did work out well as I seemed to have to hold a glowing red color at times to make solder flow.

XLEs since 1990 are made in IR Ahmedabad. They were also made in IR Milan,Italy.My Indian Boss has the foresight. The Indian Market prefers recipe machines.
The Indian CNC Machine Centres used to machine XLEs.Gus stood here for hours enthralled by the huge Machine Centre.
 
Hi johnnyo, Thanks for the replay. Have to find a place where to get the black flux in NY State.
Hilmar
 
Hi Folks
I had a few rivets leak with an air test at 110 psi and went after them with silver bright to caulk em up. Afterwards I plugged and filled it with water and pressed it up to 180 psi with no leaks. So far so good, I went ahead with super heater coil and stack assembly for now. Working up burner design now.
Thanks
John

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Hi Johnnyo.

Would love to see your burner design and burner lighted up to build steam.Looking at the chimney flue,Can guess your bolier is twin pass for fuel efficiency.With the superheaters in place,efficiency would be higher. Studied Steam 50 years ago and all forgotten.I get mixed up with Enthalpy and Entropy. Spent hours pouring over steam chart to do my student assigment.

Build some burners myself but I am really in the kindergarten stage. Machine my own gas nozzles. 0.5 mm jet hole is nail biting when drilling them. I use canned LPG. Propane had to get here in Singapore.

Would love to see video of boiler feeding steam to run steam engine.
 
Hi Gus
I had a few small leaks in rivets and burner tube in dryback area. These sealed up nicely with staybright and stay clear flux. Super heater coil needs a better thread sealant before I install and check again. It needs soft copper gaskets on banjo fitting faces instead of garlock. The boiler held 250 psi for 15 min. though 200 was probably adaquit. Will work on mounting bracket and burner fabrication after vacation. Have a nice design by Sandy C I might try to adapt to this boiler. Used a ralston hand pump which can go up to 3k psi. Very nice, safe way to hydro a model boiler, had to clean out a grease film applied inside internals from manufacturer though. No engine made yet Gus, you'll have to wait.

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Bout time I matched this boiler to a steam engine. I started playing around with the SaitoV4 design. I figured out the valve design thanks to some pics posted on flicker. I thank the person who took the time to disassemble and photograph this fine engine. Still not sure why Saito would discontinue it. I got this far and now I need to go back and redesign my valve head and ports to open them up a bit more. It currently has .5 bore x .562 stroke. I'm using .125 thk. Ti. For rods with sealed roller bearings in case and big end of rods. I will post other pics I have and progress as it happens.
Thanks
Johnny O

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Well it's been a while and I finally caught up to my DraftSight work on this engine. Made a bunch of changes along the way. I'll put up pics of its progress. This is were Itstands now nearly finished. I need to fabricate the valve linkage next.

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Found my pictures so I'll put em up now. These are the parts I have so far. The pistons in photo have two o-rings but I made new ones with a single teflon piston ring with a silicone o-ring expander underneath. Bearings are sealed type with an open crankcase at bottom to expel any water that leaks by pistons.Valve movement is provided by link rods with hole patterns in them at back of pic. The bronze spools move back and forth off bell crank motion imparted by eccentric driven link rods. Throttle and forward/Rev. accomplished by rotating valve sleeve. All similar to Saitos V4PR but for the round crankcase and different valve porting method. I still need the valve linkage rod and exhaust end fittings. More to come ………….:)

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Found these showing valve linkage and assembly on shaft eccentric. The cylinders have an o-ring seated in a groove at top and a lagging cover not shown covers them up. I might try insulating the cylinders inside lagging and some more on the supply manifold.

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Hi Johnnyo,
Will steal time to build same boiler. That will be after completing the Howell V-2 Gas Engine in three to four months.
 

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