1916 65 HP Case Traction Engine 1/16 Scale

[olympic]

Beautiful job on the boiler! I made one myself once, after buying a Rudy tractor sight unseen and being assured by the seller that it had a new, siver-soldered boiler. Here's what I got; needless to say, it was scrapped and replaced immediately:

The rest of the tractor was reasonably well-made, so all was not lost.

Just posted this so people could see what not to do....

 

[kwoodhands]

A small piece of leather worked better than the tape on the copper end plates
View attachment 148306
I had saved my old worn out Mapp gas torch, so I patched it up and had it in standby in case I needed it for the boiler heads. I have seriously considered the Victor Turbo torch air/acetylene set up because I have two empty B-tanks and a regular acetylene regulator setup. I opted out of changing my plan for the $300, and because I didn't really want to change setups half way through the boiler. So I plodded on heedful of Mike's advice.
View attachment 148307

Wrapped the boiler in SuperWool ceramic fibre to hold some heat in, and did one end at a time. The end plate, bushings and stay was done in all in one shot rather than separate as others have done. My plumbing experience seemed to insist that it would leak if I heated a joint up in such close proximity to another. Thankfully, everything worked out fine in the end.

View attachment 148310View attachment 148308

It was oxidized pretty heavily, but I had bought some citric acid powder to try out and it cleaned up nicely after soaking for just a few moments. All the joints looked great, so I tested with water and air to 60 psig and let set for 30 minutes. No leaks

There may be a slight interference between the LH tapping and the countershaft. In hindsight I wish I had clocked these two tappings so they were level across the top. The safety valve hex head also has a small interference with the oval slot under the steam dome. Both items are pretty minor to work around and I am very pleased with this milestone in the build.


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Great job, I also had a slight problem with the opening for the safety valve and throttle. I made the opening 1/8" longer. I will have to remake the steam dome
Have you sourced the humidifier valve that Rudy shows? I do not understand this part of the build.
Supposedly water level in the boiler can be viewed with this valve.
mike

 

[raveney]

Thank you Olympic!
The one pictured sure looks like regular plumber's "soft" solder. What was the asking price for the tractor?

Thank you Mike!
I have already purchased the tubing and valves for my build. I am using a 1/4" MIPT x 1/4" OD compression angle needle valve from Amazon because it has a nice straight knurled handle. Ace hardware has the humidifier style in stock, but the "Tee" is a bit wide for my liking, although it would work fine.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SYRX3L5?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I have a small 1-1/2" dial face 100 psi backmount gauge in my scrap bin that is 1/8" MIPT. I also bought some compression fittings and threaded bass fittings to use. I plan to mount the fill valve in the left bunker, and the gauge and petcock on the right just as Rudy and others have done.

 

[olympic]

My horrid boiler was indeed made with regular plumbers' solder.

Here are a couple of pictures of my Rudy Case after repairs, which included re-making the boiler, the dome, the throttle, the displacement lubricator and all of the associated piping. Somehow, except for the mediocre paint job, someone did a good job on much of the tractor, including the engine and gearing; it was just the boiler, etc. that was awful.

The original asking price for the tractor was $CDN800.00. I did better than that, thank heaven, and fortunately the new boiler and other repairs cost me nothing but time, as I had all of the materials on hand.

Note where my pressure gauge was mounted. It's perfect!

 

[raveney]

That's a great tractor Olympic.
Really like all the extra details added such as the expanded metal step, tools, hoses and wooden decking. I wish that I had moved the relief valve forward as you did so it wasn't inside the steam dome. The lantern sure is cool also. Thank you for sharing the good pictures of your tractor.

On my little project I changed out the steering chain for a bit thicker and used two tiny springs to keep some tension.

The fill valve, drain and pressure gauge was plumbed in using annealed 1/8" OD copper tube. I had to grind away the rivets on the bunker panels and remove them to make the clearance holes for the tube nuts. I think that I will screw these back on using 0-80 screws and hex nuts rather than rivets. The gauge face sits higher than the bunkers....drats.

Maybe I'll get creative with the fake coal pile or maybe I'll make the dial visible?

I took some extra time to make a faux fuel door with a chain as I have seen used to open/close it. I wonder if I need to drill through so the flames will be visible, or if that will mess the draft up?

 

[krypto]

These are the pressure gauges I use with my Jensen engine boilers:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283853920576
These are about as small as they get assuming you are not exceeding 30 PSI running pressure, which is what I want for those engines as the relief valve blows at a little over 20 PSI. I think the recommended pressure for the Case boiler is similar.

 

[olympic]

Thanks, Raveney, for your kind comments about my tractor.

It's obvious to me that two people worked on the tractor: the one who did the body, wheels, gears, and engine; and the one who made such a disaster of the boiler, dome, throttle, lubricator and all the associated piping. As someone who likes model engineering but has no formal training in design, mechanics or machining, I was lucky to accomplish what I did to get it running, but my work is clearly amateurish compared to what you're doing.

I should point out that I made the decking because I couldn't think of any other way to lessen the visual impact of the tubes leading to the bunkers.

I'll be following the rest of your build with great interest.

 

[raveney]

Bunker tops and steam dome

Chopped and split 1/4096 of a cord of seasoned oak to fill out the fuel bunkers and hide the pressure gauge and fill valve. Looks pretty close to scale and they lift out without too much effort, yet stay inside. The firewood is glued to a 1/16" piece of plywood.


Next up was the steam inlet throttle valve built exactly as Rudy prescribed. This led to the construction of the steam dome. Here I used whatever suited me and ended up with a copper hoop, brass saddle and aluminum dome. The rivets are soft soldered and ground flush. The steam dome is held in place with two 2-56 SHC into the outer steel "boiler" shell. The steam dome is fake and hides the out of scale relief valve and throttle. Nice idea by Rudy.
Showing a few setups to show my methodology. I had a piece of shovel handle which I used with hose clamps for most the work holding. A scrap piece of boiler shell was used to mill out the inner slot after riveting it up.
.

Finally a slot was milled in the aluminum dome as clearance for the throttle lever. Another machining operation will be to relieve the dome for the intermediate steam pipe going to the steam chest and lubricator.

 

[raveney]

Whew it's hot in the garage here in central Florida!
Piped the throttle valve to the steam chest and made a steam lubricator. Gave the dome a little more radius also.

 

[raveney]

Hello all,

Made up a tupperware bin full of citric acid and dipped the wheels, gears and axle parts prior to a somewhat premature paint job. The thought was that it would really cure and also antique a little as I complete the remaining parts. I chose satin finish Spruce green and Heritage red name brand paints with a high heat flat black for the boiler shell.

After brushing vigorously with a toothbrush, I neutralized it in backing soda -n-water and then blew dry and sat out in the sun. Made some fixtures so I could spray outside where it wasn't so dusty. My garage is used for welding, wood working and lawn equipment so not ideal as a painting booth.
Very light coats and rotate each couple hours with a good overnight dry inside in the AC. I have heard people comment on how red can appear pink in high humidity. Didn't happen this time. Applied grease to the axles and gear faces to serve as masking.

I made up a sketch and fabricated a fake economiser and routed the cylinder exhaust into the base of the stack just as Rudy showed. Increased the exhaust header to 3/16 OD instead of 1/8 OD. This caused the flange to be a but weld rather than socket fit as the flange is the same width as the pipe. I countersunk the flange and tapered the pipe. Also applied white paint pen to a short piece of 1/8 brass to serve as a centering fixture. The paint was supposed to reject the braze but it didn't and had to re-drill it out along with the mounting holes.

Pickled it up and then soldered the blast pipe using lower temp silver solder. A 1/4-28 thread holds it secure to the boiler shell.

 

[kwoodhands]

Hello all,

Made up a tupperware bin full of citric acid and dipped the wheels, gears and axle parts prior to a somewhat premature paint job. The thought was that it would really cure and also antique a little as I complete the remaining parts. I chose satin finish Spruce green and Heritage red name brand paints with a high heat flat black for the boiler shell.
View attachment 148922
After brushing vigorously with a toothbrush, I neutralized it in backing soda -n-water and then blew dry and sat out in the sun. Made some fixtures so I could spray outside where it wasn't so dusty. My garage is used for welding, wood working and lawn equipment so not ideal as a painting booth.
Very light coats and rotate each couple hours with a good overnight dry inside in the AC. I have heard people comment on how red can appear pink in high humidity. Didn't happen this time. Applied grease to the axles and gear faces to serve as masking.
View attachment 148923View attachment 148924
I made up a sketch and fabricated a fake economiser and routed the cylinder exhaust into the base of the stack just as Rudy showed. Increased the exhaust header to 3/16 OD instead of 1/8 OD. This caused the flange to be a but weld rather than socket fit as the flange is the same width as the pipe. I countersunk the flange and tapered the pipe. Also applied white paint pen to a short piece of 1/8 brass to serve as a centering fixture. The paint was supposed to reject the braze but it didn't and had to re-drill it out along with the mounting holes.
View attachment 148919View attachment 148921
Pickled it up and then soldered the blast pipe using lower temp silver solder. A 1/4-28 thread holds it secure to the boiler shell.
View attachment 148920

Next time use "white out" to stop the flow of solder. This is the stuff used to erase typos. Looks like white paint. Comes with a small brush applicator. Brush it on where you do not want solder to flow. Make sure it is dry when you apply the torch. Only takes seconds to dry. One time I applied the whiteout and immediately. put the torch to it, solvents were not dry and I had a small fire which I blew out immediately
mike.

 

[olympic]

Hello all,

Made up a tupperware bin full of citric acid and dipped the wheels, gears and axle parts prior to a somewhat premature paint job. The thought was that it would really cure and also antique a little as I complete the remaining parts. I chose satin finish Spruce green and Heritage red name brand paints with a high heat flat black for the boiler shell.
View attachment 148922
After brushing vigorously with a toothbrush, I neutralized it in backing soda -n-water and then blew dry and sat out in the sun. Made some fixtures so I could spray outside where it wasn't so dusty. My garage is used for welding, wood working and lawn equipment so not ideal as a painting booth.
Very light coats and rotate each couple hours with a good overnight dry inside in the AC. I have heard people comment on how red can appear pink in high humidity. Didn't happen this time. Applied grease to the axles and gear faces to serve as masking.
View attachment 148923View attachment 148924
I made up a sketch and fabricated a fake economiser and routed the cylinder exhaust into the base of the stack just as Rudy showed. Increased the exhaust header to 3/16 OD instead of 1/8 OD. This caused the flange to be a but weld rather than socket fit as the flange is the same width as the pipe. I countersunk the flange and tapered the pipe. Also applied white paint pen to a short piece of 1/8 brass to serve as a centering fixture. The paint was supposed to reject the braze but it didn't and had to re-drill it out along with the mounting holes.
View attachment 148919View attachment 148921
Pickled it up and then soldered the blast pipe using lower temp silver solder. A 1/4-28 thread holds it secure to the boiler shell.
View attachment 148920

Like your drawing. Who needs CAD?

 

[raveney]

Like your drawing. Who needs CAD?

thank you Olympic,
I should have called out that the 2-3/4 long brass is 1/2" OD tube with two solid brass end caps, (I only drew one). This avoids drilling a long and probably wandering hole for the steam pipe. It could have easily be solid brass though....

 

[olympic]

thank you Olympic,
I should have called out that the 2-3/4 long brass is 1/2" OD tube with two solid brass end caps, (I only drew one). This avoids drilling a long and probably wandering hole for the steam pipe. It could have easily be solid brass though....

Much better to do what you did. Just as accurate in the long run.

 

[raveney]

Over the last two weekends I figured out the clutch lever and built a throttle and fake reverse lever for the tractor. I wanted a ratchet like feel as I moved the throttle, so came up with a plan as shown. I used the DRO bolt circle function and then sanded down to a scribed line about halfway through the holes. Six holes starting at 225 and ending at 315 with a 0.435 radius. The sketch wasn't revised. A small grub screw adjusts how much ratchet feel there is. The lever knobs were tapered and rounded out of 3/16 squared off steel. I spun up a "speed" handle for the steering while I was at it.
Pretty pleased with the end results.

Just the ladder and the fuel tank-burners are left to do. I was going to skip the fake governor but may still make a fake pressure gauge. It was 95 F inside the shop today with two big fans blowing. I didn't feel like working much after the yard work was finished.

 

[olympic]

I like that ratchet throttle. Maybe this winter I can modify my tractor to accommodate this.

As for the fake pressure gauge, if you look at my posted pictures you'll see one on top of my dome. All I did was make something that looked like the appropriate housing, then stuck a suitably shrunk photo of a pressure gauge onto that. The real pressure gauge I put in the right fuel bunker.

Keep up the good work. Your build is far superior to what I purchased and repaired. I envy your ability.

 

[raveney]

Thank you for the compliments and tips Olympic

Decided to go ahead and make the dummy pressure gauge as you described. The real one is hidden under the firewood as shown in post #85. My subscription to Microsoft expired, but I snagged a great picture online and shrunk it in a free online Word version. Printed a few on sticker paper and cut out with a rather dull 3/8 leather punch. Overcame the dullness with a big F'in Hammer. Very realistic as the decal paper is super glossy.


Then the ladder/stairs was attempted several times before coming up with a viable solution. I think that this once again demonstrates that patience and perseverance can overcome lack of skill.
The silver brazing examples just warped and looked horrible as they came out of alignment when heated. I decided to stop freehanding it and go to the mill and drill alignment holes using my "odd-job" angle table set at 20 degrees. The results looks promising placed up against the tractor, but I will leave the final soldering until another day.



the image I used for the pressure gauge is below, accessed from an auction site with fantastic high quality images.
https://www.mecum.com/lots/407348/1911-case-30-horsepower-steam-traction-engine/

 

[olympic]

Looks like you found the same pictures of a Case pressure gauge as I did, except that I chose one that showed about 75lb pressure. Otherwise, I proceeded much as you did.

I'm glad I was able to contribute to your superlative build.

 

[raveney]

Hello everyone,
finished the stepladder on the third attempt and mounted it to the running boards. Built a sheet-brass fuel tank per plans and soft soldered the seams using a cooking torch and plumbers solder. It distorted a little, but it was okay as mostly hidden. The burner barrels were hard soldered and packed with left over burner wicks cut 1 inch long and tightly packed. The flame is not that hot and I will likely have to experiment with other materials.

The boiler is easily filled using a hose thread by ice maker line that plugs into the bottom of the fill valve of the tractor. There is a push connector that can be seen in the undercarriage picture. A radiator type petcock vents the air off.

It idles okay after adding packing to the cylinder head and adding an o-ring to the lubricator fill cap. I also had to remake the throttle valve as it leaked more than I liked. Twenty minutes to heat up a cold filled boiler to 25 psig. Easily runs down to 12 psig on the benchtop.


After fiddling about most the day it will run for a short time on the floor under power. Any builders that can suggest different fuels or types of burners to get more power?
I need more heat input or maybe more combustion air?

 

[krypto]

You want to stick with good denatured alcohol. Try adjusting your wicks.

You can also try Doug's draft fan.:

https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/building-rudys-steam-tractor.3838/post-45019
Different burner designs: