I'm planning on this thread being picture heavy and as much a diary of an inexperienced guy feeling his way through the build. Hopefully I'll find some more pointers along the way for the next guy following and hopefully not too many 'in hindsight'.

Everyone has their own way of working. I'm going to have to plod. I don't have the mindset to duck and dive on different bits so I'm just plodding through the build book and this report is while I'm sitting waiting for the saw to cut a large piece of scrap rusty hot-roll for my first former.

The boiler barrel first. This was a 12" piece of tube cut to the required length. I chose to cut that on the bandsaw and that really sliced through fast.

Two wooden plugs spaced by all-thread are to be fixed inside temporarily. I have some pieces of silver birch from my woodland that has sat in the shed for 4 years. It turned beautifully.. almost a waste to use it for this but i have plenty.

I centre drilled and drilled these through and actually threaded them M8 before parting off 25mm wide pieces. I had to over-drill one threaded hole to 8mm when i realised that a firm fit couldn't be twisted into place but had to be tapped down the all-thread. All-thread centre-drilled at one end for tailstock support.

Back in the lathe for squaring the ends and marking out. It was only when marking out i realised i had been a bit rash in assuming the 3-jaw would centre and hold this parallel to the axis without checking and i suppose I was lucky that there was less than 1mm deviation at the tailstock end when marking out from the viewpoint of the toolholder scribe touching the work.

If I ever make another then I must remember to dial and bump it in. Bt i got away with it.

The cut out was hand-sawn and filed. I left the corners curved as suggested for final fitting later and sawed leaving the scribe line intact again for possible adjustment.

The throatplate is next but it's going to take a while to turn this hot-roll into a nice former. I have a large supply by way of local scrappy and I'm in no rush so we'll save pennies where possible.

Jason,

I'm hoping some of this becomes clear to me as i build the thing!

I've read some of your comments before about these matters. The side stays presumably are just solid short rods soldered in instead? But does one place one or two threaded ones to help hold things or thin them to a shoulder and pean over?

As to the water gauge.. that's from the steam block to the bulkhead. I've again read your recommendation for a separate water feed but not clear where this goes. An additional bushing? You've also commented about location of water pump….

Otherwise little to report today.. just working on the flanging former and it's taking a lot longer to saw up and square up the lump of hot-rolled than i expected..mostly 'cos I failed to adjust the horizontal bandsaw weight tension properly and the blade kept jamming and it couldn't self cut 6" height straight so i had to make a good safety margin on width. I tried it in it's vertical position but again the blade kept jamming (probably not the best tooth count) so had to go back to horizontal. Sides and one flat surface faced off so far…

Thanks yet again… and I guess I'll be writing that a lot and leaning on you

Reality here is that there will be no boiler inspector involved and indeed even if it does run at the end then it'll be just to prove it works… that's assuming I have the tenacity to actually finish the thing and enough luck/skill/your and others advice to not screw it all up along the way…

It's about building it to learn the skills involved and if still interested in the hobby at the end (and still looking like I might live long enough) then perhaps build one of a useful size…

I'm also thinking in terms of closest metric size for threads rather than buy a whole additional set of taps/dies.. I assume one can buy a pressure gauge with metric threads. By manifold again i assume you mean what Les calls the steam block? When you suggest wider then by how much?

IF I understand correctly then I quite like that idea of a thin groove around the stays' ends to hold them for brazing.

I'm quite prepared to destroy a couple of boiler-worths of copper and silver to learn enough to get a working one. Even nicer to get ti right first time.

I'm aware of metric minnie and some of your comments here and elsewhere regarding it. It is however a useful reference for those of us with poor visualisation to see the exploded view and alignments.

It's an excuse to buy imperial stuff then I like accumulating tools (just hate paying for them). As it happens I do have metric fine taps and dies in some sizes… came in a really cheap set that I've had for years and still mostly works albeit I've had to replace a couple of dies I abused. For taps I find generally it's way easier to use machne taps by hand.

..Off to window shop some imperial drills etc…

This evening's efforts:

I annealed the throatplate blank on a camping gas ring. I expected a slowish change to plum and red since I've never annealed copper before. It turned plum where the ring flame hit it very fast with a pale center then seemed to suddenly flash-over a sort of silver colour?? Grabbed and dropped in a bucket of water.

I used a rubber mallet to flange it and with the benefit of hindsight that plate could have been way thicker..or the copper piece narrower and where it overhung the mallet rippled it a touch and i had to beat it back flat – no biggie as it goes and I was gratified to find the radius sat a 5mm rod neatly in it – close enough to the imperial target. and the flanges measured square.

It would have been nice to have a fretsaw to cut the circle out..i had to make do and hack with a large saw and then lots of filing

the instructions then require filing the boiler tube tabs to a sharp edge and bending the flange ears of the plate to fit inside them. Its a lot of fiddling and there's no precise approach apart from eyeballs and juggle. I didn't find that very satisfying to do and there's inherent spring in the junction so it's hard to hold and measure.

I trimmed the flange to match the tube using the mill with very light cuts and several passes. The end result looks OK to me… we'll find out in time.

Thanks for that info. Fortunately I had no trouble flanging.

I do intend to solder a few test pieces before tacking the boiler bits.. once I've sourced and built my brazing hearth, burners and supplies.

I've done a fair bit of reading but never noticed mention of the silver flash-over… cool.. at least i wasn't imagining it.

Agreed. Shrinking the metal will be a new challenge, specially when it's the circular cap.

Only very slow progress to report. I did cut and bend the wrapper.. again using the mill to slice the sheet and then bending over a handy bit of ally rod the right diameter. I also cut the reinforcing plates. Yesterday and today saw several deliveries.. now the owner of torches and solder and gas cylinder, imperial drills, rivets and other supplies.

Meanwhile i had decided to make a new former for the next plates instead of repurposing the first former.. as much 'cos i can see a second boiller attempt on the horizon…and since i had the imperial drills i was able to make more accurate radius gauges.

My previous coments about bone fragment holders caused me to look on ebay fr clamps. I remembered the backhaus towel clips are a similer (if weaker) tool and quite cheap. Also rochester pean artery forceps have much longer jaws than halstead or mosquito pattern… so more spring and the possibility of bowing the jaws if necessary. Ebay prices are really quite cheap on these and the quality isn't as bad as you might expect. I;ve included a pic of one of each clamping the throatplate ears.

I'll try and flange these two plates then probably practice riveting and soldering scrap..