Ballaarat construction series

[LukerParticipant @luker]

Posted by Simon Collier on 30/10/2021 22:03:46:

The boiler scales to a little under 4”. Did you use 4” tube or roll the barrel?

The barrel was rolled… For my boilers I use modern manufacturing techniques and materials more suited for the younger model engineer , but I don't want to give away too much; the boiler part should follow soon…

[LukerParticipant @luker]

The new ME is out for the digital readers (ME 4679), which has part 6 of the Ballaarat construction series dealing with my method to machine cylinders. I mentioned that the pistons need to be mechanically free but steam tight, and I gave two different methods of practically checking this. I used the technical term of the piston ‘oozing down’ in one of the tests… the video below shows this ‘new’ measure. I do mention this in the article but I like to remind the young chaps that it's great getting this perfect but practically with steam oil and piston rings you would need a decent rattle fit before you’ll notice any blow-by.

[LukerParticipant @luker]

The YouTube video I mentioned in Part 6 for setting up the lathe to turn parallel is embedded below. I put this video together a number of years back for a course I presented.

Apologies in advance for the amateurish video!

[tom hardyParticipant @tomhardy75463]

hi luker

i am a member of the northern districts model engineering group in perth. myself and three other members are building ballaarats 3x 5 inch and 1x 71/4 inch . an article on this loco was in our local saturday west australain newspaper it does mention a south african who has built a ballaarat

we dont have the facilities to cast wheels with cast iron so we are going to try another way. we are going to get some discs of 125 round bar to the width of the wheel then machine a recess in them. then have some sheet metal laser cut to the shape of the spokes and silver solder them in to the recess

regards tom

[LukerParticipant @luker]

HI Tom,

That’s great! Please post pictures as you guys go, even if you don’t follow my design. I’d love to see how other builders tackle the same loco! I’m sure the other forum members following the series would also be interested in different build options.

Making the wheels from a disk and laser cut pieces will work perfectly. These will probably have better wear characteristics than any commercially cast wheels simply because most foundries won’t know how to chill the running surface.

Looking forward to some pictures!

Luker

[LukerParticipant @luker]

I found this little local media piece on the Ballaarat the other night. That little loco means a lot to the community which is great!

[LukerParticipant @luker]

The young lad building the Ballaarat let me know I was a little vague in my description of making the taper reamer for the drain cocks, so I put together the following…

[tom hardyParticipant @tomhardy75463]

hi luker

news from the builders in west australia photo of wheels constructed by clive chapman. discs where cut from 1045 steel and recessed .spokes were cut from 4mm steel sheet by a laser cutter. the spokes are a neat fit and held in place with small grub screws . loctite would probably be ok

regards tom hardy

[LukerParticipant @luker]

Hi Tom,

Those wheels look very good! Small grub screws will work perfectly; just don’t push the spider out when pressing the axels home. Some of the guys here build their wheels from laser like you have; then silver solder the lot up. Clive has forgotten the counter balance, it doesn’t add that much weight but is very period specific for these ‘ribbed-disk’ wheels. If you drill one or two blind holes and pour a little lead in there you’ll end up with better balanced wheels than mine.

Thanks for the pic! Please keep them coming.

[tom hardyParticipant @tomhardy75463]

hi luker we need some more measurements for the boiler drawings so our boiler inspector can draw up plans for a copper boiler shell overall and firebox widths

regards tom hardy west australia

[LukerParticipant @luker]

Hi Tom, this should do it. You shouldn’t have any issues converting the boiler design for copper. Just check the stress in the crown area if you remove the crown stay for rod stays (Aus boiler code). I’ve found the code is a little light in this area… (see: Modern boiler construction methods for the model engineer)

[tom hardyParticipant @tomhardy75463]

hi luker

thanks for the drawing i still need the sizes of the main barrel and firebox barrel so it will fit into the loco

tom

[LukerParticipant @luker]

Hi Tom, ok I see what you're looking for. There are multiple sheets for the boiler in my drawings, but I condensed them for the articles. All these dimensions are on the detailed sections.

Can one of the admins help me with uploading pdf's?

[tom hardyParticipant @tomhardy75463]

hi luker

we dont know how to upload your pdfs but if you send the relative drawing as an attachment to my e mail that should work

phylhardy@bigpond.com

tom

[LukerParticipant @luker]

Posted by tom hardy on 15/04/2022 09:23:22:

hi luker

we dont know how to upload your pdfs but if you send the relative drawing as an attachment to my e mail that should work

phylhardy@bigpond.com

tom

Hi Tom, other builders may also need these drawings. Let me see what I can do, hopefully I can upload something to this thread…

[LukerParticipant @luker]

Hi Tom, here is an exported JPEG of the boiler GA, I’ve added two views that should give you all the dimensions you were looking for. If I’ve missed anything please let me know and I’ll update the drawings and post them on the forum. I did have a look at the design and I do need to point out that this design was specific for stainless, and although not difficult, would require some re-work to make it suitable for copper. Items like the lower gauge glass position and steam volume are specific to the top of the crown and for copper this is where changes will be needed. If not done correctly it will affect the performance of the loco.

The water space between the wrappers also needs to be checked for copper to make sure you won’t get steam jacketing especially with nominal calcification. Counter intuitively the stainless boilers outperform copper boilers due to this and other factors.

[LukerParticipant @luker]

For the guys following the Ballaarat series in ME; a fellow reader and builder is going to contribute to the series and broaden the design. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I'm looking forward to seeing it in print (I've just seen the drawings, so it will be new for me too).

On a somewhat related topic, I was doing some tests on my Ballaarat and needed a little extra weight. A friend of mine joined in the fun. I weigh a good 75Kg, my friend 90Kg. There was no shortage of power or steam, but there is a section with a rather challenging gradient. My William (3.5g tender 2-6-2 with very similar boiler size and weighs about the same) slips on this section with two adults. I’m reasonably sure the Ballaarat would take another person before slipping; next time…

[tom hardyParticipant @tomhardy75463]

hi luker

our group has the oportunity to purchase fittings for the ballaarat in the uk tax and post free.what fittings do we need gauge glass blow down and are you running a steam injector where is the water tank and do we need a tank pump sorry to be a pain

tom clive steeve lindsay

[LukerParticipant @luker]

Posted by tom hardy on 20/05/2022 09:54:55:

hi luker

our group has the oportunity to purchase fittings for the ballaarat in the uk tax and post free.what fittings do we need gauge glass blow down and are you running a steam injector where is the water tank and do we need a tank pump sorry to be a pain

tom clive steeve lindsay

Hi Guys, no pain happy to help!

I've never bought from the ME trade (other than two gauges) so I'm afraid I can't help with the fittings, I make all of mine including the injectors.

The sight glass I use comes from the chemical industry and is 5mm OD, I think with a 0.9mm wall thickness. I buy it in 1m lengths and costs next to nothing.

The blow down is easy to make.

A 10Oz injector will work nicely, and yes I have fitted one on the RHS.

The water tank is in my drive-on tender. There is a tank under the footplate but this is filled with lead to improve the weight distribution of the loco.

With the crosshead pump and injector you won't need a hand pump. Most boiler codes require two methods of feeding the boiler.

I would buy the pressure gauges, unless you want to make your own, which would be far more accurate…

[LukerParticipant @luker]

Somebody asked me to explain the Touch and engage method described in the series so I very quickly did the following video. Apologies’ in advance for the poor production and lack of editing (just done with cell phone in hand!), but it does show the method (more or less )

[tom hardyParticipant @tomhardy75463]

hi luker

need some more dimentions

position of cylinder regards to front of loco

where do we put the motion plate

thickness of material for smoke box barrel

regards tom hardy

[LukerParticipant @luker]

Ron's copper boiler write-up for the Ballaarat is currently running in ME (well written and easy to understand, thanks for broadening the design). Here's a slightly different way of doing the 'brick arch' if you would like to go for something that's not loose in the firebox… I've been testing it the last couple of months and it works well.

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Luke you have shattered my dreams! That it steered like it was on rails I was prepared to believe, but that it had the tractive effort of a tracked machine ?

I thought you were a magician, then you mentioned the tank full of lead ! Ah well ! Noel.

[LukerParticipant @luker]

Posted by noel shelley on 02/11/2022 09:30:01:

Luke you have shattered my dreams! That it steered like it was on rails I was prepared to believe, but that it had the tractive effort of a tracked machine ?

I thought you were a magician, then you mentioned the tank full of lead ! Ah well ! Noel.

Cheating I know … One of the benefits of CAD, can put the CG exactly where needed.

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