Juliet build diary

[Bob YouldonParticipant @bobyouldon45599]

Hello Dan,

On the subject of valves, have a look for captive spindle/s. I'm not certain any of the model press has published any designs. It may have been helpful if the various bodies that make up the Model Engineering Liaison group had seen fit to include an indicative captive valve design as a coda to the green book, section 6.5.

Regarding the front tube plate, the faceplate is one answer, although I use my three jaw chuck, holding the tube plate flange outward first to face the edge of the flange, I then hold the tubeplate on the inside of the flange on the outside of the jaws with the revolving centre just kissing the face of the tube plate for a little added security. The whole operation is very carefully done, very light cuts, sharp tools and plenty of cutting oil; once finished wash of all traces of the cutting oils with a scrubbing brush and hot soapy water, finally rincing with clean cold water. You can then sit down and have tea and biscuits and admire your handy work.

Regards,

Bob. . . . .

[julian atkinsParticipant @julianatkins58923]

roy amesbury from 19th jan 1973 ME, and later on don young, both described and provided drawings for captive valves.

cheers,

julian

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

The smoke box tube plate has been skimmed so that now fits snug inside the boiler shell. The throat plate is marked out properly ready for cutting out and then silver soldering in.

As it turns out, I have a couple of captive valves lurking about that I can use. Out of pure curiosity, would it be possible to adapt a screw valve into a captive valve?

Dan.

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

Next update,

I've finished making a few little bits for the engine over the past couple of weeks. I've made and painted the water gauge fittings (the lower blow down fitting has the now required captive valve), a fire hole door has been made, a proper safety valve has been made along with the bush and is waiting to be tested, the bushes for the clack valves have been made and a ready to be silver soldered into the boiler shell.

There are no indications in the build articles or in the drawings as to what the bushes for the clack valves should be, apart from the boss on the clack valve has a 1/4 x 40 thread on it, so for anyone interested, I made my clack valve bushes out of bronze bar 9/16" dia. x 1/4". I turned the boss down to 3/8" x 1/8" and bored straight through 7/32" and tapped 1/4" x 40.

I'm having a problem with trying to get material for the smoke box. Ideally, I would like to get a steel tube because it's cheap and I thought lots of people would supply it. However no one local supplies it new so a trip to the scrap yard is calling. I suppose 3.5" inside diameter tube is a bit of an odd size.

 

 

Dan.

Edited By Dan Jones on 29/07/2014 10:45:42

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Dan. you might get an off cut of hollow steel bar instead of tube, go for as near as pos for the OD, there will be a bit more metal to take off the inside.

I had some parts for sale of Martin Evins Simplex, the material for the smoke box was steel tube with 1/2" wall thickness. Ian S C

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

M-Machine do a 95OD x 75ID seamless tube by the inch, which would bore out OK. I'd leave it a bit thicker in the central section and counterbore to take your 3.5" boiler and door ring.

[Bob YouldonParticipant @bobyouldon45599]

Hi Dan,

As Jason says, leave the centre section that bit thicker, a little extra weight never goes amiss on the smaller locomotive, and if anyone asks why? Just tell them it's a rust allowance!

Regards,

Bob Youldon. . .

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

Hi guys,

Today I ventured into the local industrial estate and I think I came up trumps with a piece of material. I went into a plumbing suppliers and came out with a thick walled tube connector/collar. It's the sort of thing used to join to sections of pipe together. It's threaded all the way through and has a chamfer on both ends to help locate the pipe it's supposed to connect to.

My plan is to get it in the lathe and bore it out the right size to fit the boiler. On what will be the front end, I'm going to turn a lip on the inside to take a disc of steel about 1/8" thick which will act as my smoke box door ring. This could be a press fit into the smoke box or I could silver solder it.

The material is pretty ideal for the job as it's supposed to be quite robust and rustless.

I'm also about to start on the regulator and super heater arrangement whilst I wait to get quotes for gas to do the boiler.

Thanks,

Dan.

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

Here's what I've been up to over the past 10 days.

First job was to machine up the smoke box material. Now, I only have a small Myford ML7 but it usually deals with most materials pretty well, however the pipe collar that I am using as a smoke box was a terrible material to work with. When boring out, I only had to remove the threads inside the collar plus a little extra to gain the fit I needed. The job took around a day and a half to complete. The material was so hard that when boring out, the further in the tool went, the more of a taper it turned- A taper that wasn't wanted. This doesn't really matter though, as long as the boiler end of the smoke box is the right diameter for a length of around 3/16"-1/4", which I eventually achieved.

I also turned the lip on the inside of the smoke box to take the smoke box ring. This means I don't have to flange any material for a smoke box ring, I just need a disc with a hole in the middle. The lip I turned was 3/16" into the smoke box and opened internal diameter by 1/8" (1/16" each side).

I did have a disc of steel 3/16" thick to turn into a smoke box ring, however this is stupidly hard stuff and it has flattened my turning tool so I've given up on that. I'm now in the process of looking for a new piece of material to do the job.

Today I decided to make the smoke box door. The drawing shows it as being a curved disc 3" diameter. So I looked for curved material and came across the top of a fridge compressor case. So I scribed a circle around the most central point I could find, got out the angle grinder and cut a square section out around the circle I drew. I then used the hacksaw and a very coarse file to get the shape I needed. It has a few dents on the outside surface, so I will polyfiller that and rub it down before painting. It's now ready for drilling centrally and having the hinges fitted.

I also decided to cut out the throat plate, so now that is ready to be riveted and silver soldered in place. I want to get the boiler done before September is through, as my apprenticeship will get into full flow and i'll have less time to tinker. After the boiler is done and tested, it's all easy stuff from there.

Pictures will be added to the album shortly.

Thanks,

Dan.

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

UPDATE!

The smoke box door has been drilled and the hinges attached. The smoke box dart and handles have also been made along with a brass spacer. The smoke box ring was made from a pulley wheel from a land rover engine and is ready to be spot soldered into the smoke box and have the hinge lugs and smoke box saddle drilled and fitted.

I have been to see a relatively local boiler maker and have been given several useful pieces of advice.

Firstly, he informed me that I should shave some material off of the flanges on the boiler plates. The drawings say that the flanges should be 5/16". I assume the reason he said this is so that you can be sure that the solder creates a full joint in the flange.

Secondly, he told me to fit the tubes to the firebox tube plate and use the smoke box tube plate to keep the tubes spaced correctly at the other end. Further to this, he said to solder the tubes into the firebox tube plate whilst the tubes are in a vertical position. In order to do this, he said to make a vertical clamp stand to hold the tubes square to the tube plate.

Thirdly, he said to fit bushes at every single point where a fitting enters the boiler. So the back head fittings- water glass (top and bottom), long stays, blow down valve, fire hole door hinge fittings, regulator; smoke box tube plate fittings- wet header, long stays; other boiler fittings- clack valves, steam turret, safety valve, inner dome. Of course Curly included a majority of the bushes in the design.

Now I have a couple of questions that I didn't ask and I should have upon reflection:

The clips that hold the boiler to the frames at the bottom of the firebox: Do most people use these to fix their boiler or is there a better way of fixing the boiler? Also, the drawing shows that the clips are screwed into the outer firebox shell. If I was to do this, I would surely need to make bushes here also? Instead of screwing the clips into the firebox, could I just solder them straight on?

The stays are shown as being three lines of five across the length of the firebox. However, the angle at which the stays enter the boiler isn't shown, as well as how the stays attach to the inside of the firebox. I assume that the stays enter the boiler parallel to each other, but are the threaded with a nut and then soldered inside the firebox or are they knocked over and soldered etc?

Also, how are the long stays fitted to the back head and to the smoke box tube plate? I have a rough idea of how it works but it isn't described in the build articles or shown on the drawings so I have no idea as to the size of threads etc that I should be using.

Thanks,

Dan.

[Bob YouldonParticipant @bobyouldon45599]

Hello Dan,

Re: The clips that hold the boiler to the frames at the bottom of the firebox: Do most people use these to fix their boiler or is there a better way of fixing the boiler? Also, the drawing shows that the clips are screwed into the outer firebox shell. If I was to do this, I would surely need to make bushes here also? Instead of screwing the clips into the firebox, could I just solder them straight on?

Don't drill anymore holes in the boiler, they are always a source of potential leaks; with Juliet the bottom of the boiler is level, simple, fix to the inside of the frames a piece of square or a 1" or so of brass angle at the correct height and the boiler can expand on that, you can keep the boiler from lifting by using the cab front plate, but usually the pipework is enough to hold it in position. I've built several 31/2" gauge locomotives where the boiler is held down by the same principal.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

[Bob YouldonParticipant @bobyouldon45599]

Hello Dan,

Re: The clips that hold the boiler to the frames at the bottom of the firebox: Do most people use these to fix their boiler or is there a better way of fixing the boiler? Also, the drawing shows that the clips are screwed into the outer firebox shell. If I was to do this, I would surely need to make bushes here also? Instead of screwing the clips into the firebox, could I just solder them straight on?

Don't drill anymore holes in the boiler, they are always a source of potential leaks; with Juliet the bottom of the boiler is level, simple, fix to the inside of the frames a piece of square or a 1" or so of brass angle at the correct height and the boiler can expand on that, you can keep the boiler from lifting by using the cab front plate, but usually the pipework is enough to hold it in position. I've built several 31/2" gauge locomotives where the boiler is held down by the same principal.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

Happy new year everyone!

I've been making the locking bar for the smoke box door today and found the drawing for this a bit strange. The semi-circular end of the dart is shown to have a 3/8" diameter but the size of the gap in the locking bar is shown to be 3/16". How is the locking arrangement supposed to work if the method described is in place?

Thanks,

Dan.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

LBSC's description says file the head of the dart to 1/8" thick to match the spindle. It will neatly fit between the bars and lock when turned 90 degrees.

Neil

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

Thanks for that Neil, I'll get on and file it down to size today.

Thanks,

Dan.

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

Hi guys,

I'm starting to make some boiler fittings for the Juliet. I want to make the water glass first but the question that sprung to mind straight away is glass size. The drawing says that the glass should be 3/16" in diameter. Is this size glass suitable for the engine? Is that size glass still available?

Thanks,

Dan.

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

It's been a long time since the last post so here's an update!

The workshop has been pretty busy and I've got myself little bits of Juliet strewn all over the place.  I've taken plenty of pictures this morning (poor quality from my phone, apologies in advance), so go and take a look at those!

To start with, the boiler I picked up from ebay is stamped with Reg Chambers markings which means I got away with a neat bargain for myself. Only 3 jobs have needed doing on it- Drilling the holes for the clack valve bushes; drilling and tapping the holes for the other boiler attachments (top water glass socket, fire box door and latch clip); and plugging and re drilling/tapping the holes on the PCD for the dome as they're unevenly spaced and don't match the dome I've made.

Secondly, I've finished making all the cab fittings (regulator boss, blower valve arrangement, water gauge fittings, by-pass valve for the side tank and firebox door assembly). The boiler came with a steam turret, blow down valve and safety valve so I haven't had to make those (although the safety valve seems a touch too small so I might have to do that).

I have been looking around and there seems to be great discussion with regards to the regulator for this size engine. The specified type is the disc in a tube sort but many say a screw down is better practically and is easy to make and assemble- so that's what I'm making. I should have looked harder online to find a drawing of one before I started to design and make my own. I found a decent drawing of the regulator for Rob Roy, which would have suited my needs perfectly but never mind. I know that a course thread is required for the job so I scavenged for a fair few hours in my scrap pile until I came out with a regulation valve for a tumble dryer or something? It's a stainless spindle, course thread and has a threaded barrel so I'm using that. The end of the spindle has a square boss so attaching it to a rod through to the cab should be easy and without slip like you might get with a grub screw and collar.

I've also made the smoke box saddle. It's made of two pieces of angle steel and two pieces of plate steel riveted and soldered together. If you look at my Juliet album and go to the bottom of the page you'll see what I mean, the picture describes it better than I can.

The most recent piece of work I've been doing is the side tanks. These are a lot trickier to make if you haven't done them before and a poor drawing is given for them. I have made them in two pieces, all connecting plates are flanged and the corners are silver soldered. The large gaps at each end are going to have a plate silver soldered over them and then get caulked. I don't intend to silver solder the tanks together as I want to be able to take them apart for maintenance in the future. Also, the way I've made the hand pump would make it impossible to assemble.  Again look at the host of pictures I've just put in the album, they'll help convey the work done.

It's all coming together very quickly now and will be ready for a hydraulic test on the boiler soon. If that goes well and it passes its steam test then I could be on the rails by the end of summer!

Thanks,

Dan.

Edited By Dan Jones on 17/05/2015 18:19:11

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

New update for the Juliet….

Firstly, loads of pictures of my recent (6 months ago to yesterday- "recent&quot have been uploaded into my Juliet album so have a look in there.

The Juliet has had the smoke box saddle fully fabricated and put together and the smoke box has been drilled along with the saddle so everything bolts together and onto the chassis.

The regulator has been fully machined and is waiting to be finished off ready for steam after the hydraulic test is passed.

The grate and ash pan have been made and can now be fitted to the boiler/frames ready for a fire to be dropped in.

I have sil. soldered the clack valve bushes into the boiler barrel, finished the super heaters and made a good start on the steam inlet/exhaust pipes. I'm waiting until I've got a pass certificate for a hydraulic test before I finish any plumbing or finish fitting the regulator.

I've made and fitted a set of plugs and a blanking plate for the boiler ready for the hydraulic test this Friday. The boiler went through its preliminary hydraulic test at home yesterday. I rigged the boiler up to a pressure gauge and the tender of a 5" Stirling Single. The pressure wasn't holding because of a couple of leaks in the pump system and the clack wasn't holding pressure, but I managed to get a pressure of 200psi for stints of about a second on a few occasions with no leaks, just a couple of bolts starting to produce a little bead of water on the dome blanking plate. Over all I'm very pleased with the result and happy for the test on Friday to go ahead with the club inspector and the proper kit.

Once the hydraulic test is complete I can finish and fit the side tanks, make all the plumbing and get ready for the first steam test.

Lastly, I have cut out the cab plates and now waiting for some folding bars to become available so I can bend the sides up and form the flanges.

Dan

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

Another progress update!

Not a huge amount of progress but something all the same.

I've managed to get the boiler through the hydraulic test; tested to 180psi for a working pressure of 90psi, although in reality the engine will probably only need to be run at about 80psi.

During some "in-between" time, I made a foot plate and a front cover plate to fit between the frames. The front cover plate has had the lubricator lid riveted to its underside to make for easy removal when the smoke box is in place.

My main concentration for the past couple of weeks has been the regulator. To any body who might have been following the thread will know that the regulator I'm making is the screw type, close to what is in the "Rob Roy" loco rather than the traditional "disc in a tube type" specified in the drawing for "Juliet". The regulator next on my priority list to get finished so I can get it in the boiler and start assembling the boiler and fittings ready for plumbing and then steaming.

I made all of the main components for the regulator last year and have been fitting them all together and trying to make sure I get everything lined up when I solder it together so everything fits when I assemble it in the boiler. To start, I silver soldered in the screw barrel into the regulator tube. I drilled a 1/8" hole in the side of the tube roughly where the middle of the screw barrel would be. I then scored a shallow groove into the screw barrel at the point where it would line up with the hole just drilled (the idea for this is to capture flux for soldering as when inserting the barrel into the tube, any external flux will be pushed off). I fluxed the parts, inserted them in the right position, stuffed some more flux down the hole and silver soldered the components.

Next up I fitted the valve seat that the screw needle seats on. I fitted the needle into the barrel to get the right distance to locate the valve seat then chamfered the edge of the valve seat (to accept the silver solder). this was then soldered in accordingly.

To attach the regulator handle to the valve needle I made a connector sleeve. I've soldered the connector to the handle and am going to work out the correct place for the handle and needle to be aligned so I can solder the two together in the right place so the handle sits in the right place in the cab.

I have drilled and tapped the regulator boss and the section of tube it fits into. I tapped it 8BA and fitted 2 countersunk screws, one top and one underneath.

This morning was spent air testing the assembly and connecting it to the chassis. This was mainly to see whether or not the outlet hole which the needle seats on was large enough to supply the cylinders but it is fine. I also made sure that the screw thread was coarse enough to give enough valve movement with half a turn of the handle. It turns out that at 60psi and half a turn of the handle, the chassis does run at a fair speed.

Last week was my birthday for which I received a chimney casting and a nice shiny whistle so they will be duly fitted!

Photos of recent progress will be uploaded shortly.

The next jobs will be to fit the regulator, boiler fittings and superheaters to the boiler and get them steam tight ready for the first steaming, and finish of the side tanks so I can fit the hand pump and plumb the lot in.

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

Juliet news…

Been about 2 months since the last post but it hasn't been spent just lazing around (at least not all of it!).

I have been fitting a selection of my pre-made components with the hope of air testing the engine through the boiler.

First to be fitted was the regulator described in my last post. To start with, I made a gasket to go between the backhead bush and the regulator boss. I was hoping to use a set of punches to create the holes for the studs in the gasket material but I misplaced these (they didn't turn up until the job was done the hard way!). So I set to making the holes with a small drill between finger and thumb. I used a Rocol Graphite paste (mix with cylinder oil to prevent it setting hard, makes breaking the seal easier when required) as a jointing compound on both sides of the gasket and fitted this. The internal pipework for the regulator is wrapped with PTFE tape fairly tightly so not expecting much of an issue there, but I'm always cautious of the results with jointing compound and gaskets, particularly on smaller models.

I fitted the wet header next, which was fairly straight forward. A gasket has also been made to go between this and the superheater boss ready for fitting.

The next component put on was the dome which was quite simple because the same process applied to this as it did to the regulator, but again it will be interesting to see if my gasket making skills are anything to be desired.

I fitted the backhead fittings such as the fire hole door hinge and latch, blower valve, steam turret, water gauge fittings and blow down valve. These fittings were all put in with PTFE tape. In order to pressurise the boiler and run the engine from it, I had to fit pipe work from the turret to the blower valve, the pressure gauge and the steam pipe from the superheater elements to the steam tee. I finished making the union which connects the two together and I spent a bit of time make the nipple to fit on the end of the pipe and inside the union (these components aren't well specified in the drawings so some CAD time was spent to sort this out).

The hole in the top of the smoke box for the petticoat pipe has been drilled (with a 3/4" slot drill). This is ready for a petticoat pipe to be fitted but I haven't quite gotten round to it yet, nor have I bored out the chimney casting.

I've made the blower pipe and nipple, a more tedious task than it first seems. The blower consists of a 5/32" pipe with a nipple on the end which points up the chimney in which there is a No. 70 hole drilled for the steam to pass through. My little Myford ML7 doesn't quite have the speed range to accommodate such small sizes so a very nice Hardinge tool makers collet lathe was used. Currently the blower is bent up too high so required some minor adjustment.

The engine is more or less ready to be run on air through the boiler after a bit more silver soldering of small pipe work.

All photos of updated work are in my Juliet Build Diary album so go in there if you want to have a look at the work carried out.

Cheers,

Dan

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

Pictures have been placed in a new album called Juliet Build Diary Update Replacement. Can't seem to update the original album, "Page Not Found" is all I get.

Dan

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

Rally season has set in so I've been busy get my 4" traction engines about which unfortunately has meant quite a slow in Juliet progress.

However progress is progress…

I've completed the smokebox door assembly; the hinge straps have been cut, had the ends rolled over (harder than it looks if you want neat results), bent to suit the contour of the door and have been drilled and riveted on with 1/16" dome head copper rivets. The copper rivets stand out nicely on the bright steel and I'm almost tempted to only paint the door and not the straps and rivets.

The hinge lugs were turned from square-section steel, rounded/shaped and threaded 5BA to screw into the smokebox door ring and drilled through to take a 1/16" dia. hinge pin. The hinge pin (not really described in the build articles or on the drawing) was made from 3/16" dia. BMS to a total length of 1 5/8" with the head of the pin being 3/16" x 3/16" (length of the pin without the head being 1 7/16&quot.

The smokebox door ring was silver soldered into the recess in the smokebox. The petticoat pipe was also made from a length of copper tube and one end was expanded from 3/4" dia. to 1" dia. by heating the tube and squeezing it in a vice with a necked socket in one end. This was press fitted into the hole in the top of the smokebox. The chimney was also bored out to be a snug fit on the petticoat pipe so no ugly fixings will be required, I'm sure as long as the loco doesn't end up upside down I won't lose the chimney.

I have also made a blast pipe jet, it's made to the drawing however when talking to a Juliet owner at my club he says he has a much smaller jet screwed onto his blast pipe. I suppose only time will tell if bigger is better!? (the advantage of having screw-on/off blast pipe and blower jets!). All of the front end plumbing has been completed and dry fitted for testing of which it passed with flying colours.

I air tested the engine, with the frames up on blocks, by screwing a pipe to one of the clacks for the air line to fit on. The pressure gauge worked, all the back head valves worked (blower valve doesn't seat fully but not overly fussed about it), the regulator did what it was supposed to, and most of all the wheels turned until the air ran out. Something must be working correctly internally and in the front for air to get from the boiler to the cylinders and make them work!

For a quick check, I brushed around the engine with a solution of washing-up liquid and water to check the air-tightness of the valves and joints. Soldered joints were good apart from a slight hairline in the dome cap, so not a terrible thing to sort. Water glass needs some tampering with to get it to seal up fully and the majority of the front end pipe work leaked although none of it has gaskets or PTFE tape/jointing compound on it so I'm sure they will be fine when I do the final assembly.

So now its a case of sealing up the side tanks, fitting the hand pump, fitting the plumbing to the axle pump and sorting out the fixtures for the grate and ash pan. She'll then be ready for a bit of steam, exciting stuff!

Pictures will be uploaded shortly!

Cheers,

Dan.

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

The last event of the rally season has come and gone for me now so I have no reason to play with traction engines for a while, which gives me a bit of extra time to get on and finish the Juliet. (Although the purchase of an Aveling steam roller has given me an incentive to hurry up and finish the loco so I can start work on that)

The Juliet has been on a few travels recently, making appearances at the Bristol Model Eng Exhibition and at the Great Dorset Steam Fair in the model tent.

There's been a fair bit of milestone work carried out since the last report, mainly the finishing of the side tanks. The top covers have been cut to length and shape. I made up some square rings (rounded corners) for the tank lids out of strips of brass sheet by annealing then some awkward pulling and pushing around a small wooden former trying to get the corners to form nicely and keeping the ring square in all 3 planes. I then cut the excess material off and silver soldered the two ends together in a butt joint. These turned out fairly well and remained largely uniform.

Next I made the lids themselves out of brass sheet and chamfered one end to help with silver soldering on the hinge. I made the hinges out of brass bar with a 1/32" hole through. The hinges are in three sections, with two being soldered onto the ring and one soldered onto the lid to fit between the two on the ring.

Since the lid assembly was complete, I decided to drill the tanks with tank tops in situ with four 8BA holes along both edges of each tank. The holes were drilled through the tank top into the brass angle underneath. The tank tops were drilled with a clearance drill, then a tap was run through the hole in the brass angle and the tank top was countersunk to accept the screws. Once this had been completed, I worked out where I wanted the lids to go and set to milling the holes out to fit the lid rings. A 3/8" slot drill was used to do this as it fit the radius of the rings quite neatly. After this was finished, the rings and the tank tops were cleaned, fluxed and soft soldered so that the rings protruded roughly 6mm above the surface of the tank top. In order for the tank tops to fit flush to the tanks, a recess needed to be cut into the brass angle to let the bottom protrusion of the ring to come through. These recesses were filed out until the tank tops fitted.

Once the main structure/assembly of the side tanks was completed, I then finally fitted the hand pump (one of the very first things I made for the loco). To find the right position, I placed the pump in the tank with the handle positioned 90° vertically and so that at this point it was in the middle of the ring. Its position was marked and 2x 4BA holes were drilled into the hand pump base and clearance holes drilled through the bottom of the tank and through the running board.

Since the hand pump was now in and I had a spare few minutes, I marked out where I wanted the union to go (the one that carries the feed from the hand pump, through the tank wall and to the clack valve). This was marked out, drilled and tapped 1/4" x 40. The short piece of pipe work between union and clack was then bent and fitted and is now on the bench waiting to be silver soldered.

Plumbing preparations have been made to the LH tank (axle pump) by drilling and fixing the bypass valve to this. My plan is to make a 90° double union to screw onto the axle pump outlet to connect to the axle pump and the bypass valve. I have made a 90° single union for the bottom of the axle pump for the feed from the side tank.

I have planned for the RH tank to be dedicated just to the hand pump and the LH tank will be just for the axle pump rather than having a balance pipe to connect the two as is described in the ME articles.

The rest of the plumbing will be finished off, the tanks will get silicon sealed and the fitting on the grate/ashpan will follow in due course.

Pictures will be uploaded to a new album as I can't seem to edit the other two.

Cheers,

Dan.

[Dan JonesParticipant @danjones77555]

A fair few progress pictures have been uploaded to my Juliet build album, but here's a couple so you know what to expect:

Cheers,

Dan.

 

Edited By Dan Jones on 29/09/2016 19:46:42

[OlivParticipant @oliv]

Hi Dan, very nice work ! I follow your thread with great attention, especially because I have exactly the same vintage model of a Juliet, with slip eccentric valve gear.

The big issue is the boiler, made to 1947 plans with nutted and calked firebox stays, which have been sawed under the nuts for some reason! I'm considering drilling them and replace but it would be better to have the same luck as you and find a professionally built boiler !

Cheers,

Oliv

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