Boiler refit for No5.

If you recall last fall while at Mill Creek RR, the Clishay had a gear in the transmission gall and sieze up. Well, the boiler had always been an issue from the first firing. Basically because I can't silver solder very well; at least not on a really complex piece. So once I tore down the engine to repair the trany, I also tore into the boiler and found the inner jacket almost burnt through. Admittedly, I had some very hot fires in that little box. Plus there was some pooling of silver solder on the lower crown sheet as well as some bulging of both the main tube caps. On top of the fact that I had at least one leak which block sealer or ginger could not keep in check. Having inquired on some steam related e-mail lists, a fine sole sent me a rough sketch of a steel boiler which was designed to replace the original one. Now the funny thing is that another Clishay owner, who was also at Mill Creek also had a major boiler failure. Only his boiler is over 20 years old. So now two boilers are being fabricated.

I called a local steel tube supplier ( Industrial Tube and Steel ) and ordered the required materials. I did do some revisions to the original sketches and hopefully things will work out well. But not being a boiler designer or engineer of any kind, we'll keep our fingers crossed and "shields up." I don't have any way of scanning and putting the sketches on here or I would, but I did snap some pics of my CAD screen showing my revisions. So enjoy.

One of the biggest clean up problems with the original design was that a lot of ash, clinkers and even unburnt coal would drop between the fire box and the inner jacket and it was almost impossible to get it out. What you see here is four yellow "wings" setting on top of the red fire box. This closes off the gap and will hopefully minimize the amount of material getting down where you can't get to it. (the yellow piece in the middle of the coal chute will not be a part of the finished product) { it's just too difficult to delete.}

I decided to print and cut out the 4 yellow pieces and see just how they will fit. I just think this CAD system is the kitty's britches.