Hope you all had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as I did. I just sat around all day eating and chatting with family and friends. It was very enjoyable.
Today however, I got to have some significant shop time. Today was Soldering the Boiler day. This has been concern of mine since I started this project. I keep telling myself – other people do it, they can make it work, so you can figure it out too. But it has still been looming as one of the most exciting/scary parts of this project.
Today, I could put it off no longer. It was time to do the deed.
So, armed with all parts made and fitted, and with all the confidence I could muster, I fluxed up the first bushing to go for it.
First difference – Copper seems to suck heat away much faster than brass! It was hard to get that big piece of copper hot enough to melt the silver solder. I was using a little 000 tip that I use for most of the soldering I do – it makes a small (super hot) flame that is mostly controllable. That has worked for pretty much everything I’ve done so far. But with this, I just couldn’t get it hot enough.
Then remembered that I had purchased a rosebud tip for my torch, just in case I needed more heat. The smallest rosebud I could find was a #4, so that’s what I got. Now THAT made enough heat! But it was a bit like holding the back end of a Saturn V rocket or something. It was QUITE the Flame! (at least compared to what I’ve been using).
Anyway, using the #4 rosebud tip on the inside of the tube, did the job in short order. Turned everything black, but it sure worked!
A pickle & a wash, then setup the next bushing:
Again with the rosebud. Seemed to work quite well.
OK, maybe I was a little quick with that. After a pickle & a cleaning, it looked to me like one side of each of the bushings just didn’t get any solder. So I fluxed them up again, and put some solder there to see if I could improve those joints.
One more trip with the torch and it seems to have finished those up nicely. But now I’m starting to worry that I’m getting the copper too hot. You can see the deep heat patters around the bushings there.
After a pickle and a bath and it looked pretty good.
Next, I setup the boiler tubes. As Bill mentioned, there are some potentially big gaps where the straight piece of tube goes into the boiler. I played around with that, trying to minimize any opening (though I’m not sure I really changed anything significantly). Then I fluxed things up put on some solder.
But this time, I decided to try a cutting tip – I’ve got some smaller cutting torch tips and those are essentially a little rosebud, as long as you don’t trigger the extra oxygen. So, I tried a #0 cutting torch tip (being careful to leave the cutting oxygen valve closed completely). This seemed to work really well – distributed heat well and evenly, and was a much smaller, more controlled fame (still quite big mind you, maybe a small ICBM rather than the Saturn V).
I apparently didn’t get a before shot, but here’s the after shot. I was getting a little more aggressive and did all three tubes at once. It seemed to work quite well. I did the front end first, then turned it around (very carefully!) and did the cab end.
After cleanup, I took this picture down the front end of the boiler. I think the joints look pretty good. I tried back lighting them and couldn’t see any light coming through. I know that isn’t definitive, but its at least a first step!
And here’s the cab end of the tubes.
And an overall outside shot.
Now, my original plan had been to solder each of the end bushings on, one at a time, then to solder the end cap in place. But with the amount of heat I was getting out of my torch, I decided I’d go for the whole kit-and-caboodle at once. It took a while to get all the parts placed appropriately, with the end cap in place, AND the stay in place, but eventually, I got it, with lots of flux & solder. Oh, and as an added bonus, I also remembered to orient the end cap bushings in the correct locations! (That could have been a disaster waiting to happen! - where's my dunce cap emoji?
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Here we are after soldering. Not too shabby. Maybe a little crispy, but it seemed to come out OK.
And the front end. Too much flux here – I’d put some on at the same time I did the cab end. When I went to put the solder on this end, after I’d roasted the other side, the flux was all dry and crusty. So I put some more on. While it seemed to work – the additional flux probably wasn’t necessary. I had a whole flux lake here!
After the ceremonial pickling and washing – and some filing way of some over zealous solder, it actually looks quite respectable.
The end was hard to clean with all the ledges and crevasses. But way better than it started. I may do a bit more work on this end, though, it may not matter too much since it’ll be behind the firebox backsheet pretty soon.
The front end:
And an overall beauty shot for good measure.
All in all, I’m feeling quite good about it.
Clearly, I’m not done yet. I have to make some plugs and then rig up a pump to do the hydrostatic testing. Though on the plus side, I didn't notice any gusher leaks when I was washing it up!
However, that may be a few weeks out now. But for a good reason. I’ve gotten clearance to do my next garage overhaul. I’m working on a cunning plan (as they say) to expand my shop. I’m currently crammed into just over 1 bay of a 3 car garage. My master plan is to clean out the other sided of the garage (the non-shop side), get rid of half of the stuff, clean up the rest and compress it into less space so that I get another half bay to play in
This is good for me because I’ll end up with more shop space. And good for my wife because she’s interested in having the garage organized. It’s a clear win-win!
So, while I plan out my pump, I’ll be overhauling the garage to make it less storage and more shop!
And that’s the news from Lake Wobegon,
Kim