Pacific Vapor Engine from Morrison & Marvin Castings

[jschoenly]

WOW.  Those are truly beautiful creations.  Well done!

[Dave Otto]

Hi Vince & Jared,

Thanks for checking in and the nice comments, I appreciate it.

Dav

[Art K]

Dave,
Now that the oilers are finished whats next on the agenda? I must admit that chasing a bat out of the house wasn't on my agenda but fortunately it clung to my bike tire and let me carry the bike outside. No I didn't use a tennis racket. I will check under the yew bush by the door in the morning and hope he is gone. He seemed to be drinking water of the clipped branch on the step. It is mosquito season after all.
Art

[Dave Otto]

Hi Art

I have been noodling around some ideas for a water tank that will serve as a reservoir for the pump to draw from. The pump will circulate most of it's water back into the tank and some of it will pass through the engine to cool it; that's the plan anyway. I think that next I may try to get some work done on the tank. It is one of the several big parts left to make. Now I just need to carve out some time.

Dave

[Art K]

Dave,
Carving out time seems to be the hard part.
Art

[Dave Otto]

Hi guys


I have been thinking about a water tank for my Pacific engine display. I need a tank to supply water for the Goulds pump and also supply cooling water for the engine. I wanted to create something that looks like it is from the same era of the engine. I like the looks of the rectangular riveted tanks that I found while poking around on the net. I have been searching and collecting pictures for a while now.


I have played around with some designs and needed to find one that I could build. I did find one that I liked and modeled it in Geomagic tweaking it to my liking. It needed to fit within the constraints of my display area; so it won’t be an exact scale model but a representation of a large tank scaled down to fit within the display. If it were to be full scale it would be larger than the engine.


The tank will be made from .036” galvanneal steel with brass and steel flanges. It will be of riveted and soft soldered construction.
Hopefully I can create a functional tank that will complement the engine and pump assembly.






Thanks for checking in.
Dave

[10KPete]

I like the tank, Dave, but steel? Even galvanized....  I would think copper or brass would hold up way better.... but that's just me.

Pete

[Art K]

Dave,
Good to see that you're making progress. The last tank I made that had to hold anything was the gas tank on the Upshur vertical. I made the pieces but my dad sweated all the joints. He's been gone for 4 years now, & I'm on my own. Your tank looks like lots of surface to solder, good luck. Scaled I think it will fit right in with your engine.
Art

[Steamer5]

Hi Dave,
Oh goody this should be an interesting build!
Why note build the tank out of stainless? I'm looking at doing the tanks for my loco out of stainless, current thinking is to have the plates water cut, the guy reckons he can even do the rivet hole, 3/32", I haven't talked to him about doing the holes in  stainless angle yet! My dad had to make stainless troughs for a mate of his awhile back & soldered them, the right flux & it was piece of cake, well for him, so I was thinking of sweating the edges, then riveting, & a bit of heat to run the solder?

Here's a link on how Nelson made his tanks for his Shay loco... http://www.nelsonslocomotive.com/Shay/Tanks/TanksI/TanksI.htm

His site is worth a read lots of good ideas form his making of the Shay & Heliser, both to Hozo Hiraoka design scaled up to 7 1/2". Nelson did the tanks slightly different, he had plastic welded inner tanks.

Cheers Kerrin

[Jasonb]

If it is caulked with soft solder that will flow over any cut edges and if wiped off cleanly will retail the galv look which would be typical of the original, you will need to wipe the solder over the rivit heads too as these tanks were made and then the whole thing dipped.

Brass would be easier to make it out of but then you face the job of getting a fake galv look. If you intend to paint it then brass sheet and copper rivits would be easiest to work thats how I have done traction engine tenders.

[Ian S C]

Quite a lot of those galvanized tanks came into NZ in the1850s, people packed all their goods in them for the long sea voyage from Britain, and a good many of them are still around serving as   water tanks, I think the average size is 500 gallons.  It's probable that the tanks found their way to Australia in a similar way, you'll probably find one on a sheep station, next to the windmill.
Ian S C

[Dave Otto]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Pete; brass or copper would certainly would be easier to work with but I guess I'm trying to stick closer to the materials that would have originally been used. As Jason indicated the tank would have been hot dipped galvanized after fabrication. My plan is to use the galvanized sheet and after soldering there should be very little if any exposed bare metal. I'm sure the it will out last me and the next owner.

Kerrin; thanks for the link there is some interesting reading material there.

Jason I do plan to paint the tank when completed; I don't think I could ever come up with a fake galvanized finish that I would be happy with.

More to come,
Dave

[Jo]

Jason I do plan to paint the tank when completed; I don't think I could ever come up with a fake galvanized finish that I would be happy with.

Hot dip it is a (leaded) soft solder tank 

Jo

[Dave Otto]

Jason I do plan to paint the tank when completed; I don't think I could ever come up with a fake galvanized finish that I would be happy with.

Hot dip it is a (leaded) soft solder tank 

Jo

Not something easily done in these parts. 
I'm not sure that I want to invest in the equipment to do it myself.

Dave

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Galvinized metal has been used in these parts for everything from livestock and potable  water tanks to roofing. I even have my grandfather's water cooler that was galvinized.  Back in the day the roofing contractors did your roof and guttering.  If you had money,  you bought copper gutters,  the rest of us poor turds bought galvinized,  however,  the installers were masters at soldering both.  The rivet and sweat joint was very common,  the solder sealed and the rivets prevented it from twisting loose.  My grandfather was a builder and I remember watching them solder the joints,  in the field and at their shop.  It was all done using an "iron "; I never remember seeing a torch.  See what memories you have brought back Dave .

Cletus

PS: like those geese do you : if you or any of your pals play golf,  ask how they are liking them  . Ask me why I ask