Supporting > Boilers
Help with Boiler Construction
Smudger:
Hello all help please my first post on this section having just joined the group. I am about to start to make a small pot boiler and have a number of books and forums to call upon for my research. I do not have a metal lathe and looking for alternative methods to make the boiler bushes. I do have a wood turning lathe and I am considering an attempt to make the boiler bushes on the lathe. The plan is to buy material as near as possible to the OD I need and then turn down the last section using my lathe with metal lathe tool cutting tool. I think it will be possible to cut the internal threads on the lathe and don’t see a problem with that. Can anyone see any problems with my idea ? Any advice greatfully received.
The boiler size will be about 2 1/2 OD and about 4 inches tall. My reading material is Tubal Cain and Stan Bray, Making simple model steam engines.
Thanks for reading
b.lindsey:
Smudger, while I am not one of the experienced boiler makers on the forum and can't speak to the technical details of that, the use of a wood lathe for metal work could be problematic. Immediate questions that come to mind are what type of chuck does it have? Does it have a cross feed? What kind of tool post is available? A picture of the lathe might help but in the long run, if you are serious about doing metal work, even a smaller import machine designed for metal work would be a good investment. There is plenty of help here for selecting a machine as well. Not wanting to rain on your parade at all, but safety and accuracy are both concerns in metal work. I am sure others will have opinions as well.
Bill
Smudger:
Thanks for the reply Bill. No cross feed on a wood lathe Fully award and take your point on H and S. I note there are a number of posting on You Tube of people using wood lathes for metal turning. If my calculations are right I would be trying to remove about 2 mm dia of material at a length of 6 mm this would be brass or bronze and would be free hand using a static tool post.
crueby:
For boiler bushes you want to use bronze, not brass. Bronze would be pretty tough to turn that way, but probably could be done with very light passes, would take a while, and getting tight tolerances would be tricky.
Ian S C:
Hi Smudger, If you have the means to hold the metal in your wood lathe, a wood turning scraper will turn down a bit of brass / bronze quite easily for boiler bushes.
Ian S C
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