The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum

SillyBilly · Guest

Hello All,
I got a bit bored today and started thinking about what I could do to improve my vertical/horizontal engine. I remebered from when I last steamed it that flames kept licking the boiler, on futher inspection it appeared that this was most likely to be caused by the fact the air vents in the firebox are rather small, as can be seen in this photo:

So 5 minuites later the engine is un-assembled. Out came my dads drill and largest drill piece, mutch noise later the holes were enlarged and filed down. Also visible in the photo is small air bubbles in the paint work on the firebox. I sanded it down and sprayed it with heat-resistent paint. This led me to wonder why I shouldn't do the whole thing? So I used more sandpaper to rub down the base ready for re-varnishing. I'm left with the question of wether or not I should re-paint the engine frame and flywheel, the paint job on it is fairly poor, and the paint has been allowed to drible on the back of the flywheel, I was thinking perhaps a nice maroon/dark red? What are your thoughts?

Another idea of mine is to fit a base mounted chimney that reaches the same level as the boiler out of some brass or copper tube (prefrably copper to go with the style of the engine), and have it exhaust to there. good or bad idea?

I leave you with a photo of the re-engineered and re-painted firebox.

IndianaRog · Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:59 pm Post subject:

Bill, unless that engine is something rare...I would personally fix the whole thing up...you are 75% there already, might just as well do the flywheel etc.

As for a chimney...you could do like a Bowman 101...run it to the base and stopper the bottom with a rubber stopper. Run your exhaust line in 1/2 way up and the part below the inlet traps the condensate til you tip it upside down at the end of a run. I put a stopper in the bottom of my Bowman 101 and that is exactly how it works now vs. running out the bottom and all over the table previously.

Most of all...have fun with it!!
cheers,
Roger
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Mamodman123 · Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:34 pm Post subject:

I would go for the full restore mate!

Since the firebox has been done I suppose the rest should follow. I wouldn't do things in halves

Looks good so far!
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You could get a nice flatbase for that

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flywheel61 · Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:40 am Post subject:

Silly-billy wrote