Nick's Jensen Overflow 60

Nick · Nick's Jensen Overflow 60

This is my Jensen 60 with an overflow screw that I am cleaning up:

Nick

Here is the boiler after polishing. The brass is very visible and so are scratches:

johnreid

I would reassemble it, then place the appropriate amount of water in the boiler, put some Esbit in the tray, light the Esbit and run it. Thats what it was made for.
Getting it plated is going to be too expensive and the effort to remove the Nickel will probably wear the brass down. Leaving the best solution, use it as is.

Nick

I think Mark took the nickel off a Jensen and had just brass, I don't think it would look too bad. Right now, with all the pitting, the boiler looks like hell.

IndianaRog

Nick, you have less than 50% nickel as it stands, it is not a super rare engine, so I would personally remove the nickel that is there vs. live with it as is or plate it.

I have done it several times...remove boiler, get yourself a scrubby pad like used to clean pots and pans and with a can of Ajax or other powdered cleanser, start scrubbing. Rinse under running water at the kitchen sink. I've done one completely that way in about 30 min. and was very pleased with the overall results. Small steamline, whistle, SV and cylinder etc. need to be done with a Dremel and one of Dremel's rough scrubby looking thing that goes on same as a grinding disk but is a bit more gentle. Frankly you could do the whole boiler with one, but have to be careful as it will gouge the brass if pressed too hard.

You "could" get the works re-nickel plated, but I would expect you would have to pay around $75 as it involves something called "burnishing" before plating to get the pits out. Burnishing is a fancy name for polishing...finish is only as good as the brass surface beneath. After plating it gets polished again but more gently. I have had it done to the boiler and select pieces of the Jensen 50 I converted to a 51 replica...18 months ago that cost me $140 plus shipping to and from. Very pleased with their work, but it was several months of waiting as well.

Personally I would go with brass look myself if later you decided to nickel plate it, no harm...

Rog

Nick

Do you mean a Scotch-brite pad? I think the boiler is the only thing I'll mess with, the steam line looks like it may polish up nice.

johnreid

I didnt think that the Nickel would come off that easily, you learn something every day.

Nick

The nickel on this one seems very thin compared to my 35.

Nick

johnreid

ScotchBrite comes in various abrasive grades. I guess the from my Photo background an all of the Stainless that had to be used, I am a big ScotchBrite fan. If you use Steel wool on a piece of Stainless it will rust, however brass doesnt rust.

IndianaRog

Nick, I meant the Scotch Brite sort of pads...usually green, sometimes bonded to a sponge.

One caveat...once you convert boilers to all brass finish, you have to polish them from time to time, they discolor fairly fast vs. nickel, but you probably know that from other brass boilers you have.

If you don't denickel the rest of the bits besides boiler, it might look sort of odd being two toned

Rog

Nick

Since I can always remove the nickel, but can't bring it back, I am going to start with just the boiler, to see what it looks like.

I got a start on a side of the boiler and I really like the brass underneath.

I will have a picture up in about 15 minutes.

Nick

These are the steps I took for removing the nickel and polishing the brass (the "tools" are sitting there in order):

1. I used a 3M "stripping pad" to remove the nickel (very abrasive).

2. Then, I used a 3M "between coats finishing pad (replaces 00 steel wool).

3. Next, I squeezed some simichrome onto 0000 steel wool and polished the boiler.

4. Last, I took a 100% cotton t-shirt with simichrome and plished the brass to a mirror-finish.

Remember, I did this in about 5 minutes, so there may be a few imperfections yet.

johnreid

Next time put you clothes on when taking a picture

That shined up remarkable well, I am amazed. Impressive Nick.

I also think that Semichrome is on my to get list.

Nick

Mister Occlusion

Looks good

I had no idea how to strip them when I did mine, so I chucked a 3inch buffing wheel in the drill press and went at it with red buffing compound (or green, maybe... they were not labeled so I had no idea of the relative merits of either).

That took a good while, and in the end it's still got traces of nickel in places like the solder seams.

It tarnished pretty quick, but evenly, so I'm not bothering to polish it again. Since it was going to end up on a giveaway/sell engine I did not strip the original whistle or SV, opting to keep them and install new modern ones, so it's a bit patchwork.

For me, at the time, plating was never an option, because the boiler has a nasty gouge/ding in it, and has had stripped sight glass threads repaired with soldered-on plates (quite neatly done, actually). Not to mention the slight case of dezincification I found on the end caps afterwards.

You could always go to the next level and get some Brass Black from the local sporting good store and have a go at 'blueing' it

PS: my brass has pitting too. Differential corrosion/wear of areas with no nickel, I expect.

Nick

I have blued gun barrels before, so I may try that.

Maybe I'll blue the words "Watch-it" into the boiler

(not sure where I got that idea, but it sounds good (right Reid

))

Nick

I just looked this engine over again, and I think I may have it done by the weekend. This would be my first completed restoration.

I looked at the smaller parts, steam line, flywheel, engine frame, etc., and they seem like they will polish up nice with a dremel.

The firebox is the early copper one, so it will just get cleaned off. My Jensen parts should be here by the end of the week, so this will help the completion. I have a new chimney coming, and that will require the removal of the paint, so it matches the firebox.

The base will need to be flattened where someone put four screws through the feet. The paint is very good, and I will try Reid's Gojo tip on it.

Do you guys think the whistle handle would have been the straight dowel, since this is such an early 60? I need to make one for my 35, so I should make up some spares.

mogogear

You could probably work out most of the really pitted areas with a nice fine sand paper like 400 or 600 or finer. This would smooth out the end caps or areas that are most noticeable-

then do your stepped polishing routine....

Nick

Since this won't be a perfect engine, I think I will leave the orange peel on there, it looks kind of nice.

I hope to steam it by Monday.

Les

Les

Les

I am send you my M122 boiler, could you have that done by monday as well.

Nick

I don't think I am going to blue it anyways, I like the brass on the firebox. It matches well, because where the two meet it is black, and then the firebox fades into copper.

As Roger said earlier, that the brass and nickel might not go well together, I guess I'll have to find out. If it looks odd, just call me Sandra.

Les

Looking good so far. Thumbs up!

Nick

Les

Nick

But I'm

, I need to get to bed.

Les

Nick

IndianaRog

Nick, you have been a busy boy!!!! It looks great so far. On the boiler end seams where they meet the end caps as well as around the threaded area, a dremel rotary brush will finish off the nickel specs...then do your polishing routine.

Keep it up!!!

Rog

Reid

It's looking so good, Nick!
Never mind sleep. Who sleeps at night anyway?

Nick

Nick

I see the engine of the month for April is starting.

Since this will be my first restoration and it's an odd little 60, I will try and get it into the drawing.

johnreid

I think a Wilson will be in the running, but it would be good to see a Jensen in the competition too. I think I will sit back this month and submit my Jensens on a later month.

Nick

I probably wouldn't win, but to have my entry placed in James' flatcap!

That would be a dream come true.

Les

johnreid

You never know, both of my Jensens got votes against the SE4!

Les

I've entered again.

Nick

Nick

Going to work shortly, but I will work on the boiler afterwards.

johnreid

Les

Nick

Les

Nick

It was only about 1 1/2 to 2 inches.

Les

Nick

Nick

Time to go work on the boiler.

Nick

Most of the nickel removed, time to get rid of the scratches and do some polishing.

Nick

I have been using the underside for some experimenting.

I figured it was time to bust out the dremel on this one, so I can make Sandy proud.

When I went to Wal-Mart this morning, I went to the grocery section and found both maas and brasso, so I picked them up. I haven't tried the maas yet, but the brasso was a disapointment. It left a very dull finish. I decided to try my simichrome then and the results were amazing. There are still a few minor scratches, but they will eventually polish out.

John, if you ever decide to do this, use simichrome. I don't know how to describe it, but the color it leaves is between that of nickel and brass. When you stand back and look at it, it has a very nice color to it.

I am done working on it for now, but when I get done working tonight, I plan to continue the polishing.

Nick

I didn't feel like polishing tonight, but tomorrow morning I hope to do a bunch of work on this one.

Les

Nick

I have done a lot of work on this one and have only an hour or two left. I am done working on it for now and will post pictures later.

Les

Nick

The brass boiler looks kind of odd on a copper firebox, but it looks a lot better than a pitted boiler.

Nick

Here is the boiler starting to get a shine after a little polishing:

Nick

After getting sick of polishing, I decided to finish taking the entire engine apart:

Nick

After removing the parts, a very dirty baseplate was revealed.

I remembered a tip that Reid had about using GOJO. Most of the dirt was oily, so I figured that would be the best option.

I tried it on the corner first:

And this is how the corner cleaned up:

Nick

Now it was time for the entire baseplate:

All of the dirt went from the base to the white rag.

What is left is the paint chips and burnt paint:

Nick

Reid's tip on GOJO can be found in this thread:

http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/about7531.html&highlight=gojo

Nick

The baseplate also shined up fairly nice.

Most of my Jensens have a rusty underside, but this one and my 75 were painted when they were made.

The other owner drilled a hole in each foot.

I will leave them as they are, because I don't want the paint to flake around the holes any more than it has.

Nick

Now it was time to polish some more.

The flywheel was dirty, oily, and a little hairy.

But, it shined up:

Since I was already polishing, I worked a little more on the boiler:

Nick

If any of you have ever bought a Jensen like this, you will notice the top of the smoke stack support is dull and often rusty.

You can also see a spider web in the upper left of the firebox.

This hasn't been run in awhile.

The white specs are paint that the previous owner got on the firebox and base. Probably sitting on a shelf while they painted their walls.

I taped the copper brick off, to keep from scratching it.

The top shined up real nice:

I then gave the firebox the same GOJO bath as the base:

Nick

I set the boiler and firebox on the base, to see how it looked:

And this is where I left off for tonight. I will still do a little more polishing, but I am not far from completion:

Nick

So what do you guys think of this one?

I see why Jensen nickel-plated the boilers, it does go with the copper and the base color better than brass.

redryder

Nick,

Jensen was nickel plating boilers from the beginning in 1932 and it was near 30 years later that they went from black fireboxes to copper.

Gil

Nick

The brass might look better on a black firebox, but it looks odd on the copper ones.

Wait until I put the nickel steam line on and the boiler strap.

redryder

And..... I sure like what you are doing with that now not so tired looking Jensen !

Hint: Try the Maas now that you have some. It's extremely similar to Simichrome and I wouldn't be surprised if the same plant produced it for both companies.

Gil

Nick

At least now I can use this engine, even if it is a little ugly.

I hope the maas works as good, because I can get it for $3-$4 at Wal-Mart.

I had to buy the simichrome on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI....sPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=019

$8.94 after shipping was the cheapest on ebay.

redryder

You can repaint the firebox with copper spray paint. I don't know how well it holds up with open flame behind it but it can't be much worse than the standard Jensen copper.

Gil

Nick

I tried that with some Rustoleum high-heat paint on a different 60, and it didn't work at all. Bubbled and burned, so I'm leaving the firebox the way it is. That way I won't be afraid to run it.

Nick

This firebox doesn't have any paint either, it's the copper one.

redryder

Nick

My first engine was a copper 76 and I polished the firebox. I went right through the copper into the steel.

Nick

The copper clad chimney was taken off a different engine, but I have bought a new chimney that I am going to strip the paint off of for this engine.

Les

The Mojo and elbow grease have made a vast difference to the engine, well done. Now are you going to do the rest of your collection?

Nick

Now that I have my Jensen parts, I can work on a few more, like my 35.

redryder

johnreid

The Black VHT paint that is designed for Brake Calipers is 1200 degree resistant and should do OK, I think almost all of the Jensens sold in the UK are painted Black. And the Old cast base ones were black. It might be an option. Remember to oven cure the VHT too though.

IndianaRog

I concur with John on the durability of the VHT caliper paint on flame fired fireboxes. I painted my Old Smoky roller conversion firebox with that paint and it has held up to at least a dozen firings without a blemish. Only thing, it is flat black, NOT shiny.

I understand in England the shiny VHT is available, but I've not found it here. ALSO, oven curing is mandatory or the stuff is soft enough to scrape off with a fingernail. After curing it is very durable.

Nick

Hopefully I will have this finished by the afternoon (about 12 hours from now).

I will also make my own gaskets out of the teflon I bought on ebay.

Nick

Not done yet, but it's time to go work on it. I'll post pictures later.

johnreid

Well, I broke down and bought some Simichrome, I expect to get it later this week or early next.

When are you going to show us more progress?

Nick