Archive for The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum The Original Unofficial Toy Steam Forum Established 2006 The biggest, most popular steam forum around! Accept NO imitations! We have a growing community of regular posting members who chat about all aspects of toy and model steam.          The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum Forum Index -> General discussion Graham-Jilly Small Project Hi every one Im looking for some ideas. I have a 4' length of 2" copper tube. I can get caps for the ends from a plumbing store. this should make a good boiler or is 2" too big. Looking for ideas or plans to make my own home grown engine cheers G-J mc_mc Re: Small Project Graham-Jilly wrote: Hi every one Im looking for some ideas. I have a 4' length of 2" copper tube. I can get caps for the ends from a plumbing store. this should make a good boiler or is 2" too big. Looking for ideas or plans to make my own home grown engine cheers G-J Sounds like it would make a good pipe bomb. Line it with sandpaper, fill it with match heads (not safety matches but the red kind). And throw at something hard like the ground. n.b. This was intended as a joke and did not mean to offend anyone who may have been connected with such real-life incidents. H2o vapour Boiler Project Hi Graham, This will make a super boiler!! A bit long though, this is a Route that my Father used when I was a child to get me and my brother into steam , exactly this. It worked well. What he did though is to make the cap end from sheet copper and silver solder them into the internal Dia of the copper , looks a bit better this way. Also I think the length of burner has to limit the length of the boiler. We also presure tested this boiler up to 200 PSI - Well actully more , we stopped when the end plates started to bell out - no kidding. The ends were Silver soldered in place. Also, I would suggest that you will have to drill the boss holes for the saftey valve etc before you solder the ends in as it is not possible to solder a complete vessel like this. Another thought , Blackgates Engineers used to supply end caps for boilers to Dia's of commercially avalable pipe, they may be worth a try for some of the shelf end caps Good Luck with the project Regards H20 Vapour Graham-Jilly Thanks H2OV SPOKESMAN Re: Small Project mc_mc wrote: Graham-Jilly wrote: Hi every one Im looking for some ideas. I have a 4' length of 2" copper tube. I can get caps for the ends from a plumbing store. this should make a good boiler or is 2" too big. Looking for ideas or plans to make my own home grown engine cheers G-J Sounds like it would make a good pipe bomb. Line it with sandpaper, fill it with match heads (not safety matches but the red kind). And throw at something hard like the ground. n.b. This was intended as a joke and did not mean to offend anyone who may have been connected with such real-life incidents. I USED TO MAKE THOSE WITH TWO long bicycle handle bar steering bolts - screw them together with a nut in the centre - fill the gap in the middle with ground red match heads and drop it on its end - jesus they could be lound!!! mc_mc Graham-Jilly wrote: Thanks H2OV Okay for a more serious suggestion, why don't you try and make a simple Hero steam engine? Just cut a small piece off the pipe, seal up the ends mount it on a spindle. Drill two holes and solder in some pipes facing in oposite directions. It's the simplest form of steam engine, should be able to make it in a few hours (if you've got any skill which I certainly don't!) mc_mc Re: Small Project SPOKESMAN wrote: I USED TO MAKE THOSE WITH TWO long bicycle handle bar steering bolts - screw them together with a nut in the centre - fill the gap in the middle with ground red match heads and drop it on its end - jesus they could be lound!!! You ground up the match heads? Surely that's a bit dangerous? SPOKESMAN Re: Small Project mc_mc wrote: SPOKESMAN wrote: I USED TO MAKE THOSE WITH TWO long bicycle handle bar steering bolts - screw them together with a nut in the centre - fill the gap in the middle with ground red match heads and drop it on its end - jesus they could be lound!!! You ground up the match heads? Surely that's a bit dangerous? Done carefully more like breaking/flaking them down into bits! They worked though - use to make a sound close to an air bomb going off! mc_mc Re: Small Project SPOKESMAN wrote: mc_mc wrote: SPOKESMAN wrote: I USED TO MAKE THOSE WITH TWO long bicycle handle bar steering bolts - screw them together with a nut in the centre - fill the gap in the middle with ground red match heads and drop it on its end - jesus they could be lound!!! You ground up the match heads? Surely that's a bit dangerous? Done carefully more like breaking/flaking them down into bits! They worked though - use to make a sound close to an air bomb going off! The paper match book style heads were really good, they were bigger than standard match heads and you just snipped them off with scissors. tarbyonline Re: Small Project mc_mc wrote: Graham-Jilly wrote: Hi every one Im looking for some ideas. I have a 4' length of 2" copper tube. I can get caps for the ends from a plumbing store. this should make a good boiler or is 2" too big. Looking for ideas or plans to make my own home grown engine cheers G-J Sounds like it would make a good pipe bomb. Line it with sandpaper, fill it with match heads (not safety matches but the red kind). And throw at something hard like the ground. n.b. This was intended as a joke and did not mean to offend anyone who may have been connected with such real-life incidents. Where i come from, that would certainly not be considered a decent pipe bomb . Its strange that something that has caused so many deaths is called the same name as a relatively harmeless device Not your fault mind so don't get me wrong, but you would think there would be a better term for the more deadly type of device?? Anyways, that boiler sounds pretty big G-J, but to my mind would probably work oldstuff Hi G-J, Did you know 2" diameter is SE3 size? Perfect for your project(s), with four feet of pipe you could make 5 to 6, 8" boilers or 7 to 8, 6" boilers! I'm very much looking forward to hearing more about this! flywheel61 Very interesting comment about the SE3 equivalency, Chuck. If as Graham & Jilly say, you can buy blank end caps for commercial pipe sizes, I'm going to look at my other boiler sizes & see if there are any commercial comparisons. Cheers Chris tmuir The commercial end caps will work but are fairly thick so will absorb more of the heat. Not really a problem just means you need to use a larger burner or wait longer for the water to boil. SPOKESMAN Enough pipe to make a 'super' SE3 boiler! Graham-Jilly Thanks for that Im going to cut it into suitable boiler lengths and give it a try. I will need to get SV and boss for it and maybe an overflow plug and boss so will be looking for those items. I have a small sheet metal folder so that will be good for making the fire box. I still have most of my plumbing tools as well, I gave up plumbing 15 years ago after a near fatal accident. So I recon this could be a good project. will be working on it for a while as we have to move house in 8 weeks so were in a bit of a muddle with packing and all will keep you posted cheers Graham tmuir Forest clasics sells inserts for boilers for whistles and safety valves oldstuff I just posted this up for G-J in Technical Tips, Scratch Building section: http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/sutra87091.php#87091 Go about 1/2 down the page! Graham-Jilly thanks for that Chuck great information flywheel61 tmuir wrote Quote: The commercial end caps will work but are fairly thick so will absorb more of the heat. Not really a problem just means you need to use a larger burner or wait longer for the water to boil. Or find someone with a lathe to cut down the outside diameter of the end cap, Cheers Chris        The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum Forum Index -> General discussion Page 1 of 1