tools, materials & knowledge for model makers
How do I go about the small boiler hydraulic test? I made the vertical boiler to understand what is required to make, test and safely operate a steam boiler. This was all as a pre-run to making the Burrell boiler. The requirement is to hydraulically test the boiler at 2x operational pressure. What is meant … Read more
Making a Small Vertical Boiler to test my skills and to understand the requirements in making a boiler. This really is a case of learning how to make and assemble the boiler. Also and perhaps most importantly how to test and ensure it is safe. Then I will move on to how to operate it. … Read more
I started with the barrel for the boiler some time ago, now I needed a firebox for the Burrell traction engine. The basic design is to have a simple copper cylindrical boiler and a firebox where the end of the boiler is located. The heat is then applied to the underside of the boiler cylinder … Read more
Should boiler end plates on a copper boiler be concave or convex? Is there a reason they go one way or the other? One reason for the convex endplates is that I intend to rivet the smokebox to the boiler of my miniature traction engine. The rivets cannot go through the boiler surface forming a … Read more
The miniature traction engine boiler design is to heat partly from underneath and with through tubes from the firebox. This means I can make a simple copper boiler and fix this into a steel firebox. I wanted to share with you the thought process, design process and finally all of the engineering of the actual … Read more
Having approximated the engine’s steam consumption at a given speed and having calculated the consumption of fuel for the boiler I should now be able to calculate the Steam Engine and Boiler Efficiency. In my previous post on steam and methylated spirit consumption the final calculation looked like this: The engine design for my traction … Read more
Steam and methylated spirit consumption is a big subject and so my first task was to break this down into some simple numbers and ideas. This page is all about explaining those ideas and first approximations. All of these calculations are targeted at the design of my miniature traction engine and in particular the boiler … Read more
Not sure how this was one of the first things I made for this engine as it is one of the most intricate parts as there so may curved surfaces on the smokebox for Miniature Traction Engine. The basic ring for the smokebox was machined from mild steel. A step on the inside was machined … Read more
I’ve been looking into the angle of the steam boiler on a traction engine relative to the surface that the engine sits on. This angle is always biased downwards towards the firebox. Having measured a few angles from different sources I get: 0.66° Henry Greenly’s working model traction engine 1.26° Burrell 6NHP drawing 2.35° Ruston … Read more
I’ve been looking at how to make the copper boiler tubes. For the vertical boiler I’m using a piece of 15mm household plumbers pipe. For the miniature traction engine I’m working on I wanted a lot more smaller pipes. I was looking around and scratching my head to think of places that I could purchase … Read more