Semple VFT40; looking for drawings

A special section just for steam engines and boilers, as without these you may as well fit a sail.
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Kees95
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Semple VFT40; looking for drawings

Post by Kees95 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 11:10 pm

Some time ago I bought for a “nice price” an old, wooden sailboat hull with in that a Semple engine set. It’s the Semple VFT40 boiler with fittings and a Semple V 3+5x4 compound engine.

The boiler has no certificates, but it's possible to get it if the boiler is well built, in good order and a drawing of the boiler with weldingdetails is necessary.

Does someone have boiler drawings or other information about materials, specifications of the Semple VFT40 steamboiler?

Thanks in advance,

Kees Hellinga
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Lopez Mike
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Re: Semple VFT40; looking for drawings

Post by Lopez Mike » Fri Mar 31, 2017 4:17 am

I don't know if this will be of any help but ultrasonic thickness testers have come down in price. That won't give you things like tube wall thickness but can easily determine most of the other numbers.

And it will give you the wall thicknesses now rather than when it was built.
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Re: Semple VFT40; looking for drawings

Post by DetroiTug » Fri Mar 31, 2017 1:32 pm

I have one of those Ultrasound thickness testers and they are very accurate to within .001", verified after testing it on varying known thicknesses of ground parallels etc. I paid 150 for it off of Ebay.

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Re: Semple VFT40; looking for drawings

Post by Lopez Mike » Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:52 pm

I found one for $90. Hah, hah!

The first thing I did with it was to slap it against my forehead. It read 3/4" (calibrated for steel). My partner was not surprised.
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Re: Semple VFT40; looking for drawings

Post by Kees95 » Sun May 21, 2017 8:57 pm

We've done a ultrasonic thickness test and the smallest thickness of the firebox is 8,5 MM and the boiler itself 8,8 MM.

But, does anyone have the Original drawings and technical details of this Semple boiler? It's necessary for the first inspection.

Thanks in advance,

Kees
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