An earlier picture showed the drum stays protruding through the end plates and retained with dome nuts. As mentioned, a drawing popped through the email from John King suggesting an improved arrangement using sleeve nuts with low profile hexes. They are aluminium bronze to resist corrosion and have ...

Pat Jorgensen emailed me to say.......... A couple of steam guys including myself in north America got together and created a new forum for steam engines yesterday. We were looking for a forum that approached steam engines from a historical point of view, and included steam engines of all sizes, not...

Slowed down for a while, as instructed by Den. I've now bought ceramic insulation board and vermiculite firebrick. Loosely assembled the casing to cut these to size, and cut out the top panel for the inner funnel starter. http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad134/Johnlanark/Boiler%20Building/th_loose...

Excellent Bret. Post us plenty pictures of your conversion. Do you already have an engine and boiler or are they on the project list?
Best regards, John

Casing loosely assembled with the aft end panel cutouts done. They are for the steam drum, two mud drums, feedwater heater header to starboard, superheater header to port, and fire door. http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad134/Johnlanark/Boiler%20Building/th_Looseassembyofaftendpanelwithcutouts.jpg...

Well spotted Hawkeyeden, that is indeed our 1922 Chevrolet 490 appearing at the edges of some of the photos. A great fun car. On the use of the milling table for folding, it was just a case of needs must, I don’t have any other layout/clamping down space. Tonight’s workholding surface was even more ...

Looking at nibblers available, most seem to be for compressed air, or 110 volt site use. There are some available for single phase power but expensive for a one-off job. However nibbling attachments for handheld drills are quite cheap so I thought it was worth a try and bought one from Axminster Pow...

All right Chris I'll rise to the bait. What boat is the other 1/3 of the worlds Edwardian era steam yachts? John

Thanks to Ron & Jack for the lathe turning tips. Work was held up by very cold weather, but I’ve now grooved the four mud drum end plates and the four feedheater/superheater headers, leaving just the steam drum end plates to do. Members of the Steam Boat Association will have seen in the Winter “Fun...

Den - I had thought Gordon would be along to answer your queries. If you click on these small thumbnail pictures, they open larger, and you will see that there is a row of downcomers. The type of insulation normally used in these boilers is ceramic blanket or sheet, such as sold by Heritage Steam Su...