Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines
Builds, Repairs, Show Your Machines! => Restorations => Topic started by: Paula on June 01, 2023, 09:55:45 am
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Thanks Bruce. Coming from you, I consider that high praise! :)
Paula
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Top notch work Paula. very nice conservation of a worthy steam plant, your skills are exquisite & it turned out to be a fine runner ( I knew it would) and an attractive plant. well done !
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Thanks everyone for the great feedback!
I’m really glad you kept this one as original looking as possible...
Agreed. Cosmetically, this engine needed nothing more than a good cleaning and some light polishing. It seems like it was well used, but well taken care of. Shows its age, but no sign of abuse or neglect.
Paula
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Paula, you have tastefully revived that old steamer...very nicely done and it runs so well. Congrats.
Roger
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Brilliant.
No leaks and runs like a swiss watch....silky smooth.
Thank you for a great restoration thread!
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I missed your October post, AWESOME work with the sight glass! I’m really glad you kept this one as original looking as possible, you do nice work!! 👍
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Paula, your work is superb!
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That's just lovely ................ exceedingly so!!!
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100% Awesome! Well done... you can now send it to me to keep it safe ;-)
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Well, we just passed the 6-month mark on this restoration thread, and I'm happy to report that the job is finally finished! One thing that delayed the process was that I wanted to get a better video camera. I would up getting a Canon Vixia HFG50. It is a HUGE improvement over my old camera! Check out the smooth zooms and close-ups in the finished video. Resolution is much better as well. I'm also debuting my new motorized, remote-control turntable!
There is still one small leak at the steam chest fitting. But I'll probably just let it go. By the way, the whistle does work... it just tends to shower your hand with boiling water, so I dispensed with it for the video. This has been a fun project, and I hope you enjoy the finished result!
https://youtu.be/keMbX3qh71k
Paula
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Thanks, Stoker. Hopefully I won't have to bend one for this engine, but it's good to know that making a new one isn't too difficult.
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Propane works but one of the fine tipped butane torches like a Bernzomatic is likely a better choice. Back in the day I did most of my lab glass blowing and bending just using an alcohol lamp and a blow pipe, but I think for most folks a small torch is a better way to go! One thing about glass, that is much like iron, is that it doesn't transfer heat well along its length, so you'll be surprised at how close to the part that is glowing orange that you can still grip the tube ..... but don't get too close or you'll know all about it in a real hurry!!!
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How much heat is required? Can a propane torch be used, or something hotter? [attachimg=1]
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Actually, bending glass tubing is not really that difficult, though getting the bends in just the right place to hit the key dimension can be a bit of a challenge. Fixtures and jigs can help, but actually hitting the sweet spot can be a bit of trial and error I find.
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No kidding! If you notice, in one of the pictures of the sight glass, you can see what looks like a crack in the inside of one of the bends. :o I was worried about this at first, but it seems it is just a shallow groove used to mark the location of the bend. I would hate to have to make a new one.
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Man, don't ever brake that glass tube! And I thought the sight glass' on Empires were a pain...
Superb job @Paula and so much fun reading and looking at you diagram!
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I'm not sure exactly how the original sight glass was sealed to the boiler. There is a 2-bolt clamp at each end of the U-shaped sight glass, retained with tapped holes in the boiler. A shallow counterbore surrounds each sight glass hole. How this was all sealed up originally, I don't know. Upon disassembly, there was evidence of repair attempts in the past.
Because of their flexibility, and wide range of sizes, I prefer o-rings for sealing jobs like this. I made a CAD drawing which shows a section through the boiler and sight glass, on the centerline of one of the fittings. It shows the original hole enlarged with an 82 degree countersink, with a silicone rubber o-ring and brass washer. The 2-bolt clamp will compress the o-ring, and wedge it between the sight glass and the 82 degree countersunk hole. The brass washer was needed because the hole in the clamp was to large to properly compress the o-ring.
[attachimg=1]
I had some concerns about cracking the sight glass with this setup if the countersunk holes were off center, or misaligned in some way relative to the holes in the boiler. To assure proper alignment, I decided to make a pair of brackets to precisely align the boiler in the mill. These would consist of some 1/2 x 4" aluminum plates, 4-1/4" long, with a 2-3/4" hole in each. They would be saw-cut thru the center, and drilled & tapped for some clamp screws. I used a 2-1/2" dia. hole saw to rough out the holes:
[attachimg=2]
A boring head was used to enlarge the holes to the full 2.750" diameter:
[attachimg=3]
The top of each bracket was center-drilled on the exact centerline of of the 2.750" hole. This would enable the mill spindle to be easily aligned with the hole in the bracket, and could thus be used to align the holes in the boiler at "top dead center" in the brackets. Here is a shot of the engine mounted in the mill vise with the with the boiler brackets. A 60-degree center in the spindle is used to establish alignment:
[attachimg=4]
With the boiler retained and aligned in this way, it's an easy task to drill the countersunk holes in precise alignment with the boiler, and at the exact spacing of the sight glass ends. Also, the depth of the countersunk holes can be precisely set. Here's a view of the boiler with the finished holes:
[attachimg=5]
Preparing to assemble the sight glass, o-rings, brass washers, and seal clamps to the boiler:
[attachimg=6]
Sight glass, o-rings, and brass washers installed in the countersunk holes:
[attachimg=7]
Seal clamps installed. Note that the clamp screws will need to be removed when the sight glass guard is installed, as it uses the same screws as the seal clamps:
[attachimg=8]
Hopefully this installation will prove satisfactory. The o-rings are rated up to 450F degrees, so there should be no problem on that score. The screws will need to be sealed at final assembly, as they thread right thru the boiler shell. There are a total of twelve(!) threaded holes in the boiler that need to be sealed in some way.
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Great fix! The only alternative would have been to open up the boiler and solder in a new slug from the inside--a lot more work with the loss of much of the boiler's finish.
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I am with @Stoker!
I feel your pain on dealing with sight glasses and getting the seals (and spraying out hot water when you think they are okay)!
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A harrowing tale of adventures in steam refurbishment.
The suspense, awaiting the next episode, is palpable!!! ;c)
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Thanks for the comment, Richard. You guys' encouragement really helps to keep the project going.
SIGHT GLASS
[attachimg=2]
One of the things I was most concerned about was the sight glass. This engine has one of those fragile, U-shaped sight glasses. I was relieved when a pressure test indicated that there were no significant leaks. With that happy discovery, it was time to do a preliminary steam-up. I filled the boiler with hot water, lit the burner, and waited patiently...
Soon enough, the pressure had just about reached the operating range, when STEAM AND HOT WATER began spewing from the lower sight glass fitting! Not only that, the rain of boiling water was directly in front of the firebox door, so I was unable to shut down the lamp! [attachimg=1] (Unfortunately, video camera was not running!) After the initial panic subsided, I opened the whistle valve to drain off the excess pressure, and managed to staunch the leaking fitting with a hand towel, at least long enough to snuff the flame. Lesson learned: Just because a fitting doesn't leak under air pressure doesn't mean it will hold up against pressurized BOILING WATER.
Well, there was no avoiding it now. I would need to disassemble the sight glass, and see if I could come up with a way to reseal the fittings. I was a bit worried that the attempt to remove the U-shaped glass might crack or break in the process. I know that some of the sealants used back in the day would harden over time, and be difficult to remove. As it turned out however, disassembly went smoothly, and I was able to get the parts cleaned up and assess the situation.
(to be continued...)
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What cool stuff @Paula!
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Thanks Bruce.
As a postscript to the crankshaft/bearing rework, I neglected to mention that one of the main reasons that I wanted to tighten up the bearing clearance was so that an oil film could be maintained as the crankshaft turns. With all that looseness, the oil just tends to run out of the bottom of the bearing very quickly. Now, when it's running, the oil cups remain full for an extended period.
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Stellar work Paula, & a sensible solution to the problem.
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To restore proper bearing clearance, I considered boring out and sleeving the original bearings. Then I came up with a better idea. I have some 3/16"(4.76MM) dia. drill rod, which is just enough over the original 4.5MM shaft size to take up the excess clearance in the bearings. Plus, drill rod already has a precision ground finish. All I would need to do is enlarge the bearing holes with a 3/16" reamer.
I had to come up with a way to fixture the engine frame so that I could accurately ream out the bearing holes. Reaming the holes out individually, with a hand-held portable drill would work, somewhat, but what fun is that? If I could come up with a way to mount the engine frame in the lathe, with the bearing holes accurately aligned, it would be a fairly simple manner to ream them out. I decided to mount the engine frame to the vertical slide on the lathe. This allows rotational adjustment in the vertical and horizontal axes, as well as providing adjustment in the x and y axes. Here is the setup I came up with:
[attachimg=1]
I chucked a piece of steel rod, and turned it down on the end to fit the unreamed bearing holes. This was used to align the engine frame in the lathe until it was clamped in place. I made a stepped clamping shoe from a piece of aluminum to clamp the engine frame to the vertical slide:
[attachimg=2]
Here's a view looking toward the headstock:
[attachimg=3]
Making the new shaft was a straightforward turning job, after which it was transferred to the mill to cut two small flats: one for the flywheel setscrew, and one for the governor pulley setscrew. The flywheel was chucked in the lathe, and the threaded hole reamed out to 3/16" dia. Also, a new flywheel spacer was made to fit the larger shaft. Drilling and tapping the flywheel hub for a setscrew was a bit of an operation, as it needed to be at a slight angle to clear the rim. I managed this by tilting the mill head a few degrees:
[attachimg=4]
With everything now reassembled, the new shaft turns easily in the re-sized bearings, and the flywheel runs dead true. Here's a shot of the finished crankshaft assembly:
[attachimg=5]
I deemed the accessory pulley too small for a setscrew, and just used some Loctite 609 to lock it on the new shaft (after reaming it out to fit.)
(next up: sight glass seals)
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Thanks everyone for the supportive comments! :) When the time comes, I will start a separate thread for the donated Carette engine.
In the meantime, back to our regularly scheduled program...
CRANKSHAFT
I hadn't originally planned on doing anything with the crankshaft. There was considerable wear in the bearings, which is odd, since they are fairly wide, and are equipped with nice oil cups. Then again, I suppose just having oil cups provided doesn't mean they will always be used. :-[ In addition to the worn bearings, the flywheel had a quite noticeable wobble, as though it had been impacted at one time or another. Neither of these faults would keep the engine from running, nor were they even visible at a casual glance. But since I had the engine apart, I figured there would never be a better time to address these issues.
Here's a "before" shot of the crank assembly. The shaft is a fairly simple affair. It has a diameter of 4.5MM, and the business end is turned down and threaded for the crank. The bearings are integral to the engine frame casting:
[attachimg=1]
Here's a close-up of the crank/eccentric mechanism. The crank is threaded onto the end of the shaft, against a spacer. The eccentric rides on this spacer, and has a radial slot. A small screw in the crank engages this slot to impart motion to the eccentric, while also allowing the engine to run in either direction:
[attachimg=2]
The flywheel end of the crankshaft assembly features a small, knurled pulley to drive the governor, held in place with a tiny setscrew. An outboard spacer keeps the flywheel clear of the engine base:
[attachimg=3]
How is the flywheel attached to the shaft, you may ask? I wondered too, as there was no setscrew provided, for either the flywheel or the accessory pulley. I assumed these items were simply pressed onto the shaft, as were the flywheels on the two Empire engines I worked on recently. As I would later find out, the flywheel and pulley are actually threaded onto the end of the shaft. This is something I'd never encountered, and it kind of threw me for a loop. Here's a shot of the crank shaft, now "liberated" from the remainder of the engine:
[attachimg=4]
Right off, you may notice that there is very little, if any, wear in the bearing areas. Most all of the excess clearance is in the bearings. I'm not crazy about how the designers chose to mount the flywheel to the shaft. Necking down and threading the shaft creates a stress riser at the interface between the threaded portion and the cylindrical part of the shaft; a weak spot, and an open invitation to bending stress. I decided to make an improvement by eliminating the thread on the new shaft, and mounting the flywheel with a slip-fit, and setscrewed to a flat on the shaft.
(more to come...)
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a very nice Georges Carette steam engine with vertical boiler.
This will be a good restoring object for sure.
Congrats for this joint venture Charlie/Paula - very cool.
Arnold ;D
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Forum friendliness strikes again!!!
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Alrighty then , another nice resto coming forth in the future, very nice of you Charlie 😊 and yes Paula will do it justice (& then some)
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Such a beautiful engine! Charlie, I am honored, and will try and do it justice.
PM sent with particulars.
Paula
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This is the next candidate for a Paula Makeover.
[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=3]
[attachimg=4]
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Hi Paula, wonderful work you are performing on your Doll..!!
Gil
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Well done Paula.
Thank you for a wonderful restoration thread!
If you are looking for another restoration project; I have a nice candidate that I would gift to you.
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Top restoration of the Doll engine – congratulations
These are common problems with verticals
boilers. The drain cocks are often completely broken
calcified and closed. It is therefore difficult
to find an original replacement.
By the way – a very beautiful doll
Arnold :D
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Very nice quality work Paula.
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wow, superb work - it great reading about what you are able to do in your shop!
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I appreciate all of the positive comments! The weather here has taken kind of turn, as Fall seems to be asserting itself a bit. Thought I'd stay indoors today, and catch up on some of the documentation for this project. I'm pretty much finished with all that (I think!) needs doing, short of a final run test. I've done several tests with compressed air, and one under steam, which revealed areas that need work.
In the last installment, I was bemoaning the state of the filler cap thread, and vowed to do something about it. I want to keep the original cap, for aesthetic reasons, but replace the weak threads with a slightly larger new thread. The original thread size was not any size I was familiar with... U.S., Metric, BA, etc. The closest I could come up with was 9/32-32. I decided to go up in size a bit, and use 5/16-32, which is a fairly common ME ("model engineering") thread, and I have a tap and die for that size. I will also make a bushing for the boiler, as really should have been in the original design.
I'll machine off the old thread, and counterbore slightly for a 5/16-32 brass threaded piece. This will be held in place with a #4-40 stainless threaded stud (leftover from another project), and Loctite 620 hi-temp retaining compound. The brass threaded piece will also have a step to retain a captive PTFE washer. Here's the drawing:
[attachimg=1]
To hold the cap in the lathe, I made a little fixture from a piece of 7/8" dia. aluminum. It was counterbored to fit the O.D. of the cap, and drilled & tapped for (4) retaining screws:
[attachimg=2]
After removing the old thread, counterboring, and tapping for the #4-40 stud, this is how it looked:
[attachimg=3]
A 5/16-32 threaded die, mounted in the tailstock, was used to make the new brass threaded piece. It was then drilled and tapped for the stainless stud. With the teflon washer in place, the parts were assembled using Loctite 620. Here's the finished cap assembly:
[attachimg=4]
Next step was to make a 5/16-32 bushing for the boiler. I reamed out the threaded hole in the boiler, and counterbored slightly to accommodate a brass bushing:
[attachimg=5]
The bushing was soldered in place with Stay-Brite 8:
[attachimg=6]
Here's the finished cap assembly installed on the engine:
[attachimg=7]
With that part of the job completed, it was time to focus attention on the crankshaft.
(to be continued)
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Well done!
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What a wonderful engine Paula.
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Nice work!
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Good job (https://emoji.tapatalk-cdn.com/emoji106.png)
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that valve came out really nice, great work!
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Have not been making much progress lately... The weather was so nice here in late Spring, that I've been working outside on the house and yard. Had a new roof put on in early June! But it seems we've now returned to our default Summer weather: hot and extremely muggy, punctuated by late-afternoon downpours. Our climate is officially classified as "Humid-Subtropical", after all. Anyway, the upside is that I am spending more time indoors, and making some progress on the Doll.
Next on the list is plugging the open hole in the boiler where the original drain valve once was:
[attachimg=1]
The original valve probably looked similar to this:
[attachimg=2]
One option was to simply plug the hole, with either a soldered or threaded plug. But this beautiful engine seems worthy of a better solution than that. I suppose a replica could be machined, though it's a tricky design (with a swaged stem), and is more of a challenge than I want to take on. And it would probably leak anyway. (By the way, if anyone has a spare valve like this laying around, I'd be willing to take it off your hands. :D )
The compromise I arrived at was to install a commercially-made valve, specifically the GV3MTP Globe Valve from PM Research. For those who don't know, these are extremely well-made, and quite authentic to full-size valves:
[attachimg=3]
Also, they are made in a 3/16-40 tapered pipe size, which is very close to the size of the hole in the boiler. Only downside is that the price is in line with their quality! Anyway, it's only money. :-\
I was able to fashion a facsimile of the curved snout of the Doll valve. I modified a 3/16-40 brass plug to accept a curved piece of 1/8" O.D. piece of copper tubing. The curved copper tube was soldered into the modified plug, and then threaded into the new valve. Then I drilled out the broken piece of the original valve that remained in the boiler bushing, and tapped the hole with a 3/16-40 MTP tap.
To make the finished "faux" valve look less obvious, I treated it with a Birchwood-Casey product called "Brass Black":
[attachimg=4]
This worked better than I expected! While it doesn't look exactly like the original, it certainly looks better than a plugged hole would:
[attachimg=5]
With that part of the restoration complete, it's time to see what I can do about the boiler filler cap. The threads are extremely worn, such that it wouldn't take much twisting to completely strip the threads. The design is rather week in this regard, not having a proper threaded bushing soldered into the boiler. There are only a few threads in the cone-shaped top of the boiler, which also makes it difficult to get a good seal:
[attachimg=6]
(More to come...)
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I'm following along as well Paula, the burner came out well, I'm sure a you'll do a top notch job of it.
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Paula:
Nice work on restoring/repairing the burner.
Looking forward to seeing what is next in store....
Charlie
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Thanks for the information, Stoker! That link is very helpful.
I believe this engine did have the drain valve (I called it a "blow-down valve"), but it got snapped off somewhere along the way. It appears now as shown in this shot from a different angle:
[attachimg=1]
So that would tend to swing it more into the 354/3 column, but measuring the flywheel, it measures an odd 81.62MM, which swings the pendulum back again! I'm smelling a Frankendoll... [attachimg=2]
The short chimney actually works out good for me, as the engine will just fit the shelf on which I plan to display it!
Paula
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Lovely Doll you are showing here, and I look forward to the restoration which will bring her into her prime I've no doubt!
Doll #354 seems correct, but there is some ambiguity concerning the features that raises questions as to whether it is a 354/2 or 3.
The 354/2 is not shown as having the faux governor, while the 354/3 does, however, the 354/3 does have a water drain tap while the 354/2 does not, and I don't see one on your engine either. It would not be strange at all for a minor feature like the faux governor to be missed in the catalog or added to an engine without the catalog image being updated. Also, you are correct that your chimney is not correct, but it doesn't noticeably detract unless you really know what you are looking at, so I'd keep it until (if) you ever find a correct stack!
It seems each of the different sizes offered progressively larger flywheels and taller boilers, so that is likely the best measure to determine actual model number.
See the chart here:
http://www.ventix-pages.de/doll/D-Dampf/D-Hauptgruppen/D-Vertikal/D-354/d-354.html
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Right! Follow the Prime Directive! ;D
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I love the looks of this engine .... must not get tempted getting engines outside of Empire tagged engines!
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Hi all,
Picked up this Doll vertical engine on Fleabay late last year. I think it's a 354/2, but I'm not sure. It has a 70MM boiler, and a 20MM OD cylinder. Maybe someone with more experience with these could confirm or correct. My guess is that the stack is not original, at least I have never seen one like it. It seems to be of a height more suited to the high angle, or cone-top boiler, but I am no expert. Original or not, it seems well made, and fits perfectly.
[attachimg=1]
I passed by the ad for this engine numerous times. No one seemed to be interested in it. Maybe because the owner didn't know it was a Doll, and didn't include the name in the listing, so it wouldn't have shown up in any searches using that name. Or maybe because it was listed near the top of the price range. I thought it was beautiful, and looked nearly complete, the only glaring problems being a bent steam line and missing blow-down valve. Of course, since the engine was being offered "as is", there could be numerous serious issues that would not show up in a handful of pictures. Nevertheless, I could only scroll past it so many times. What the heck, I figured I would be able to get it working again, so I pulled the trigger. It was worth it to me. Here's another angle:
[attachimg=2]
Rest assured, this will be a "mechanical" restoration only. I have no intention of disturbing the beautiful patina this engine possesses. Cosmetically, it will receive a general clean up, and light polish on some of the items. My goal is to get it working under its own steam, with its original (I think) spirit lamp. This was, in fact, the first thing I tackled. From the following picture, you can see that someone has melted a large amount of solder around the main wick:
[attachimg=3]
Closer examination revealed that the wick tubes are straight cylindrical tubes, soldered in place at the correct height, with no "land" or notch to establish their vertical location. Apparently the main wick tube came loose, and the owner globbed a bunch of solder around the tube in an attempt fix it in place. This was not very successful, as the tube could still be moved around. The solder was not actually adhered to the metal.
It didn't take much to melt away the bulky solder repair. A little heat from the torch, and it just ran off like water. Taking measurements from the original wick tubes, I made two new ones from brass, slightly larger on the OD, and necked down to fit the original holes. This made it much easier to solder them in place. Here's a picture of the smudge pot, with the new wick tubes soldered in place, and the original tubes nearby:
[attachimg=4]
And here's the finished assembly:
[attachimg=5]
(More to come...)