How many times in this hobby of ours have you wished you had said no when buying a steam engine?
This Mersey 51 on the face of it looked a bit rough but just how i like to buy them the worse condition the better i think i have previously said......i have had the engine a while but never really looked at it in a refurbishing sort of way, eventually it finally made it onto my operating table i then saw the true horror of what awaited me....SOLDER... in fact so much solder it was above the end caps.
So to work everything had to come apart, the ends caps and all the bushes were removed ..as the first end cap came off a river of solder followed it splashing over my shorts .... now with it all apart the boiler, end caps and bushes and the fittings were still covered in solder, this was painstakingly removed by heating up and wiping with wet and dry many times to remove as much solder as possible from everything.
Most of the solder was removed but now the hard work started rubbing down everything with wet and dry 280 grade for the stubborn solder... followed by 600 grade.. then a polish with tcut paste and a dremmil....total time from solder plated to no solder 7 hours.
It was now time to solder it all back together..for such a small engine i found soldering this engine back together one of the hardest i have done...First the end caps which need more heat so a bigger burner was used, first though the three bushes have to be placed inside the boiler as they are internally fitted...the boiler has to be placed upside down to carry this out otherwise the bushes will fall out! my plan of attack was to heat a boiler end and cap up really hot apply the solder to the joint then immediately go to the open end and touch all three bushes with solder from the inside, you can only do this if you have built up enough heat from the end cap fitting, finally the other end cap can now be soldered into place making sure the boiler is upside down or the bushes will fall out as their solder will melt as you fit the end cap.. if you are quick all will stay in place with their solder intact..
The next pain for me was the piston post /engine frame, a simple affair with a complicated twist..steam pipe and exhaust pipe side by side at the top millimetres apart, this was a classic fill all the pipes with solder scenario also the steam pipe has to be soldered into the bush on the boiler which if you remember is soldered into the boiler... so again you will have to solder it upside down or the bush will fall inside the boiler....now i do have a trick for soldering small pipes into piston blocks i use a plastic coated paper clip inserted through the pipes... wherever the paper clip is.. the solder will not adhere... the secret is to use a small burner and just enough heat to melt the solder then remove the heat as it runs, if you time it right you will have a perfect joint.. the same technique was used for the steam pipe to boiler ..small burner just enough heat to melt the solder then remove the heat as it runs and luckily the bush stayed in place.. remember all soldering requires both joints to be perfectly clean and always use flux.
The base of this engine looked like one my burgers from the barbeque and needed to be black and deckered ..two coats of light oak varnish were applied...the fire box was rubbed down to bare metal rust proofed then two coats of plastikote barbeque paint applied..it was cooked in the oven 70.c for 1 hour the 100.c for another hour...the piston post/engine frame was undercoated then two coats of black plastikote was applied.
With everything cleaned..polished and painted the engine was re assembled without any further aggravation...
The engine was hooked up to my compressor and run on air... and it runs lovely
The burner for this engine is a reproduction as the original was sent separately and lost in the post!!!!!!!!!
Conclusion...What a faff... yes i did wish i had never started it ..yes i did call Mersey designers a few names, yes i did burn my inner leg with solder ..yes i did solder the steam pipe to the boiler forgetting to fit the boiler band... but i suppose at the end of the day these engines are obviously not designed to be pulled apart by some idiot with a big burner.. Do i love the engine now its done? just look at what it was and how it looks now.... of course i do ...Steve Video to follow shortly running on air
AS PURCHASED
[ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]
Home
Search
Today's Posts
Login
Register