Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Just for kicks check out this one for sale...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/335034867303

Ya, its been for sale for awhile now - to pricey.  At that price range I'd want it to be Empire badged with rounded elbows.  I got my pumper and gauger for over a hundred less.

  Thanks, Rich.  Now I have more Weeden parts to play with.
I'll have to open up my Weeden box and see what I can cobble
together with your parts and mine.  Hopefully, it will be
something uniquely weird.  Apropos for a Weeden.

Wayne

You have another box coming, it has a Weeden and some bits of a Empire.  In side the box today, there should be a smaller box with some sight glass.  It isn't packing!  There are some other small bits I threw in there too - perhaps you can use them.  Hopefully you see that stuff as a good trade for rare strapped boiler Empire.

Were it mine, I'd stick with the stainless screws (bolts), as rivets can be such a pain and are never convenient in actual use, but only cheap in original assembly. If you feel you must maintain authenticity with rivets, you can always set up a staking station with a vise mounted punch for backing, to avoid the high cost of specialty tooling.

Just my $0.02

Even without a vise, you can still just mount your backing punch in a block of wood by drilling an appropriate sized hole in the block.

On the other hand, it is only YOU that needs to be happy with your end results, so it really is best to do it exactly the way that you prefer!

Found a interesting custom tool for these type of rivets on eBay, used for Tonka Trucks of all things.

TONKA NYLINT BUDDY L STRUCTO, RIVET TOOL FOR 1/8" SEMITUBULAR RIVETS Fixt Dies

I think it will just enough bite to get to the farthest rivet.  I sent a ton of photos to the seller (maker I believe) and thinks it will work but if not he will accept a return for a refund.  The tool is at the high end of what I want to pay for one but it's much cheaper than "real" rivet tools.

Also, hansonrivet.com is sending me a bunch of sample rivets to try.

Have her back together again, though I am using 4-40 screws to mount the wheel stand-offs to the base until I sort (or not) the rivets.  I am so much happier with this Dupli-Color Perfect Match BGM0398 Bright Red paint (and lacquer in general).  Though it is a bit brighter than the original but not by much, not that I know what it really looked like 70+ years ago.

Speaking of 4-10 screws, I replaced all the screws for the sub-bases and straps with 4-40 Machine Round Head Stainless Steel screws and matching Hex nuts.  The originals aren't actually machine screws, their treads are a bit coarser.  Aside from that, they seems virtually the same and help the look of the engine (as opposed the worn out / rusty ones).

Photo of my two EMPCO's together.

Getting closer to calling it done on this little guy.  The rivets bits are getting close, so I am excited to see how well that goes.  With me using screws for the moment, I can see why they used rivets on the stand-offs instead of screws.  The little engine really works them loose - so I put some blue Loctite on them.

My playing with the engine over the weekend and getting it to max stream a new leak popped up.  I knew I had a very small one at the water stack but the new one popped up on the lower sight glass fitting.  At first I thought my Blue Loctite failed on the pipe threads to the tank (used Blue, as that is what I had on hand).  While I couldn't find Loctite 542 around town that Paula suggested, I was able to pick up Permatex 59235 High Temperature Thread Sealant yesterday.  I don't know if the Loctite 542 is red (it does come in a red bottle) but the Permatex 59235 is white and I prefer that to red.  Either way, in the end that wasn't my leak!  These strapped tanks have a brass insert for the pipe and under my desk magnifying lamp I could see pin hole compromises in the sweat seam for the brass fitting.  Pretty much the same kind of holes around the water stack that I found earlier.

So I used Gorilla Glue gel, using a toothpick to agitate the gel into the holes and forum a nice even seam around both fittings.  No telling how long it will last but so far so good under heat and steam today. Now only steam/water is coming out where you'd expect it to come out!  Man, this little engine can go ;-)