Office of Steam Logo_1

Author Topic: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine  (Read 1885 times)

Paula

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 281
  • Have you hugged an engine today?
  • Location: SE Indiana, USA
Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« on: June 01, 2023, 09:55:45 am »
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.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

And here's the finished assembly:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

(More to come...)
A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

RichSteamTx

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 766
  • Location: Kyle, Tx
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2023, 10:28:47 am »
I love the looks of this engine .... must not get tempted getting engines outside of Empire tagged engines!
Richard

Paula

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 281
  • Have you hugged an engine today?
  • Location: SE Indiana, USA
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2023, 10:51:10 am »
Right! Follow the Prime Directive!  ;D
A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

Stoker

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3616
  • Wherever you go ......... there you are!
  • Location: Eastern Sierra
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2023, 01:09:26 pm »
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
"Information is not knowledge, Knowledge is not wisdom, Wisdom is not truth, Truth is not beauty, Beauty is not love, Love is not music: Music is THE BEST...   
Wisdom is the domain of the Wis (which is extinct). Beauty is a French phonetic corruption of a short cloth neck ornament currently in resurgence..."
F. Zappa ... by way of Mary, the girl from the bus.

Paula

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 281
  • Have you hugged an engine today?
  • Location: SE Indiana, USA
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2023, 01:53:49 pm »
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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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... [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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
A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

txlabman

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3592
  • Location: Plano, Texas
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2023, 04:27:14 pm »
Paula:

Nice work on restoring/repairing the burner.

Looking forward to seeing what is next in store....

Charlie

St Paul Steam

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4831
  • Location: St. Paul Indiana
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2023, 08:34:54 pm »
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.
Bruce, St. Paul Indiana, USA
"Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind."
  Nikola Tesla

Paula

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 281
  • Have you hugged an engine today?
  • Location: SE Indiana, USA
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #7 on: July 02, 2023, 05:43:39 pm »
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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

The original valve probably looked similar to this:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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":

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

This worked better than I expected! While it doesn't look exactly like the original, it certainly looks better than a plugged hole would:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

(More to come...)
A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

RichSteamTx

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 766
  • Location: Kyle, Tx
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #8 on: July 02, 2023, 06:28:31 pm »
that valve came out really nice, great work!
Richard

Mengine

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 2
    • EngineDIY
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2023, 04:35:57 am »
Good job

skeptic49

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 327
  • Jim, tinplate toy trains, motors, steam
  • Location: Philadelphia, PA
    • Tinplate Times
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #10 on: July 03, 2023, 05:56:37 am »
Nice work!
The one who dies with the most toys, wins!

Jim

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4330
  • Aussie Steamer always on the boil :)
  • Location: South Coast of New South Wales Australia
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #11 on: July 03, 2023, 06:02:39 pm »
What a wonderful engine Paula.
_______________________________________________
Cheers.
Jim

My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/Blue123Heeler/videos


txlabman

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3592
  • Location: Plano, Texas
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2023, 08:40:51 am »
Well done!

Paula

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 281
  • Have you hugged an engine today?
  • Location: SE Indiana, USA
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #13 on: October 05, 2023, 10:20:28 am »
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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

After removing the old thread, counterboring, and tapping for the #4-40 stud, this is how it looked:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

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:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

The bushing was soldered in place with Stay-Brite 8:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Here's the finished cap assembly installed on the engine:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

With that part of the job completed, it was time to focus attention on the crankshaft.

(to be continued)
A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

RichSteamTx

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 766
  • Location: Kyle, Tx
Re: Restoring a Doll Vertical Steam Engine
« Reply #14 on: October 05, 2023, 10:22:43 am »
wow, superb work - it great reading about what you are able to do in your shop!
Richard