5" Firefly (Martin Evans I think)
Aug 1, 2020 5:42:27 GMT
simplyloco, coniston, and 3 more like this
Post by tigermoth on Aug 1, 2020 5:42:27 GMT
As anyone who read my Newby intro will know I acquired this engine from a friends estate on his death.
Thought I would start a thread on the progress of the refurbishment of the engine, so here goes.
Started off by giving it a good clean so the fox could see the rabbit so to speak, looked at putting the reversing lever on the right side but found that it would mean making a new side tank (I wanted to keep as much as Roys work as possible) so that went up the chimney, could not move the coupled wheels so thought I should take the cylinder covers off, left hand one, full of water, piston rusted in place, right hand one, also full of water and rusted up solid, hmmm, now what, stood engine on end and put WD40 in the bores, left for a couple of days while I polished some bits and built a cradle for engine.
Engine in cradle and removed rods and back cylinder covers, started to tap L.H. piston and it moved, so onward and backwards we went till it came out, rings looked ok, bore looked, well to say the least a bit worrying, R.H. piston, tried the same thing and eventually that also came out, rings stuck in the grooves so into WD40, after a couple of days got them moving so all was well.
Borrowed a honing tool from a friend and and the L.H. cylinder turned out to be good, it polished up OK, the R.H is a different matter, pitted too deep to hone out so think it is a rebore and sleeve job for someone. All the castings were made from Roy's own patterns and cast in Doncaster, sadly the foundry is no longer there.
I joined the Scunthorpe M.E. club and when I finally talked the boiler into parting company with the chassis (had been there since 1975 ) and not run since 1980 I took it over to the nice boiler tester man who promptly refused to test it on the grounds that it was a braised and silver soldered boiler, the outer firebox wrap copper was to thin, the safety valve bush was wrong, ho hum, back home and long talks with my financial adviser who pointed out that under the lockdown rules we will not be going on holiday to the U.S this year, so there was a saving of around £4000, life looked a little bit better, phone round and see who could make one ( I had made a 5" King boiler in the early 80s but do not have a workshop anymore) Got quotes from £2650 to £3500 with lead times of 9 months to 26 months, rethink time, then read in a post on this site about G.B Boilers, phoned George who said bring the old boiler down and see me, well the better half and myself met George and finally worked a slightly better price with a lead time of 4 months, nice man who knows his stuff.
So I am now stripping the metal work of old paint and cleaning/polishing, adding rivets etc.
Will keep updating as I go.
Norman.
Thought I would start a thread on the progress of the refurbishment of the engine, so here goes.
Started off by giving it a good clean so the fox could see the rabbit so to speak, looked at putting the reversing lever on the right side but found that it would mean making a new side tank (I wanted to keep as much as Roys work as possible) so that went up the chimney, could not move the coupled wheels so thought I should take the cylinder covers off, left hand one, full of water, piston rusted in place, right hand one, also full of water and rusted up solid, hmmm, now what, stood engine on end and put WD40 in the bores, left for a couple of days while I polished some bits and built a cradle for engine.
Engine in cradle and removed rods and back cylinder covers, started to tap L.H. piston and it moved, so onward and backwards we went till it came out, rings looked ok, bore looked, well to say the least a bit worrying, R.H. piston, tried the same thing and eventually that also came out, rings stuck in the grooves so into WD40, after a couple of days got them moving so all was well.
Borrowed a honing tool from a friend and and the L.H. cylinder turned out to be good, it polished up OK, the R.H is a different matter, pitted too deep to hone out so think it is a rebore and sleeve job for someone. All the castings were made from Roy's own patterns and cast in Doncaster, sadly the foundry is no longer there.
I joined the Scunthorpe M.E. club and when I finally talked the boiler into parting company with the chassis (had been there since 1975 ) and not run since 1980 I took it over to the nice boiler tester man who promptly refused to test it on the grounds that it was a braised and silver soldered boiler, the outer firebox wrap copper was to thin, the safety valve bush was wrong, ho hum, back home and long talks with my financial adviser who pointed out that under the lockdown rules we will not be going on holiday to the U.S this year, so there was a saving of around £4000, life looked a little bit better, phone round and see who could make one ( I had made a 5" King boiler in the early 80s but do not have a workshop anymore) Got quotes from £2650 to £3500 with lead times of 9 months to 26 months, rethink time, then read in a post on this site about G.B Boilers, phoned George who said bring the old boiler down and see me, well the better half and myself met George and finally worked a slightly better price with a lead time of 4 months, nice man who knows his stuff.
So I am now stripping the metal work of old paint and cleaning/polishing, adding rivets etc.
Will keep updating as I go.
Norman.