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Post by springcrocus on Mar 31, 2021 18:00:03 GMT
Springcrocus (Steve) he has done two in the last couple of years, the Britannia and and Allchin. Dave It might only be one, Dave, I've hit a snag with the Allchin that I need to discuss with the boiler inspector but it may end up being a scrapper and suitable only as an ornament. I am in the process of writing it up for the Allchin thread.
Darren, there's nothing magical about the process but it pays to have two of you working together. If you've never soldered something as large as a boiler, the biggest hurdle is getting the heat in quickly. It takes a suprisingly long time to get up to soldering temperature when all that mass needs to get hot. As a guide, when Wilf and I were soldering the front tubeplate to the barrel, it took well over ten minutes with two LARGE burners just to get up to melting temperature. It's very easy to give up too soon, thinking something may have gone wrong when, actually, it just needs more heat. Confidence is key. Even if you are soldering by poking a rod in, have a scrap of solder resting close by on the workpiece. If that hasn't melted, the job isn't hot enough!
Regards, Steve
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darrene
Part of the e-furniture
Posts: 440 
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Post by darrene on Apr 1, 2021 7:36:36 GMT
Springcrocus (Steve) he has done two in the last couple of years, the Britannia and and Allchin. Dave It might only be one, Dave, I've hit a snag with the Allchin that I need to discuss with the boiler inspector but it may end up being a scrapper and suitable only as an ornament. I am in the process of writing it up for the Allchin thread.
Darren, there's nothing magical about the process but it pays to have two of you working together. If you've never soldered something as large as a boiler, the biggest hurdle is getting the heat in quickly. It takes a suprisingly long time to get up to soldering temperature when all that mass needs to get hot. As a guide, when Wilf and I were soldering the front tubeplate to the barrel, it took well over ten minutes with two LARGE burners just to get up to melting temperature. It's very easy to give up too soon, thinking something may have gone wrong when, actually, it just needs more heat. Confidence is key. Even if you are soldering by poking a rod in, have a scrap of solder resting close by on the workpiece. If that hasn't melted, the job isn't hot enough!
Regards, Steve
 Fingers crossed Steve
Thank you for the tips, I'm in need of all the advice I can get at the moment. I've noticed on several occasions, two burners being used for the larger components.
I'd been planning on trying a small (cheap) boiler kit to practice on but thinking about what you've said, it may be wiser to practice cutting and brazing comparably sized pieces of copper to get familiar with the heat management. After all, that's half the battle 
All the best Darren
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Post by runner42 on Apr 1, 2021 22:28:44 GMT
Darren, there's nothing magical about the process but it pays to have two of you working together.
Regards, Steve
Being a loner and not have another pair of hands to assists in getting the heat into the boiler particularly at the later stages of build, I shall probably have to devise some means of overcoming this shortfall. The photo shows that a laboratory tripod would be a good method of holding a propane torch to provide the background heating whilst I can concentrate on with another propane torch on the area of interest. Brian  Mvc-006f_resize by Brian Leach, on Flickr |
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Fingers crossed Steve
