I know there are at least three more folks on this Forum who are having varying degrees of success in swaging a leaking boiler, so I thought I'd post this progress report. (You can read about my trials and tribulations in other posts.)

I got a call from a boiler-maker who had heard about my problems from a mutual friend. This fellow worked mostly on Canadian navy vessels, many of which had steam turbines and steam ancillaries. His advice was as follows: "If the boiler is not pinned (the sheets attached to one another in the centre, either by welded tubes or bolts) the boiler should be empty when swaging. 40 litres of water is 40 kg, which might be enough to distort the bottom crown. Secondly, although swaging in a pattern,a section at a time,is more work and needs careful attention to avoid missing tubes, it's more reliable. If swaging row by row doesn't work, try dividing the sheet into quarters, or better, sixths or eighths, and doing one section at a time, from the centre out."

Following that advice, my boiler now goes to 600 psi (water) with no leaks, drips, or weeps. Tomorrow, fire.

(Oh, and he advised firing it gently, one minute on, ten off, two on, ten off, etc., given my burner, which, he said, "Sounds way too hot for a little boiler like that. Whoever designed it must have really known what they were doing, if it works as well as you say it does.")

Wish me luck.

Dear Ian, We all wish you luck SSsssteamer

Hi All,

I notice you guys in the States only hydraulic your boilers to the working pressure, if you think you have problems bear a thought for us here in the UK.

If the working pressure is 600psi then the boiler inspector will want to see the boiler go to 900psi, or one and a half times working pressure and hold it within 10% for at least 20 minuets.

If the boiler is in tip top condition and really tight it will take even more than that, all the best, Jeff.

Not all of us Jeff.
Mine held for over 12 hours.

Rolly

Attached is paper I wrote for our SACA–NE newsletter on Hydrostatic testing and heat-treating.
Took me a while to remember how to convert it to a Jpeg. This Phorum wont let you post PFD files.
Thanks John I've added the PDF copy

Rolly



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2010 06:56PM by Rolly.

Hi Rolly- very nice summary on hydro testing and heat treating. Sorry you had trouble with a .pdf file. I have reconfigured this board to allow .pdf files. Please advise if this causes trouble again.


JW
Admin

jw@stanleysteamers.com

I am pleased to report that I have driven the car and it seems to perform satisfactorily. The burner cuts out at 600 PSI and comes on at 550. After blowing down to 450, it took an hour for the pressure to drop to 300, which seems okay. Now all I have to do is get the sight glass to show the correct level. The kidney gauge works fine, and the sight glass also once I get it to work at all. It's reluctant to drop below 'full' after I fill the boiler.

Further to my last post, a regress report. I took the car out for a longer drive, during which time it performed perfectly. Then I came home, which involves coming down a long, although not very steep, hill. With the throttle closed, the boiler held 600 PSI down the hill with the fire off. When I got to my carport, and stopped, the boiler started leaking. When I pulled the burner, I found that virtually all the tubes on the passenger side (where the water intake is) were loose. I assume that cold water was being pumped into the boiler all the way down the hill, and the by-pass was returning water from the boiler to the tank, so the water in the boiler was getting colder and colder, and shocked the boiler. Does that seem likely? And if so, what do I do to prevent it from happening again? I don't think there is any way of turning off the water supply while the car is in motion. Can I hold the reverse pedal down and open the throttle slightly to slow the car, thus using some steam? Open the drip valve? Any thoughts welcomed.

If the car is piped correctly, you can stop the entry of water into the boiler at any time by opening the forward bypass valve.

I don't have a feel for the issue of cold water shock on the inlet side.

Does this boiler have ferrules???,,,Ben

It does have ferrules. Why?

I thought closing the hand bypass valve had the opposite effect - all the water from the pumps goes into the boiler and stays there. Or are there two hand bypass valves?

Yes, we're actually saying the same thing. When the (forward) hand bypass valve is closed, any water being pumped will go into the boiler, and the boiler check valve will keep it from coming back out. When the (forward) hand bypass valve is opened, any water being pumped will return to the tank. So if you wanted to make sure no cold water was entering the boiler, you could open the (forward) hand bypass valve.

Note that if piped correctly, the preceding description applies only to the forward hand bypass valve, which could conceptually be considered the "master bypass valve". The rear bypass valve will not achieve quite the same things if considered by itself.

There usually are 2 hand bypass valves, usually referred to as the forward and rear. In some cases there's a 3rd, automatic, bypass valve, under the hood, and if your driving process depends on that, you might end up never really paying much attention to the rear bypass. (In that case, it would usually stay closed.)

Well, I give up. Took the car out today for a 20 km drive, and it ran perfectly. Got home, having taken a different route so the pressure was lower than 600 (about 575) and the burner was cycling, turned into the carport, and guess what? Steam everywhere. There's something about this carport the car doesn't like. In the 55 years I've been playing with cars,and of the 60 I've owned, this is the most frustrating. Anyone want to buy a car?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2010 12:13AM by ianc.