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[bwmarks]

About a year ago I bought a Steam Boat on Ebay. Well I found out the steam plant was in terrible shape, the boiler dangerous and the boat was no prize. As I have been working on the boat, I sent the steam plant to Nick Monahan of Monahan Steam Models to have him give me an idea of what can be done. Well, I received the plant yesterday and all I can say is wow. Nick did a full overhaul of the plant and returned it back to a safe, great looking and operating steam plant.  All through the process, Nick called and emailed to let me know how things were going..both good and bad. I've done my part rebuilding the hull and hopefully I'll get the two together before spring here in Virginia..

I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story. The first are the after shots, and the last 2 photos are the before picture to show what Nick had to start with

[knoby]

WOW !!  Superb work by Nick,you should ahve a wonderful model when she is all toghether.
 glenn

[benjaml1]

Superb work indeed..... 

I have a question though, I frequently see "white" funnels, would someone kindly educate a steam newbie on the reason why ?

[Bernhard]

Look great..Nice  plant....do  you have the brass crown,,or top to it,,,,,,

Regards Bernhard

[kno3]

Great work, itlooks like new. Is it a Hammens plant?

[Bunkerbarge]

It's definately a Hemmens Richmond engine and it looks like the Wharfedale boiler.

[HS93 (RIP)]

where did you get the stainless boiler bands they look great.

peter

[bwmarks]

Hello all,

A few answers

Bernhard - I don't have a cap or crown yet, I never missed it before but after the rebuild I have to find one. i'm waiting from John Hemmens to reopen his web site to see if I can get one there. Any other sources would be appreciated.

Bunkerbarge - You are correct!

Peter - Nick has the bands at Monahan Steam Models


Brian

[Bernhard]

hi.......just call   J,Hemmens ,,he have them......i dont think they are in his catalog,,,,,,i have the same boiler,,,bot i didt sell the engine...

Regards Bernhard

[andywright]

Nick is one tidy worker, I'd love to know how he gets his pipework so straight, with nice tidy angles, very neat and tidy.

[MONAHAN STEAM MODELS]

Thanks Andy and everyone else too,

I don't actually have any tricks to getting the pipework straight. I purchase the copper tubing in 50 foot coils and straighten by hand. It's all done by eye and the bends and the general layout are done by hand without tools. Actually the only tool I use to make some of the tight bends is a round piece of brass material usually 5/8" to 3/4" in diameter. What I find kinda funny though is I noticed some of the pipe work looks like it got slightly bend out of place in shipping. Sorry but that's exactly where my eye went to when viewing these photos.

Brian,

Your launch is really looking good. It is interesting to see how great everything looks now compared to how the launch looked when you first received it. Great work! I hope you enjoy your newly refurbished steam plant and if you need anything at all please don't hesitate to ask. I know where there is an extra flared brass chimney top locally if you would like to have one. I'll find out how much the gentleman would like to sell it for. Keep us posted with updates on your build.

Nick

[bwmarks]

Nick, there was a bit of damage to the box, the Post Office  did their best to shake things up. The only pipe that got bent a little was the one from the boiler to the engine. I was able to clean that up as I was fitting everything in the boat. Everything fit perfect; I had to shorten the pipe from the engine to the condenser about 1/4 inch!

I spent today installing the plant and then removing it. Time to polish the aluminum plate then reinstall everything.

Please do check on the chimney top for me. Before all of the nice work on the plant, I didn't miss it; now that everything is "ship shape" it seems naked without the top.

Thanks again Nick, great job. More photos to follow.

Brian

[MONAHAN STEAM MODELS]

I thought it might be interesting to give an general idea of the work that went into refurbishing Brian's steam plant.

The boiler needed the majority of the work. When I received it, it appeared to be in really poor condition. There was many layers of paint added to it over the years. A thick layer of gooey tar was also applied to the out side surfaces. The top copper cap of the boiler's main pressure vessel was severely ballooned as if the boiler had been over pressured at some point in it's career. The ballooning distortion of the top cap caused all the threaded bushing welded into it to be bend off in all different directions. The sight glass itself and it's fittings had a very thick build up of mineral deposits. In fact the lower fitting was almost completely clogged. The first order of business was to disassemble and remove all the fittings on the boiler.

Upon attempting to remove the brass blanking plugs and brass sight glass fittings, the machined threaded portions of these parts that screwed into the boiler's threaded bushings crumbled like soft clay with almost zero force applied to the wrench. It was at this point that I was thankful that Brian had not attempted to fire up this boiler before sending it to me to inspect. These fittings could have very easily failed under pressure. I attribute the poor condition of the brass material of these fitting to have been compromised by corrosion in the form of electrolysis due to the use of incorrect water being used in the boiler. At this point I stripped all fittings off of the boiler and removed the broken off portions of the corroded fittings from inside the boiler bushings. The smoke stack, boiler, burner assembly and refillable fuel tank were all media blasted down to bare metal. The boiler with it's multiple layers of paint and tar took a long time to get down to bare metal. If you look closely at the before photos you'll notice the fuel tank was repainted black at some point but not before someone had epoxied a thin layer of mahogany sheet around the center section of it. This was also a lot of fun to try and remove in order to get it down to bare metal. The fuel tank had originally been painted red from the factory.

After the boiler and fuel tank were completely free of all traces of paint I could now thoroughly inspect all the welded joints. The boiler was then soaked in a series of chemical solutions to remove all mineral deposits and corrosion that was build up inside of it. The ballooned top copper cap was straighten out again so that all threaded bushings attached to it were perpendicular once again with the boiler's vertical surfaces. At this point both the gas tank and boiler were hydraulically pressure tested to be sure that everything was safe for operation. All components that had been striped to bare metal were repainted with a coat of primer and a couple top coats of stoved high temp enamel.

The 90 degree globe valves on the boiler and fuel tank were replaced with new ones as well as the upper and lower sight glass fittings. These fittings as well as a hand force water pump that was added to the steam plant by Brian, were all painted to match the Richmond engine. All boiler blanking plugs and other related brass steam fittings were replaced with new ones. The ceramic burner/boiler base was re-assembled and the old gas jet replaced with a new one. At this point in the refurbishment all further work was mostly cosmetic such as lagging the boiler, adding stainless steel bands around the lagging, cleaning/re-polishing brass components and fabricating the copper plumbing. The displacement lubricator on the Richmond engine had a small 180 degree globe valve attached to it via a short length of 3/32" copper tubing. This is intended for blowing down or draining the condensate inside the lubricator prior to refilling it with oil.

Typically I've always seen these plumbed separately to the condensate tank but given the close proximity of this valve to the 90 degree exhaust outlet fitting exiting the back of the engine I decided to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. The copper exhaust line the connects to this 90 degree exhaust fitting already leads to the condensate tank so why make another copper line leading to the condensate tank from the displacement lubricator drain valve? You can see what I chose to do in Brian's photos 2 and 4. I machined one side of the original 90 degree exhaust fitting to accept a threaded fitting to now screw the displacement lubricator's drain valve directly into it. Then I simply made a new 3/32" copper line to connect the displacement lubricator's lower drain boss to the existing 180 degree globe valve. With the engine's throttle valve closed and the main steam stop valve open you can drain the condensate from the lubricator directly into the condensate tank via the existing exhaust plumbing by simply opening the small 180 degree globe valve. You don't have to worry about sending the condensate backwards into the engine since the throttle valve is closed.

The whole steam plant was fired up and steam tested to make sure everything was functioning properly prior to sending it back to Brian.

Nick

[Bunkerbarge]

Thanks for the excellent write up Nick, lovely job and obviously a lot of work.  It would have ben easy to write this one off but it's so much more satisfying to restore it back to it's former glory and put it back to use.

You are correct in that the lubricator drain normally goes into the bottom of the condenser tank but what a neat little idea to run it into the engine condensate line instead.  Just when I'd decided that there were going to be no more modifications there might be one more!!

[bwmarks]

A little update:

The plant is installed and the feed pump plumbed to the internal water tank in the bow. Everything fit as expected thanks to Nick's good work.
I've ordered a gas filler and smoke stack crown from John Hemmens. About 2 more weeks of details to add then the unveiling.

Thanks for all of the comments

Brian

[benjaml1]

Looking good... 

[Neil]

Wow, that's an effort and a half, is it not.
I'd love to be able to silver solder like that, apart from the rest of the excellent work.
Neil

[Neil]

I just wanted to add ....
Who would treat such a lovely set-up, that way, whoever made it.
It's almost criminal. Did the owner not smell the burning wood?
Oh, that I could make a boiler like that which would survive some kind of (#$%$#) treating it like that.  <:(Oh, that I could silver solder like that. 
It's a great testament to the builder, and the restorer.
Abuse of any machinery is a bad thing. I hate it.
In this throw-away world, I still use machinery in my vocation, that I bought new in 1984. I also have other machines, used daily, that were made in circa1948. My newest car is a 1984 model too, as it happens, running like the well known "Swiss Watch".
What I'm saying is, that with care, machines will last a lifetime, probably many lifetimes.
Look at the old Beam Engines, the Traction Engines et al.
I'll guarantee, with a careful owner, this boiler will outlast all on this forum, by many, many years.

As an aside, has anyone noticed the wonderful skill demonstrated by amateurs, in their chosen hobby? In this country, we are constantly told of "De-Skilling". Oh - Yeah! Not when you see amateurs' work at Model Engineering Exhibitions.

Enough from me.

Neil.

[pipercub1772]

carefull neil ,one thing i learned years  ago  was never praise a car it will come back and bite you  allan

[Steam Head]

I hope Nick has plastic lined pockets.

S.H.

[Neil]

I was looking at this disaster - again, and the repriese.

Has anyone paid hommage to the original "Boiler Maker", or just the restorer?

The fact that the whole shebang didn't melt, and explode, is a testament to the original maker in my opinion.

Or, am I wrong?

[andywright]

What a lovely clean and tidy fit out, a credit to all concerned.
Andy

[bwmarks]

Hello All,

Well she is finished for this Spring and ready for sea trials. Hmmm... what is next?????

Brian

[gondolier88]

Beautiful Brian, really well done.

Did you mean to give her the look of an old Navy Cutter? The spray screen and small cuddy at the back are reminiscent of White's of Cowes' products.

The paint and brightwork is also top notch, puts a few full size launches I can think of to shame!

The one and only small criticism I can find is with the plastic nav' lights on the bow deck- to be traditional these should be brass, mounted on the cabin roof or mast, of cast construction, or failing that teak/mahogany boards painted inside the colour of the light. They just stuck out on an otherwise A1 launch.

Greg

[gondolier88]

Here's a navy cutter to show what I mean;

Greg