I have not done much boat building of late, the last being the African queen. I have been dabbling in the black art of model engineering. So, after refurbishing Victoria with a new engine and a coat of paint to get her ready to sell I have made a start on the Mountfleet Sealight 1/32 Puffer kit I got at Haydoch 2013. I have seen a few puffers running on steam, but the boiler is invariably in the cargo hold, and being one for a challenge, decided I was going to put the boiler in the boiler room and the engine in the engine room, well, near as damn it anyway. I have a little 3 inch x 6 inch vertical boiler, which is a slightly modified Tubal Cain Henry design, and for the engine, the old Victoria engine, now rebuilt with new pistons, con rods and big ends. It was clapped out after 4 years of constant use but now is as good as new. It was all going to be a tight squeeze but so far, so good, just need to find room for a seperator tank. I will use a stove type gas canister and a can valve for fuel, this can sit in the hold. I have made the quarter deck removable so if in the future anything major needs doing, I can lift the whole assembly off. For the purposes of this excercise, I put the deck on first and worked through the hole, if I can get it all in that way, I should be ok. a couple of 22mm offset end feed plumbing fittings was all that was needed to re route the funnel, and the only compromise I have made is to move the funnel 1/4" forward, and lift the superstructure by 1/4", none of which should be noticeable unless some smart Alec takes a ruler to it. I will stop waffling now and put in some photos of progress so far, I only really started yesterday so not done too bad so far....
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Topic: Steam powered Sealight, or how to fit a quart into a pint pot.... (Read 6810 times)