The Diary of the Building of a 5" gauge Stirling Single |
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| The rebuild after the opening up of the smoke box | |
| 15th
September 2025 The first thing I did was to unsolder the remaining piece of the original petticoat which had been silver soldered into place. |
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| The photo shows where
I have hammered flat the piece which will support the new
petticoat., |
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| You can see the rusted
surfaces which will need to be sand blasted prior ro
re-soldering into place. |
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| 16th
September 2025 As soon as the new set of plans arrive I can work on re-building the petticoat pipe and silver soldering into place! Did some tidying up in the garage so that access to the sand blaster is easier..
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| 17th September 2025 New set of plans have arrived |
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| 18th September 2025 Ordered more 6BA bolts |
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| 22nd September 2025 Trolley made so that it is easier to move my small generator out the way so I can easily access the sand blaster tank |
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| 24th
September 2025 Another different metal adhesive bought called ATP ADT Metal Repair glue which is water proof and can withstand 300C. It is a two part adhesive. It has a shelf life of 24 months from manufacture which was 15/09/2024 so I need to use it by 15/09/2026!!! I also have given thought to the valve which leaked on the 1st Steam hydraulic test and have decided to remake the valve closure piece with a tighter fit to the barrel and hope that will cure the leak problem.
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| In the photo you can
see where progress has been made on the sandblasting. |
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| The inner ring is now
completely blasted |
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| Now all the
sandblasting is complete. I now have to work out how to put it back together !! |
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| 14 March 2026 Today I am restarting the re-build and after chatting with Tom of my local Engineering club he suggested that the super heater outlet could be plugged off for the hydraulic boiler test there by making a rebuild of the regulator unnecessary. |
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| The blank is made for
1/2" hex bar and the machined down to 11.1mm for a length of
about 7.5mm. It was then threaded 7/16"x32 |
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| The bungs were then
fitted into the ends of the super heater tubes and tightened up. |
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| 16th March 2026 Today I established that with a bit of support work yet to be formed I will be able to try to drill out the broken brass bold and re-tape the hold .. |
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| 22 March 2026 Finally made to drilling suport so that I can try to drill a new tapping hole where the brass bolt snapped off. |
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| 23rd March 2026 Drilled the hole ready for tapping but I am having to make an extension to the tap so should be ready for a try tomorrow!! |
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| 30 March 2026 With the hole drilled as near to size of the tap it meant that the piece of steel wobbled about . So I held the drill in the headstock of the lathe and drill a cente hole into which I positioned the revolving centre. I was the able to machine of the eccentricity and the tap would cut straight. |
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| The tapping went well but has still to be check by putting a bolt into the hole. |  |
| This is a better photo showing how the hole was tapped. |  |
| 31st March 2026 The new bolts do fit and grab the thread but the bolt needs to be shortened. Today I was also able to make the gasket to go between this headed piece and the boiler. |
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| 3rd April 2026 The dee tube bringing steam from the boiler had slipped forward during removal of the steam wet header so this had to be repositioned back in place with the steam admission hole set to the top of the pipe. The photo shows this now back in position. |
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| The steam tub is now
back in position and the valve is projecting forward ready for
the wet header to be set in place after I have made a new
gasket. |
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| First then gasket has
to be scanned. Then processed in Cricut which also make the gasket by cutting it !!! |
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| In Cricut the size of
the gasket had to be re-sized so that the horizontal measurement
was 54.5 mm The first one made was over sized so a second try had to be made. |
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| 7th April 2026 Bolts to retain the cover of the regulator valve were cut to length and filed off in the latch so that they easily will enter the 6BA threaded hole. A thicker gasket which had made earlier fitted exactly. the gasket on the left is the original and the one on the right the new one. The retaining cove was then cleared up with Isopropanol. |
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