Ideas for making "Making the throat plate " Throat plate First mark our where I need to flange by chain drilling Then drill the holes for the stays   and then cutting with a metal Chisel and finish by filing Make up the former in MDF  and drill holes to fix locating pins With the throat place the work requires opening out the smaller hole to fit the former and continue this with period of annealing A backing piece of MDF is also required to ensure the copper remains flat Use a piece of MDF the size of the tube to check that the hole formed will fit the tube Then former needs to be made to bend the sides of the throat Remember to check square with a try square.
24th Feb 2025 I have bought a piece of MDF 18mm thick which is quite heavy !! This is in preparation for cutting the formers for bending and folding the part for the boiler.
26th Feb 2025 Tidying up the workshop ready to cut formers for boiler from MDF.
14th March 2025 The size of the MDF that I need to cut takes account of two side and the front which is 4 1/4" plus 4 1/4" plus 4 1/4" so that makes 12 3/4" x 7 1/4".
The piece has been marked out to find the centre of the circle to be drawn to make an opening through which the copper will be beaten to form the connection to the boiler barrel. The copper sheet is measured at 2.5mm  so a circle must be drawn of 53.3mm Radius.
The copper sheet has been marked out and the hole cut which will be annealed and then fixed the the MDF and then beaten to make the fit to the boiler barrel.
20th March 2025 Today being the warmest in 2025 I decided to cut the hole in the former.
23rd March 2025 Cut the backing piece and cut the hole in it to match that of the front piece.
28th April 2023 Preparing to drill the 1/8" holes to ensure alignment of copper sheet after each annealing. The necessary 1/8" drill and rivets found.
30th April 2023 Centre punched to mark drill holes
All fitted together ready to start forming after annealing
23rd May 2025 and so today the annealing and quenching and metal bashing began. It was soon apparent that the hole through which the hammering was to be achieved was too small so the hole was jig saw cut about 5mm bigger. This made the hammering with a soft hide hammer much easier.
The hole through which the hammering was done is too small so it was made 5mm approx bigger all round.
After 3 hours and a rest half was this is as far as I have reached in one day.
25th May 2025 After another two anneals and two lots of hammering the two part fit together !!!
Next I need to make a former that will allow me to bend round it the two ends of the Firebox. The size will be 52 less 3mm and width of 3 9/16" less 6mm and this will be in MDF