BOILER CLEADING

[Howard SnowdenParticipant @howardsnowden92695]

ADVICE ON MATERIAL

[Howard SnowdenParticipant @howardsnowden92695]

Hi, I am about to work on cleading my boiler on a 71/4" g 9F, can anyone from experience advise on the best material to use. I was going to use 26 swg brass, but maybe someone has used a different material that is better to work and form. Thanks Howard.

[Jeff ChilverParticipant @jeffchilver13861]

This is something of a negative reply but you never know , it may help . The best material I have ever had for that job is lead coated stainless steel . It is quite thin ( probably in the order of 16 swg ) solders beautifully , easy to cut etc. It is used as a replacement for lead roofing on churches and similar . I managed to scrounge a few offcuts when a local church was being repaired after a visit by some lead thieves . Might be worth asking around you may get lucky .

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Never understood why brass is used, it's expensive and difficult to paint. I used old computer casings on my last effort, but getting the old plastic coating off was another story.

[Richard S2Participant @richards2]

Nickel Silver Sheet has good properties for the job. Depends what sheet size(s) you would need and what you consider a reasonable price for the job materials. Various thicknesses and hardness grades available.

An example after a quick search- NSS.

Regards

[Alan CharlestonParticipant @alancharleston78882]

Hi,

What about steel shim plate. Relatively cheap, readily available, flexible and should be easy enough to get paint to stick.

Regards,

Alan C.

[Howard SnowdenParticipant @howardsnowden92695]

Thanks for all your ideas. Howard

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

I was chatting to a bloke at the boot yesterday and he told me he had used baked bean cans for his loco, he was quite serious!

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Rik Shaw on 02/07/2018 09:12:04:

I was chatting to a bloke at the boot yesterday and he told me he had used baked bean cans for his loco, he was quite serious!

Bean (ho ho) a long time since that was possible. For at least 30 years most tin cans have been corrugated:

Quite hard to find plain tin cans; last time I needed one I found only Condensed Milk and Fish Roe, though I expect there are others. Biscuit tins are more useful especially if your family snack between meals!

Not sure what the corrugations in tin cans are for: possibly it allows thinner steel to be used, or perhaps it makes them easier to crush for recycling. It's a mystery.

Dave

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Corrugations make them stiffer, so they do not crush so easily with radial pressure.

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

As we left our holiday let earlier I took this pic of the last can of food left in our supplies box.

Rik

[Simon CollierParticipant @simoncollier74340]

I used .8 mm brass. I bought .6 mm and .8 mm and used the latter. It was hard to roll and needed a couple of annealing but it was kept in one piece, not sections. A friend uses 1 mm stainless. Others use quite thin mild steel but it won't take threads and it will eventually rust.

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

Zinc coated steel (commercial name Zintec) is good for cleading. It bends, folds and rolls easily and can be soft soldered and takes paint with the correct primer.

A good souce is a friendly maker of temporary road signs or a steel stockist.

Brian

[Author]

Posts