why we have boiler regs

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

Im no fan of the current restrictive blue book regs (as the comittee members are well aware) but having just looked carefully at the completed boiler in this link I have to conceed a little – the welds are hideous!! Looks like it was welded by a partially sighted first year apprentice!! Scary stuff.

http://discoverlivesteam.com/discoverforsale/forsale/1_bartlett/index.htm

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

why we have boiler regs

[SteambuffParticipant @steambuff]

Thats why we have the 'Blue Book' … To protect the innocent from the foolish !!!!

By the way, I don't find the current regs restrictive …. but then I don't have any steel boilers, only copper. (3.5" and 16mm Gauge)

Out of every 10 people that can build boilers, 9 can and they are quiet safe, but it is the other 1 that can't build a boiler but thinks he can, are why the reg's are there.

 

Dave

 

Edited By Steambuff on 29/10/2012 22:01:13

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Note that the price in US$ . I do not know if the US has its own "bliue book" but litigation would sort it all out.

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

blue book regs are great if your stuck in the 1940's…since then we have invented the mig welder and the tig welder…woohooo!

[SteambuffParticipant @steambuff]

There is at least 1 company supplying Tig Welded Copper boilers, I am assuming that these meet the regulations.

Sorry but I don't know about Mig/Tig Welding for Steel Boilers. (Not sure if the Blue Book specifies method of Welding — My book is not to hand)

I am sure that when the Blue Book is revised, it will take account of the more modern welding technologies that are now available.

Dave

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

What did they do with boiler tubes before welding was common?

From 1850 to 1930 kinda thing

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Ady;

Expand them in place. Sometimes use a copper ferrule between tube and tube sheet to help seal.

Welding really started with the Germans in WW2 from what I understand; stays were starting to be welded then, as it's a lot faster than tapping and threading and peaning the ends over.

I used to do a fair amount with full sized stuff in North America; although I still hold my provincial license for "Steam Traction Operator" have not bothered to use it in a good few years now.

I think rolling tubes is easier; when you take the tubes out, you of course have to use a torch to cut tubes just inside the sheets, then carefully remove the remainders. There always ("over here" practice, anyway) a king hole in the front tube sheet; all tubes come out of that hole, and can be "safe ended" and re-used, if ok. Safe ending is just welding on a bit more tube, maybe not worth it for the tubes, but the larger superheater flues it is/was usually done in "excursion" years. (IIRC, you can safe-end flues twice only)

Google "49 cfr 230 steam" should bring up the US rules, Canadian rules are identical, except for the spelling (again, IIRC)

Another JohnS

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