2 inch scale Clayton

I am in the proccess of building a 2 inch scale copper Clayton boiler, I have used high temp silver solder on the inner joint of the clinker access tube. However I am unclear if you need to use high temp.silver solder on inner tube plate joint to the inner firebox? Also do you need to use high temp.silver solder to join the water tubes to the plate that goes onto the inner fire box? (I had to fight to get the heat to put the fire hole ring in.) Do you need to use high temp. solder to fit the bushes to the outer barrel? The instructions I have are a little vague. I found building a "Mini" boiler easy ,compared to this large chuck of copper! Also found castings a little short of "meat" and modifications to the design are already in hand! Finally,do you bash the ash pan out of mild steel sheet or is it fabricated? Many thanks for any advice gived.

Reply to
julian.greenberg
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I am in the proccess of building a 2 inch scale copper Clayton boiler, I have used high temp silver solder on the inner joint of the clinker access tube. However I am unclear if you need to use high temp.silver solder on inner tube plate joint to the inner firebox? Also do you need to use high temp.silver solder to join the water tubes to the plate that goes onto the inner fire box? (I had to fight to get the heat to put the fire hole ring in.) Do you need to use high temp. solder to fit the bushes to the outer barrel? The instructions I have are a little vague. I found building a "Mini" boiler easy ,compared to this large chuck of copper! Also found castings a little short of "meat" and modifications to the design are already in hand! Finally,do you bash the ash pan out of mild steel sheet or is it fabricated? Many thanks for any advice gived.

Reply to
julian.greenberg

I and others I know, built Clayton boilers with Easyflow No 2 throughout. No problems in manufacture or subsequent use. Using HMP Ag solder will require more heat and therefore more risk of denaturing lower melting point Easyflow. Anyway, HMP can become brittle. Use plenty of flux, paint it on with a 1" brush everywhere you've already soldered whenever you're having a big heat-up and you should have no difficulty !.

As for the ashpan, I tried lots of ways including bashing one out of copper sheet over a former. In the end, I managed to roll up a reasonable strip of 16g ms and silver soldered it to a larger sheet of ms (weighed down with a fire brick). The excess was then ground away to the edge of the rolled, vertical bit.

Anyway you'll need to practice your rolling technique for when you get to the steering wheel !

Reply to
IC

Reply to
julian.greenberg

"I was told that the final drive gear ratio leaves much to be desired and people have put in an extra lay shaft ? Is that correct."

Furthermore there's a bit of a mis-match between the slow steering ratio and its running speed. (A two-start thread on the steering column is a must). No clutch can also be a problem ! What you do about it depends on what you're building. If you want a steam wagon to pull a trailer around on show days then it might be worth the considerable effort of changing the final drive ratio by whatever means. IMHO it's best left as Robin Dyer designed it because the Clayton isn't really a passenger hauler. You'll be aware I'm sure, there have been many follow-up articles in M.E. since Dyer's original series. These have included devices to change that final drive ratio; make other improvements and make it more prototypical.

There's a Clayton described here as having reduction gears - blah, blah but unless it's a superbly concealed bit of engineering, I can't see it's any different from normal.

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Also on the site, there's this quotation:- "Usually seen in 2 inch scale, Robin Dyer's design for the Clayton steam wagon is very attractive but requires an expert hand on the controls to get the best from it - the engine has big cylinders, a small boiler and tall gearing all of which, combined with the permanently-engaged road gear, makes for ticklish driving. All sorts of modifications have come out over the years to improve the basic design but, to be honest, I've never managed to travel too far before it's time to stop for some serious attention to the fire/water/pressure (and usually all three)."

Good luck !

Reply to
IC

Reply to
julian.greenberg

You can find any of the Clayton references in M.E. from here:-

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Lundberg began his series on mods with Vol 351 (page 605 et seq).

Anything in E.I.M. can be searched from:-

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However, IMHO neither index is entirely complete - though extremely valuable nevertheless.

Don't worry about slightly oversize cylinders consuming more steam. The bigger problem will be sealing the pistons. Dyer recommended thick section graphited yarn (I think) but tho' maybe easier to install it is difficult to judge the right degree of compaction and it really sticks up the pistons until hot. Better to make the pistons for O rings.

BTW - the spigot on the valve chest casting is for a drain c*ck (not mentioned in the articles).

Reply to
IC

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