- Joined
- Jul 8, 2005
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- Location
- Victoria, BC
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- www.johnsphotography.ca
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I'm guessing it probably wasn't replacing boiler tubes in a 105 year old steam traction engine. Les (the fellow in the photographs) is a member of a neighbouring antique tractor club and volunteered to help me with the job. In just under four hours, we had eight brand-new tubes installed.
For those of you not familiar with the process, it starts with cutting a piece of A-178B seamless boiler tube to length and polishing the ends:
Then the tube is fed into the boiler and lined up in the correct holes in the front and rear tube sheets:
Contrary to popular belief, boiler tubes are NOT welded in place (the ends may be seal-welded, but that's to prevent corrosion, not to secure them), rather the ends are expanded by means of a tapered roller to hold them in place.
Once that's done, it's time get out the 'rivet-buster' and bead the end over:
And... when you're done, it should look like this:
For those of you not familiar with the process, it starts with cutting a piece of A-178B seamless boiler tube to length and polishing the ends:
Then the tube is fed into the boiler and lined up in the correct holes in the front and rear tube sheets:
Contrary to popular belief, boiler tubes are NOT welded in place (the ends may be seal-welded, but that's to prevent corrosion, not to secure them), rather the ends are expanded by means of a tapered roller to hold them in place.
Once that's done, it's time get out the 'rivet-buster' and bead the end over:
And... when you're done, it should look like this: