[Steam-engine] Wachs boiler update

[Francis Orr]

Richard, Go down to the hardware store and get one of those sanding disc
arbors that fit on a drill motor. While you are there, pickup some 40 or 50
grit 3" sanding discs. Punch or drill a hole in the discs to match your
arbor and mount the discs upside down on the arbor. Depending upon the
arbor, you may need a couple of washers to get the gripping area on the
disc. Mount the arbor in your drill motor and you can now do a great job of
cleaning the handhole gasket surface on the inside of the boiler shell.
Clean the gasket surface of the handhole plates and you reduce the chance of
leaks to a minimum.
Regards the tube sheet leak, you are certainly going to want to check your
sheet thickness, either by drilling (then tap and plug) or ultrasound. If
the thickness is OK, you can caulk the tube sheet onto the firebox wrapper.
If you will look at the edge of the boiler shell where it meets your top
tube sheet, you will see a groove all the way around. This is where the
boilermaker forced the wrapper against the tube sheet with an air powered
tool that looks like a cold chisel with a rounded edge instead of being
sharp. You can do just that. Round over a cold chisel and with a hammer,
force the edge of the tube sheet against the wrapper. You can also make this
up from standard muffler shop tools and use an air gun. Remember. The
caulking tool goes against the END of the wrapper sheet or tube sheet. Do
NOT put a groove in the main surface of either sheet. The bad part of this
procedure is that the hammering can cause other rusted joints to leak and
you may do some leak chasing.
Also, this year I put a vertical boiler on line, a little bigger than yours.
Had to make new stack and ash pan. I can send you the drawings if you are
interested.
Francis A. Orr