Looks like it's down to doing some noisy, dirty work. Needle scaler, and more. How are the flue sheets? OK? So she just needs new tubes? Boxcab E50
So far the sheets look to be in excellent condition. Of course we need to wait until all of the flues are out to be sure but everything looks good so far. Regards, Kevin
Kevin, thanks for more updating. That tender is lookin GOOD! I commented on the number of staybolts earlier, and now that I see the smokebox flue/tube sheet, I gotta ask, does that beauty have almost all superheater flues? I only see a few small diameter tube holes. How many superheater flues are there? Thanks. :tb-biggrin:
Sigh, I don't remember, I do remember that we took up five rows of superheater's front to back off of the superheater header. Each superheater passed through two different flues, so that would mean 10 rows of flues from the top down had superheater's in them, if I'm counting the picture right we have 13 or 14 rows of flues top to bottom in the large size. Grin, I do remember my first look into the firebox side of the flues, wondering who had stuffed all those rocks in there. All of my previous boiler experience had been with residential boilers most of which are not superheated. Regards, Kevin
I'll bet there are a few sore backs as well! As we are now officially into Fall, hope everything is staying on schedule. Boxcab E50
Our backs are sore, but we are doing the job Announcement! http://www.nmslrhs.org/library/open_house_flyer%2010-18-08.pdf Regards, Kevin
Nice photos, Kevin, thanks. Looks like y'all are really coming along, though I realize you've got a L-O-N-G way to go yet....WOOF!
Thanks for the kind words, But please remember that the real credit lies with the large number of very talented people in our organization. Careful planning and focus on the job had been hallmarks of this group since the very beginning. Again thanks, Kevin
More progress. If you torch the flues off ahead of the firebox, what then, pound the pieces into the firebox? Are they welded or just peened over in the firebox? :tb-confused:
In our boiler the flues are rolled then peened and then welded on the fire side. On the smoke-box side the flues were only rolled. Apparently the heat of the fire would burn any exposed edges of the flues. Removal will be accomplished by grinding the welds down to the sheet surface and then collapsing the flues to separate them from the sheet. (I used to be a boilermakers helper for stationary systems, and that is how we did it.) Regards, Kevin