January/February 1975
Fred M. Freschette
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A steam powered sawmill that was developed from an old Glass Plate negative by a friend of mine. We know nothing about it, but it is so clean and interesting in detail -1 thought I'd send it to you. Courtesy of Geo. S. Clark, 254 Pond Point Avenue, Milfor
Geo. S. Clark
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R.R. 4, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.
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I would like to ramble a bit about Boilers, and a few
connections, if you will allow me. I have received quite a few
letters asking my advice on various repairs and problems, that
different steam men have had on their boilers. I am always glad to
pass on any knowledge that I have.
I have been fairly busy with boilers myself, as it has been very
cold up here until just recently, when the weather broke up and
warmed a bit.
I received a phone call from a drilling company, asking my
advice about bringing boilers into Alberta from Saskatchewan. I
advised them to have someone competent to go down and look them
over and make sure they were in very good shape as our inspectors
are very rigid about condition. However, the drilling company
decided to take a chance and they trucked the boilers up to my shop
to have them put in good condition.
There was a 1912 J. I. Case 32 hp boiler, a 1911 Case 25 hp
boiler, and a 1915 28 hp Case boiler. After they were unloaded I
took a quick look at them and here is what I found. The 32 hp
boiler had the smoke box rusted out at the bottom, plus all the
rivets were corroded off by the hand hole, in the flue sheet, the
skirt under the firebox was half rusted off. The firebox needed 23
stay bolts replaced and also two stay bolts were missing and in
their place were pipe plugs screwed into the crown sheet and outer
wrapper sheet. Needless to say, the flues were shot and most of the
other stay bolts had been leaking. So it has the 'X' on it
that means condemned. What a pity!
Next I checked the 28 hp boiler and on both left and right sides
of the water legs was a beautiful bulge about 12 inches long and 6
inches wide, at the O.G. ring. By this I mean the curve at the
bottom of the water leg where it bends over to be riveted on the
outer shell. This had a nice bulge below the flues and also a bulge
below the door and above it. I cut the side section out of the
water leg and it was just like it had been poured full of cement
and every bit as hard. When I cut the section from the O.G. ring it
was only about 1/8 thick in that area. Another 'X' stamped
on this boiler. What a pity!
The Case 25 hp was in the best shape of all, except someone had
welded light weight 2 inch fittings into the boiler in 5 different
places and whoever the welder was he did not have to feel proud of
the amateurish mess he made of welding. This boiler had Alberta #
stamped on it so it is also condemned in Alberta. I am sure that
drilling company will be a little more cautious next time they buy
up boilers as it can be very costly.
The only boiler worth fixing was the 28 hp Case, however, with
the bottom of the water leg thinning out and the damage to the rest
of the boiler made it impractical to repair plus the pressure
allowance would have been very low.
Remember, to successfully repair a boiler, you must have
something to work with on the boiler itself. There is little gained
by welding a new plate to old thinned down plate that is about
rusted out. Either replace it all or don't waste your time and
maybe someone's life. There is one thing I have never seen
explained in your magazine the proper way to test a water column
and glass. I will try to explain it as simple as possible and take
heed all engineers, young and old, whenever you take over an engine
be sure to run this simple test and you may save a damaged boiler
and someone's life. We will say this water column is on a Case
steam engine and there is a valve at the top and bottom between the
boiler and the column. The boiler is under steam.