It has been a busy week with first the big snowstorm and cleaning up, cold overnights -25C yesterday our female kitten was spade, and we had to set up a quite space for her till today. I used a large old printer box as a blasting cabinet/hood with the shop vac attached to the back, Also cobbled together a short section of parts to add in a drier into the line. I have some 80 mesh sand fines from a local sand pit along with the soda.
The results are encouraging with the sand , which is great because i have a gallon bucket of the stuff.
backing up a bit I have made all the parts for the plumbing from the sanding boxes which include unions T's and elbows. I also have decided to make some additional tiny elbows out of copper tube.
Some time ago while working out how to make very tight bends in 1/16th copper pipe. I had one of the spring tube type benders but it has a limited range when it comes to the very small elbows.
step 1 anneal the copper tube then insert a bit of styrene rod to fill the inside.
step 2 using a couple of brass sleeves that have the ends radiused.
step 3 push the sleeves together then bend to right angle.
Next job is to cut the elbow to length with the jewelers saw. (I read through the thread on the eclipse saw and grit blasting yesterday) I have a few saws and have to agree that the blade tension is key to not breaking blades. I like to use 5/0 and 8/0 Swiss blades.
The styrene prevents pretty much all distortion , I haven't figured out yet how to eliminate the lines toward the centre.
The next step is to give it a blast with the propane torch which melts and pops out the styrene. the picture shows a different elbow that needs a bit of trimming at one end.
The rings that will get soldered to the ends are turned from the 1/8th hard brass rod.
after soldering the T's and gluing most of the rest of the assembly a quick shot in the blasting hood 50psi with the 80 mesh sand in the badger mini unit.
and with one of the new elbows that will get glued once the piping has been shaped for fitting to the loco/
The union is turned out of some 3/16th steel hex. (lovely free machining steel)
Michael