22HP Minneapolis Return Flue Restoration

[ICLIDA]

Jeff Knutson has been working on a project for a few years now and it's starting to take shape. I am going to start a thread about Jeff's latest adventure and others can add as they see fit. Jeff was infected with the "steam bug" a few years back and has become a huge supporter of the Great Minneapolis Line" of steam engines and threshing machines. Jeff owns a 20 hp Minneapolis steam engine #8702 which is the 5th to the last engine built by the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company. Jeff also has a few other engines waiting to be brought back to service. I think that the infection that Jeff has may have been given to him by the one we know as Gerald Parker. I will add a few pictures every few days and try to give some explination as to what Jeff has been up to in his spare time.

This is Jeff drilling some holes with a "Slugger Drill Bit". These are 2 1/2" holes that can be drilled in a 1/2" thick plate in 5.4 seconds, but it takes 17.31 horsepower to do it. This was done last Memorial day weekend when Jeff, Gerry Parker and I went over to Mike Wahl's shop in Wisconsin to do some machining work.

Here is a closeup of the drill bit we used.

The only way to drill holes!

Tom

 

[m kerkvliet]

Looks like the flue sheet for his return flue! I have been watching the progress of this engine at Larson Welding, and it is really looking great! I was hoping someone was going to post something here sooner or later!

Outstanding project guys... Looking forward to watching this thread progress.

 

[ICLIDA]

Here are a few more pictures from our weekend at Mike's.

There is lots of smoke when you use these bits.

Here is Jeff drilling smaller holes using the same type of drill bit.

In 2 days we had enough shavings to fill a 55 gallon drum.

 

[m kerkvliet]

No lubrication on the bits?

What did you cut the hand holes with?

Looks like Jeff has a lot of neat stuff in his shop. Looking forward to more pictures Tom! Keep this up, and you might have to invest in a broadband connection!

 

[ICLIDA]

Mark,
The lubrication we used was a special lube that Mike Wahl got from where he works. It looks almost like a bar of soap and we just filled the teeth for about the first 1/2". It melted into the groove as the drilling started and didn't make the mess that traditional cutting oil does.

I will get to the handholes in some of the next posts.

It's not Jeff's shop, it's Mike Wahl's over in Marytown Wisconsin. Marytown could take Rollag in a war, but not by much, it's very small. Mike does have alot of nice equipement and he even has 3 phase power! We had a great time when we went over there.

Tom

 

[m kerkvliet]

It's not Jeff's shop, it's Mike Wahl's over in Marytown Wisconsin.

I knew that... Just one of those brain spasm things! Maybe old age!

 

[ICLIDA]

Mark is correct that the picture is one of the tubesheets for Jeff's 22 horsepower Minneapolis Return Flue Tandem Compound Steam Engine. There were 2 of these engines at "Steam Engine Joe's" (Joe Rynda) in Montgomery Minnesota. Joe had a collection of over 50 steam engines and most of them were sold at a huge auction sale a few years ago. There were 3 Minneapolis Return Flue steam engines at the sale and Jeff purchased both of the 22 HP Tandem Compound Engines. The other Return Flue went to Iowa. I believe that both of the engines Jeff got were built in 1899 and the one he is using most of the parts from is number 2065. Both of these engines were very complete and were in very good shape, at least for a starting point for a rebuild, considering tht they had probably sat outside in Mongomery for about 60 years. I first learned of these engines back in 1987 when we were getting ready for the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company Centenial Exposition held at Rollag. I always wanted to get one of these engines and build a new boiler for it and restore it, but I am very happy that these engines ended up with Jeff.

Mark asked about handholes in one of the previous posts. Jeff purchased new handholes that are formed to fit the inside radius of the barrel. To assist in cutting the holes in the boiler we had a template made from 3/8" thick plate. We had it cut on a burn table with an electronic eye to follow a CAD drawing layout and then we had the plate "bumped" in a break so it would fit on the outside of the shell. This worked very well and there was very little grinding needed after the holes were cut.

Here is a picture one of the new handholes and the template we had made.

Once we located the center of the handhole we used magnets to hold the template in place. It can be a little nerve racking to start burning holes in a new boiler shell.

Here is Mike Wahl cutting holes in Jeff's new boiler shell.

It's a good thing that Mike is young and limber. If I sat on my foot like that I wouldn't be able to stand up again until the next day.

More latter.
Tom

 

[ICLIDA]

Here are some more pictures.

This is Mike Wahl and Pete Deets doing some final grinding on the steam dome pipe.

Here is Jeff doing some final grinding on one of the tubesheetes.

Here is Mike sitting on his foot and fitting the tubesheet to the shell.

Here is Jeff, Mike and Tom just before we loaded up to head home. Gerry Parker is taking this picture. Gerry took all of the pictures when we went to Mike's.

Loading up.

Don't laugh at Mike's forklift. It's a very handy machine to have around and it runs great.

We will be moving into the welding of the boiler next.

 

[ICLIDA]

Jeff's boiler was welded up at Deltak in Minneapolis. It was fitting that a Minneapolis engine get it's new boiler from a company in Minneapolis. I have worked at Deltak in a number of capacities since 1981 and have some connections that allow me to get a boiler welded up every now and then. When the Ortner locomotive needed a new boiler I was able to get it built in our shop.

Jeff's new boiler is built with a maximum allowable working pressure (MAWP) OF 175 psi. It carries an ASME "S" stamp and is registered with the National Board. By having Mike and I do all of the design work and drawings, including the ASME code calculations, along with us doing all of the prefabrication work we limited the work in the shop to welding, post weld heat treat, hydrotest and blast and paint. This helped keep the cost within reason. If you were to run a project like this through our engineering department the cost would more then double.

Here is a picture of the steam dome top. There are two 2" npt connections for the steam pipe. The steam comes out one of these pipes through the steam stop valve and then back into the boiler through a "dry pipe". There are two 1 1/2" npt connections for the safety valve(s). Two 3/4" connections for the steam whistle(s) and a blind tapped hole for the hook that holds up the water tank when it is flipped up for cleaning the combustion chamber. We did add one safety valve connection since we plan to run one "old style" valve and the required "V" stamped valve, and an additional 3/4" whistle connection just because Jeff wanted an extra connection. The top is 1 1/2" thick which is much thicker then the original boiler but it does not have the center support that the original design had.

This is the inside view of the steam dome. You can see the pipe that will go down through the shell for the dry pipe. You can also see the 3/4" connection on the side of the dome which supplies steam to the injector. On all of the pipe connections into the shell we used 3000# half couplings set flush with the outside (except for the blow down connection) and full penatration welded and ground on the outside. These holes look like tapped holes but have the meat of a 3000# coupling.

Here is a close up of one of the half couplings on the inside of the shell. Notice how much more material is in the connection instead of just tapping through the shell.

This is a view of the connection on the outside after it was ground flush.

This is the weld for the steam dome pipe to the steam dome top.

 

[m kerkvliet]

This is the inside view of the steam dome. You can see the pipe that will go down through the shell for the dry pipe.

Tom,

Can that dry pipe ever be replaced after the dome was welded on? How would you get to it? Looks like that piece is welded in place... what hooks up to it?

Mark Pedersen put a new dry pipe and elbow in his 40 Avery boiler, and it was a challenge to get it out, and back in again... Top of the dome is removable and the pipe came out the back hand hole in the boiler (4 X 6 hole). We now know why that hand hole is so big. Only way to get that pipe in there!

 

[ICLIDA]

Mark,
Sorry it has taken some time to get back to you but I just spent a week helping Jeff on his engine.

The dry pipe is not replaceable, or at least not easily. You can replace anything once you torch enough out of the way. We discussed this at length and we concluded that most of the dry pipes that are in our engines are almost 100 years old and as long as the boiler was stored in an upright position there is very little chance of any corrosion in the dry pipe. Jeff's boiler has a drain connection st the back head for the dry pipe and we also put a 1" slope in the dry pipe to assure it would drain. By going with welded connections inside the boiler we eliminated the possibility of any leaky threaded connections and the dry pipe was subjected to the ASME required 1.5 times hydro test (263 psi on this boiler), both internally and externally. The pipe is 2" sch 80 which has a wall thickness of .281. The elbow is a 2" sch 80 butt weld elbow ane the connection on the dome top and the rear head are 2" 3000# forged couplings that are full penatration welded through the the top and rear head and the threads were bored out on the inner end of the couplings to allow for a standard socket weled connection. The connection from the outside look just like a trheaded hole, but are really the end of the 3000# coupling.

I think with the drain, the sloped pipe, the welded connection and the sch 80 pipe we should be good to go for the next 100 years.

 

[GaarScott]

Tom,

Great photos and commentary. I've enjoyed the thread thus far and look forward to future updates. I'm sure I speak for many when I say thanks for starting this thread. Keep us posted!

Lawrence

 

[ICLIDA]

Here are some more of the welding pictures.

This is an inside view of where the combustion chamber (what most would think of as the smoke box on a direct flue boiler) is welded to the shell. The front tubesheet will sit between the 1 1/2" filler pipe connection and the weld between the shell and combustion chamber. The holes are for rivets that will be added later to make the boiler look original.

Hre is a view of the outside of the shell, combustion chamber and the filler connection.

This shows the fitup of the rear tubesheet to the shell. Note the dry pipe connection which looks like a threaded hole from the outside.

This is a close up of the fitup weld.

This is an inside view of the rear tubesheet.

Outside view of the rear tubesheet.

 

[mrnewway]

Jeff Knutson's Engine

This is a very interesting thread, and very informative to see how a boiler is constructed.
Jeff can be proud of his work and that of others on the restoration project, and it will be nice to see when it is completed.
I hope that post on the progress continues.
Thanks to all involved with this project.

Jim

 

[ICLIDA]

The tubesheets have a full bevel on the outside. There were a few weld passes between the tubesheet and the shell on the inside. After this the weld was backgouged with an air-arc from the outside, ground and magnatic partical tested for cracks. Here is a close up picture of the weld after grinding and testing.

Here is an "action shot" of the shell to tubesheet welding.

Another "action shot" from the other side.

This is the dry pipe to rear head connection before welding the pipe to the coupling.

Here is the dome to shell weld.

Here is the dry pipe after is was welded in place. Note the drain holes for the dome and the big hole for steam to get to the top to exit to the stop valve before it goes down the dry pipe.

 

[ICLIDA]

After the tubesheets and the dry pipe were installed it was time for the through stays. The through stays are 7/8" diamerter and they are full penatration welded to the tubesheets.

Front tubesheet showing the through stay to tubesheet weld.

Close up of the finished through stay to tubesheet weld.

After installing the through stays it was time to install the fire tube. The fire tube is 24" diameter at the rear tubesheet and 22" diameter at the front tubesheet. It is actually an eccectric cone. It had to be made in two halves and welded together. Note the longitudinal welds at 3 and 9.

The fire tube sticks out the rear tubesheet about 5". Here is the fit up weld.

Inside view of the fire tube to rear tubesheet weld.

Outside view of the fire tube to rear tubesheet weld.

 

[ICLIDA]

Front tubesheet to fire tube weld after it was ground flush.

Close up of tubesheet to firetube weld at the bottom.

View of the inside of the boiler after the fire tube was installed.

Boiler after all welding was done. Note that the boiler was on 30 ton rollers. They were kind of overkill for the weight of this boiler, but they were the lightest ones we have in the shop.

This is the furnace that is used for Post Weld Heat Treatment. It is approximently 16 ft wide, 20 ft high and 50 ft long. There are 2 burners at opposite corners of the furnace.

The boiler in the furnace with some other boilers that will be heat treated at the same time. Notice the thermocouple wires that moniter the temperature of the vessel as it is heated up to 1150 F. There is a heat chart that is made for every vessel that has a PWHT. Jeff has a copy of this heat chart with his boiler records.

After the PWHT the boiler went to Larson Welding in Fargo for rivet installation and tubing.

 

[ICLIDA]

N

Jeff sitting on top of his boiler with that "what have I gotten myself into" look. Notice that the boiler is up in the air on rollers high enough for the dome to clear the ground. The boiler is almost balanced with the fire tube being toward the bottom of the shell to offset the weight of the dome. You can almost roll the boiler on the roller by hand by lifting on the dome.

Rivets being heated before installation into the holes.

Heated rivet inserted into the hole.

Rivet being held in place for the rivet squeezer to be positioned.

Positioning squeezer over rivet.

Close up.

Even closer.

 

[ICLIDA]

Rivet under "pressure".

Rivet after cooling.

There was 74 rivets installed that morning.

This is the crew that installed the rivets that Saturday morning. We installed 74 rivets in 75 minutes once we got rolling.

I need to give credit where credit is due. Gerry Parker took most of the pictures that have been shown in this thread so far. Thanks Gerry!

 

[m kerkvliet]

Great pictures, and a great thread thus far Tom!

I am waiting (patiently) for some of them from last week to show up (work week @ Jeff's! I guess there are some from Jim's shop to go in first...

Keep 'em coming!