TANGLEY CALLIOPE RESTORATION PROJECT (part 8)
by Dr. Bill Black
BEGINNING THE RESTORATION WORK
In PHOTO A we can see the top of the pressure tank where we have removed
the pressure spill valve. This base of the valve has a steel plate with
nuts and bolts to attach it to the tank. Several of these bolts have the
threads stripped. The bolts are soldered to the top of the tank and you
need to unsolder them to replace the stripped bolts.
In PHOTO B the tank has been removed from the frame and placed on saw
horses. Several coats of paint have been removed from the outside of the
tank. In the upper right side you can see the repaired bolts. For many
years, the original Roots blower was used to supply pressure and vacuum
for the calliope. The blower tends to produce a fine oil mist as a
byproduct of its operation. So, over the years this had caused an
accumulation of a one quarter of an inch thick coating of goo in the
bottom of the tank. We took the tank to a steam cleaning company to have
this material removed. Unfortunately, they did not have a wand to get the
steam over the entire inside. The part you could see thru the hole where
the relief valve was removed looked great. But, closer inspection with a
flashlight showed that most of the goo was untouched. So, the tank came
home and I pondered another method. I then took a gallon of water wash up
paint remover and poured it in the tank. I then took duct tape and closed
up the external openings in the tank. Several times during the day I
would slosh the paint remover around in the tank. After about a day of
this, I used a water pressure washer to rinse out the paint remover. This
worked very well and the goo was eliminated.
There are a lot of parts in the calliope which depend on sheet metal
fabrication skills. The pressure tank is a example of this. The tank is
closely inspected for air leaks. When the tank was constructed it was
riveted and then soldered together. There are struts inside which are
used to strengthen the sides of the tank. These were soldered into place
before the tank was finally soldered shut. One of the struts had broken
loose from the side farthest away from the access hole. How to reattach
this was a problem. The solution was to drill a hole in the side where
the broken strut attached to the side and insert a bolt through the end
of the strut and the side of the tank. A nut was secured to the bolt and
soldered to the side of the tank. The broken strut is now secured to the
tank side.
PHOTO C shows the finished pressure tank. I used a satin black oil base
paint on the tank.
Now we turn our attention to the frame. As we mentioned last month, the
frame is constructed from angle iron which is welded onto a sheet metal
base and reinforced with braces at the corners (PHOTO D). The upright
leg in the lower right side shows the slight kink about one foot up from
the bottom. As also mentioned last month, this was apparently due to a
blow to this area which was sufficient to bend the leg. We rigged up
sort of a rigid support with wood and clamps to support the leg below the
kink and then take advantage of leverage to bend the leg above the kink
to straighten the leg. This was done a bit at a time with checking to see
that the frame was going to end up being square with the other legs. We
also checked this against the wooden sides of the case and the top to be
sure everything was going to fit together at the end. After this
straightening process, we wire brushed the frame to remove the rust, dirt
and old paint. PHOTO E shows the finished frame, also painted with the
satin black paint.
In PHOTO F, the tank has been mounted in the frame by means of the wooden
wedge arrangement described previously. I also made a wooden base with
casters to hold the machine so it could be easily moved around as we work
on it.
