New (to me) Axeman 260

Nope Townsend, never a firefighter. I have been in the USCG Auxiliary for over 30 years. I was involved in training normal average people who were also members of the Auxiliary on how to approach burning boats that were on fire. You see, the USCGA is all volunteers from all aspects of life who decide to give up nights and weekends to train so that we can perform voluntary mostly unfunded patrols to keep our waterways safe and to help out our fellow boaters. A lot of women are members and serve along side their male counterparts.

And I happen to work on collision damaged vehicles. And I was a kid who drove all over creation. One thing I learned early on was that if I damaged my vehicle, I had better figure out how to fix it or my ass would sit. And I rarely sat on nights or weekends........

Now as far as that Fred guy, I was fortunate as a youth that my parents bought horses and a contankerous pony. My job as a 12 year old kid was to take care of the horses. I've been thrown a few times, bitten a few times, and had a big old mare step on my foot and rock her weight forward so that the bulk of the weight was on that left front leg. I was taught how to deal with those things early on. But I think Fred may have caught a foot to the head once or twice....... Oh well as long as he is happy !!!!!!!





Rick

Nice job on the coal bin. Is that the oil tank that used to feed your Smith oil boiler?

How about some pictures of the steam piping?

Rob, no, that's not my old oil tank. I picked it up from Coaledsweat. He had it kicking around for a while. If I have time today I'm going to hit it with a wire brush and paint it.

I will take some pics of the header and near boiler piping soon. I'm just waiting on a pipe threader which I should be picking up today. I have some 2 inch and 1.5 inch to cut and thread.

My biggest concern with the tank was that no liquid be present which we found when we opened it with the sawzall. Since we were working on it within 20' of his well, I didn't want to be discussing our little project with some DEP Nazi. The opening was approximately one square foot and at the top side of tank. Once opened, the tank only had an oily residue film on the interior walls and since it was going in the house, it needed to go because it would stink! With only one opening, no draft could feed the fire (coal basics 101). It simply burned small patches of oil intermittently going out and then restarting after chocking on its own smoke.

The header piping is awesome, you would think you were on a tramp steamer!

I found the nerve to cut my 275 oil tank down to a 138 gallons today. I was "chicken" and filled it up 1/2 way with water and cut a door in the side with my gas cut off saw under the water line. No booms, just need to grind the welds off the end cap and weld it back together.

AA130FIREMAN wrote:I found the nerve to cut my 275 oil tank down to a 138 gallons today. I was "chicken" and filled it up 1/2 way with water and cut a door in the side with my gas cut off saw under the water line. No booms, just need to grind the welds off the end cap and weld it back together.

Feel a lot better now ???? And there is nothing wrong with being "chicken." It has kept me alive so far..........

Congrads on the successful cutting operation.



Rick

Nice job AA130!!! Glad to hear it worked out and you're still in one piece.

I really did get my feet wet, literaly. I kept the water flowing out the garden hose as I did the cutting, wanted to be shure I had my cut covered by water, wasn't shure I could cut as fast as the water ran out. Once I had a door in the tank, I felt comfortable.

Got some more done today. Completed the header and connected to the 3 inch and 2 inch main runs. Also went into a crawl space and re-pitched some main pipe for proper pitch. I guess after 120 years houses tend to settle a bit. I was on my back in this little crawl space under a hall way and I see this spider moseying around near my head. I had seen a show not long ago on Brown Recluse Spiders and I wanted to get a picture but had left the camera out at the boiler. Getting in the crawl space was no easy task either, requires a crawl off a ladder and over some drain pipe so I was not about to venture out and then back in to worry about IDing that thing. Didn't feel any bites so hopefully I'm good.

Man, between cutting open old oil tanks, raising 35 pound wrenches over his head and crawling around underground tunnels a guy can get messed up in his own house.

Anyways, here are some pics of the 4 inch header and the main risers etc. My friend brought the pipe threader and it helped a lot to thread some 2 inch I had to measure and put in. I'll continue with the cutting and threading tomorrow as well. Moving down the bin too. Wiring on Friday and assembling the smoke pipe too. It really feels like its getting near 'fire up' day.

Oh, check out the name on the 48 inch steel pipe wrench! Man, after 8 hours with that thing over your head it definitely does help the ego! I'm spent!!!

Another shot of the header.

Nice touch with the Christmas lights...
Make sure the blue cable is moved before you fire up...
Nice work with the piping...

That's awesome Steve!

Outstanding rebuild and install. Absolutely top shelf all the way. Great job on the header. A lot of people don't realize how important it is (efficiency wise) to get that right! Can't wait to hear you've got that train running!

SteveZee wrote:That's awesome Steve!

Outstanding rebuild and install. Absolutely top shelf all the way. Great job on the header. A lot of people don't realize how important it is (efficiency wise) to get that right! Can't wait to hear you've got that train running!

The whole thing belongs in the Museum of Modern Art.

coaledsweat wrote:The whole thing belongs in the Museum of Modern Art.

I concur!

With all of the the twisted and distorted junk that one finds within the realm of 'modern art' today, it would be refreshing to see this boiler in such a museum. It would show that there is indeed hope for humanity after all.

lsayre wrote:

coaledsweat wrote:The whole thing belongs in the Museum of Modern Art.

With all of the the twisted and distorted junk that one finds within the realm of 'modern art' today, it would be refreshing to see this boiler in such a museum. It would show that there is indeed hope for humanity after all.

Well said Sirs!