July 12, 2017:  Hello All.  So, last Saturday maybe needs to be renamed Last Monday, because that seems to be when the work gets done. The past couple of Saturdays only me and George Orme have shown up. Well that’s not totally true. The Saturday before last Jim V. was in the firebox banging away at the ends of the tubes that have been cut out.

Mondays, Jim V. , Kyle C. , Mark Siegel and Matt  have been working hard at getting the last of the tube ends out. I also recently talked to a boiler man to get an estimate on making various repairs to the flue sheets and replacing the tubes. I’ll be interested in what he comes back with. We are not going to attempt this work ourselves, because when all is said and done, I want to be able to tell the FRA that all pressure vessel repair work was done by a certified boiler specialist just so our daring airs are covered.

Meanwhile, on the outside of the boiler, Jeff H. with whoever he can scrounge up has been continuing to remove – or preparing to remove – all the badly pitted and ugly looking external piping. Don’t know if people remember, but the last time we ran we blew a hole (fortunately a quite small hole) in the air pump steam supply line. This is why we are going over the plumbing that lies under the jacketing with a fine tooth comb.

Charlie