Boiler Failure


 * Licensed Steam Engineering Company posted the following on eBay:


 * Most of the older Cagney Boilers built after 1913 appeared to be built from 3/8" plate as is customary for the size and pressure range. You need to pay close attention to wasting away in the water legs as a result of poor storage or improper wet layup procedures.  If water is left standing in the water legs oxygen pitting and acid grooving will be heavy in these areas.  Most live steam clubs do not do a full internal inspection as they usually go with a quick hydro yearly and would not catch this type of damage.


 * A quick example is Chet Peterson's 1 1/2" Scale Daylight with an all steel boiler. Chet had a current non code boiler certificate at a local live steam club for years and hauled children around the club track at Griffith Park for free.  Then one day the engine was simmering in the station the crown sheet let go unloading the boiler water contents onto the ground.  If an internal inspection had been performed yearly the clogging of hardness scale and corrosion would have been caught.  The local clubs response to this dilemma was not to change their practices to include an internal inspection it was to install a reverse osmosis unit.

Fred V. writes:


 * I have to take some issue with this statement "little EXPLOSIVE devices". We are not covered by the ASME codes because, if below the 5 cu. ft. of volume, our boilers don't explode. They may split open a seam and scald you to death but they don't explode. There has never been an explosion of a miniature boiler that I have ever heard about. I have heard of seams splitting open. I haven't heard of any death related to a miniature boiler accident.