Wiles Senior cooker.

I decided to start making a new boiler fire box shell from 1/4 inch mild steel plate.( the old plates were a little bit thin in places)
Also the trailer is wired up with converted WW2 Jeep rear lights.
The blackout part of the lights now has a orange direction indicator globes.
The brackets were made to suit and cloth covered wiring used to finish the effect.
The Wiles junior never had direction indicator lights or dual stop tail lights ect.
I needed to up grade the lighting to modern standards, yet keep it looking original.
The original set up was a single stop/ tail light and later in army service red rear facing plastic Hella brand reflectors were fitted to the mud guards on hand made sheet metal brackets
For the reflectors I used Jeep items again because they are better made metal items than the Hella reflectors and have the same bolt pattern and are of the same design/ shape.
The weather has not been good to me, and therefore the Wiles junior got some time spent on it as it is under cover.
Ron

That's nice work.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

That's nice work.

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Good progress Ron.:TakeABow: What time is brewup?[smilebigeye]

The boiler tubes appear to be in good condition.
I managed to buy some boiler pipe already threaded and bent 90 degrees, but the new items are much thinner than the original items, so much so I may just reuse the old items as compared to the new items they still have much meat in them despite being internally corroded.

Just a quick up date
The boiler inspector bloke ultra sonically check the boiler today.
Being disassembled it was thoroughly checked out...the works.
The barrel was OK.
One tube was found to have pin type pitting leaving only 2 mm of meat left...…...small defect, but not real good.
I am going to have to get the boiler retubed.
As it is only Four more pipes to weld I am going to use the new barrel I have as well.
Interestingly the new barrel is thinner new than the old barrel with some, use and corrosion.
Later model boiler barrels are thinner than the older ones.
What all this means is a lot of cost as I am going to have to pay some one to weld the tubes as I don't have a pressure vessel welding ticket.
The safety valve I have learnt will have to be sent off and tested every year and certificated.
It is now no longer good enough to test the blow off pressure on the boiler during yearly inspections.
All this will take time, but I will end up with a legal and safe boiler.
The boiler inspector is very keen for me to get this wiles junior up and going again.
Small world again...….the current boiler inspectors father used to do the yearly checks on this same cooker very many years ago and was able to find its old inspection history.
The original barrel can be reused on another cooker if I preserve it .
Ron

The boiler bloke recommends to fit the thinner steam pipe elbows I have purchased as the old ones could have another pin type corrosion defect, even though they are much heavier and thicker.
The attached picture is of a trial fitting of the old boiler barrel into the new fire box I made.
The only good news is going to be is that the cooker will be safe and have a up to date boiler history and after the work should last another 50 years
I just got to see much this is going to hurt the hip pockets.

Just some pics
Another view of new fire box.

grate and ashpan finished....the ash pan had the air holes enlarged exactly as per original and a simple lock on the ash pan to stop it sliding out when towing...again as per original.
The cast iron grate its self could be better.....but I have to work with what I got, will most likely trip over placements another day.
The spare Wiles senior grates I have don't interchange with the junior grates.

New and old boiler barrels.

I hope I can find the correct size and thickness boiler tube.

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Originally Posted by 101 Ron

Just some pics
Another view of new fire box.

grate and ashpan finished....the ash pan had the air holes enlarged exactly as per original and a simple lock on the ash pan to stop it sliding out when towing...again as per original.
The cast iron grate its self could be better.....but I have to work with what I got, will most likely trip over placements another day.
The spare Wiles senior grates I have don't interchange with the junior grates.

New and old boiler barrels.

I hope I can find the correct size and thickness boiler tube.

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Ron, could you please describe for me how they go about Sonic Testing. Ta.

It's just like a pregnant women getting a ultra sound.
A small transducer with a bit of paste on the end.
Machine reads out thickness of metal where the transducer is located.

The machine is no larger than large mobile phone and the transducer is the size of a six five cent coins stacked on each other.