The ash I am talking about came form the burning of the sacrificial board when silver soldering the top edge to the pan itself!

Today's ash pan session was spent by soldering up the four corners using the highest temperature silver solder I had. The reasoning being that I could use a lower melting point for the connection of the top edge to the
ash pan.


After the corners were done I decided to place the ash pan into the pickle solution whilst I chain drilled the copper sheet being used for the top edge. Once the drilling was completed the sheet of copper was
taken to the Proxxon bandsaw and the inside cut out.
The ash pan was then mated to the top edge and a scribe mark placed around the pan so it could be located again when soldering. The silver solder paste was then mixed and 'painted' onto both the edge of the ash pan and the top plate.

Lengths of Silver Solder in place prior to heating

To hold the ashpan in place a couple of heavy steel blocks was placed on top and then lengths of silver solder cut and placed against the edge of the ashpan and into the flux.

The ash pan itself was then heated with the propane torch, bringing the ash pan to cherry red, where upon the solder rod melts itself and flows between the joint.

It is important that the flame does not impinge on the solder rod itself, melting it before the surrounding metal is ready. I started work on the left hand corner, moving the flame around to the otherside when the solder started to flow.

The ashpan unit was allowed to cool before placing it into the pickle solution. After cleaning up a little, the ash pan was then placed onto the up turned boiler and pleasingly the holes and pins were still aligned.

The next job will be to file up the inside edges of the ashpan top edge then make the fittings for the grate and the damper plate, not forgetting the holes to be drilled in the four pins for split pins to reside it. It is the split pins that hold the ash pan in place and these are pulled out if the fire needs to be dumped quickly, when in use.

A few words but a lot of work done..................
 
 

 

 

 

Some way to go but were getting there