LSM 95 Practical Rebuild - The Orange Cremesicle

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pocojoe
Posts: 183
Joined: 12 years ago

#1: Post by pocojoe »

My current project is an LSM Practical 95 (Vintage 2005). Here is a picture of "Before", from the eBay posting:


Unfortunately the "After" is not so pretty. The machine was not packaged properly and badly damaged in shipping. The boiler wasn't drained, and so it started leaking. FedEx took it out of the outer box and sent it on through rattling around inside a new box as you see here:

The motor got loose inside, steam and water valves bent, lower HX thermosyphon feed fractured, rattle rattle - you get the picture. After a series of negotiations, what was to have been a morning cup of coffee turned into a teardown. My plan is to do some mods AFTER I get it back to working as designed.
The color theme is Orange Cremesicle



(the side panels will be creme colored)

When I assembled the powdercoated frame, I made sure that the completed frame would be electrically bonded for grounding:


First Planned Mod: Boiler PID

I drilled and tapped for a 1/8NPT and will plug it during reassembly; work in the PID later:


One tip I picked up from HB postings was to be sure not to submerge the heating element when cleaning: I took the double boiler approach.



Next Planned Mod: Temp monitoring of the group, with active thermosyphon control:
I drilled and tapped the group to mount a 4 mm thermocouple bolt:

Any suggestions on a pump spec for the thermosyphon PID would be most appreciated.

Then the fun began: One of the best things about projects is having an excuse to buy more tools! My new toy- a Victor Acetylene Manpack for brazing... Here was the first go:

I purchased a 3-ought (ie 000) tip, for the smallest flame for brazing. Here is an interesting tidbit: I was advised to use silver solder rather than brazing rod for strength. Odd fact: you can buy silver solder that has 0% silver in it (I guess the same marketing guy that came up with "Partial Zero Emission Vehicle" came up with that phrase... I went with the high test- 6% silver content.)

I wanted to install the LSM preinfusion chamber, and it looked like a great place for a pressure gauge to go. I got a 1/8 FPT to 1/8 tubing adapter, and drilled / tapped the expansion chamber for the 5/16 thread.


The expansion chamber was too thin to hold the fitting. Time to braze!


I played around a little on a piece of scrap before trying to do the work piece. I learned something- compared to arc welding, it is difficult to see what you are doing from the light arising from the oxyacetylene torch. Put a floodlight on the work so you can see it with the goggles on! I was working pretty much blind, but it cleaned up ok:



Here is what the plan is, after I get the electronics reworked, and perhaps go to variable speed pump:



So far, no major snags, and all the parts could be found. When I get the reassembly complete, I will post some more pics showing the final appearance, and then on to the electronic and thermosyphon mods: Thanks for reading!

PocoJoe
PocoJoe
Safety Third- First Roast, then Grind

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TomC
Team HB
Posts: 10535
Joined: 13 years ago

#2: Post by TomC »

Damn, you don't play around. Nicely done. This will be one to watch!
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spressomon
Posts: 1904
Joined: 12 years ago

#3: Post by spressomon »

^ ditto!
No Espresso = Depresso

pocojoe (original poster)
Posts: 183
Joined: 12 years ago

#4: Post by pocojoe (original poster) »

Tip of the day: Rust Brite Zinc. I asked at the welding shop what they recommended for zinc coating that was starting to rust. I'm not ready to take up electroplating! They recommended this product for a zinc rich topcoat. I used it on the brackets today and it looks pretty good:



The goal today was to get the electrical harness back on the chassis:



That meant getting the pump installed and the boiler mounted.

First question of the day: did I read the machinist handbook correctly?

A 7 mm bolt is closest to a 5/16 English bolt. The way I read the table, for a bronze endplate, I should be torqueing with about 10 ft-lbs. I have read threads that suggest as high as 30 ft-lbs. Anybody know for sure?



Got the bits that have wires attached to them mounted up today; next step is to get the piping on finger tight tomorrow.







It's coming along... coffee next weekend?
PocoJoe
Safety Third- First Roast, then Grind

skydragondave
Posts: 158
Joined: 11 years ago

#5: Post by skydragondave »

Excellent work. Ambitious, creative, and a very nice machine to work from. Well done.
LMWDP #433

pocojoe (original poster)
Posts: 183
Joined: 12 years ago

#6: Post by pocojoe (original poster) »

FINGER TIGHT

Pretty productive day- had to work but still made it to the garage for long enough to rebuild the steam and water valves, and get the piping installed.



Thanks to Michealo for makng the diagrams available online, and for great parts support-



The bucket of parts wiggled their way back into a semblance of a machine.



Steam and water valves got munged in shipping and were rebuilt.



Everything is there - now going to have to tighten all the fittings down without cracking anything!

So far, so good- no surprises encountered today.
PocoJoe
Safety Third- First Roast, then Grind