12.30 - almost lunchtime, and I've removed one and a half stays, and the third is just starting to unscrew after much subtle persuasion....
This week I was promised some work on the firebox of 1638 as a change from the seemingly never ending battle with the concrete in 323's smokebox. Instead it was an endless session of using brute force and ignorance to remove a line of molybdenum stays, using a combination of a very large hammer to shock them loose, and an even larger set of Stilsons to unscrew them with. All sounds very easy doesn't it. At the end of the day I had managed about 10, which apparently is an average day. The trouble is that some stays come out relatively easily, and others need beating for ages before the threads become loosened. Not only is there all the scale in the thread to contend with, there's also a nut on the other side of the firebox plate which needs removing too!
12.30 - almost lunchtime, and I've removed one and a half stays, and the third is just starting to unscrew after much
subtle persuasion....
Why bother unscrewing the nuts when the can be burnt off with oxy-acetalene? When I asked why the stays couldn't be
attacked in the same manner I was shown why - after about a minute of being attacked with gas, the molybdenum is still only
cherry red, whereas the nut on the end of the stay would melt after a few seconds!
The new climbing frame for the local kids playground...
...well, ok, it's actually progress on Stowe's tender, looking very impressive, although not quite as good as if I had got
a decent focus on it!
At the end of the day, 10 stays out. Six are waiting to be cut in half and removed with an angle grinder. The reason
for winding the stays downwards was that apparently there is less damaged likely to be caused to the thread, and it's also
a heck of a lot easier as well.