Some of my boiler making tools. I formed the taper barrel using a set of bending rolls. I decieded that the chances of cutting the sheet to exactly the right dimensions was pretty small - the copper stretches when rolled - so I left the sheet oversize, and planned to cut it after forming. I know this makes for less convenient cutting, but at least it wont be short. Just as well; after annealing and rolling, the taper ended up at the opposite end to what I'd planned - it didn't matter one little bit. So once it was almost to shape, I could work out exactly where to cut it. I rechecked the dimensions once I'd got rid of the overlap, and found there was still a little to file off. I drilled the strap and riveted it to one side, pulled the barrel up tight with a strap, and drilled and riveted the other side. Before doing so, all the surfaces were finally cleaned and covered with flux. I laid two strips of (high temperature) silver solder at the centre joint, and added some more
Diary of a model engineer