The next bit of the puzzle before permanently fitting the firebox, is the vacuum ejector pipe running from the casting at the firebox to the smokebox pipe elbow fitted some time ago. Making up the pipe was relatively easy, make up the bends and kee trimming the ends until it fit in the right place.

The ejector pipe is retained by four pipe clips. In the kit these are provided by 1.5mm wide etched strips.

However upon checking photos these retaining clips were not flat but rounded like a big handrail knob. A couple of years ago when a friend passed away I inherited a box of 1 metre x 1.5mm brass brazing rods. I cut five lengths and soldered them to a piece of thick brass to hold them while I worked on them.

I then milled off 0.75mm leaving them as half round pieces.

These I removed from the block and scraped off most of the solder. I annealed them and then bent them round a length of the 1.5mm brass rod to form what are effectively brass split pins.

Finally I cut them to length. They look much bigger than they are in the photos

Next up is drilling the boiler and firebox to accept them.