Lynn Robinson. Showman Scenic

Tony King wrote:Well done Lynn, looks like the weather was in your favour today.
Love the pics of safeties lifting off. Looks like you & Kev are really getting to grips with your engines & doing a brilliant job of giving the rest of us the benifit of your experiances................Really apreciate that!!
Regards,
Tony

Thank You Tony!
Tony. If you want to come up some day you are more than welcome. We have a spare room as well.

Yes getting to grips. Today's tasks was long soak steaming and fire management. Not particularly running the motion but to test joints for steam tightness. A few thing have came up.

Blowdown valve now leaking from its thread.
Got steam issuing from under the boiler. Think it is the studs for the bellytank front strap.
These two items need the belly tank off. So may as well take the cleading off as well and store it for the test.
Timing is off, it is too far forward as when the drains are open, very little steam from the back end of the piston. Plenty steam when the starter button is used.
Another leak from the extension tube at the bottom of the water gauge glass to boiler. Will need to contact STW for a longer one.
Steam injector steam globe valve still not seating. Grrrr (this is the 2nd one)

Good things from today.
She steamed well. Held 150psi for 2 hours with blower off and damper closed. Very low red to black fire and little smoke.
Injector worked well. Once pressure was down below 100psi. Blower full on and she was at 170psi within a minute or so. The fire being very impressive and the roar has to be heard to be believed.
Fixed the 3rd gear engagement jamming issue. Added a 2mm washer between the handle and the pivot point, to raise the handle up. Now gear change is fully functional.
Allowed her to blow off a few times to check the safeties and they are fine. Did not do the accumulation test with full blower but with a good fire going they popped off at 180 on the dial and closed between 150 and 170. Not sure why the closing varied but that is fine. Tapped the balance rod and got the front port to open for testing as well. All good.

Firing up on wood to 20psi is definitely the way to go. No wetness in the smokebox, little ash and no blocked tubes after 7 hours steaming. Ash quantity was 3/4 of a imperial cookie tin. Smokebox ash and soot about 1 rounded trowel full to clear.
With Crystal running from 20psi I did not even use the blower but went straight to tickover. Got the motion going very nicely and the oil heated up. Once she was above 15psi. I, with the reverser in neutral, palmed the flywheel to clear the blastpipe of wetness so when she started running on steam I did not get a big cough of dirty water up the lum spraying everywhere. Also doing this confirms that the motion is free and ready to be exposed to live steam and running.

Watch the keys for the 3rd gear boss. Do not put them too far in as mine appear to be rubbing on the bearing and it is very annoying thunk thunk as she turns over.

Waterpump. It was passing water into the boiler but did not appear to be making headway? Not sure if I need to reduce the clearance on the upper ball, the one with the adjuster bolt, as it may be passing back. Or are these a slow and steady filling method?

Managed to blow out the gasket for the blastpipe to cylinder. So need to remove that and do a stronger one.

Question for the veteran owners. What weight of oil to use for the motion etc? I have the Morrison steam oil and it appears to work very well. Mechanical oiler is working very well and uses a full pot about every 4 hours of motion.

Looking forward to tomorrow. Crystal is being undressed. I am planning quite an extensive strip down for inspection as she has steamed for 50 hours now and has about 18 hours on the motion. Cleading will be cleaned off after removal and stored until after the hydro and steam test. Valve chest, piston covers and safeties will all be removed for inspection.

Ah! that reminds me. Whistle! It stopped leaking through the valve but now ejects steam from the pin hole when you pull the cord Need to strip that down as well.

The starting button works very well. No leaking round the ball once the pressure gets above 30psi for the first time. I shortened the rod by about 1" (2.54cm) to put the button slot well forward. Regulator does not interfere with it anymore. The rod was way too long and was pre-loading the starter valve. I had previously put a bigger offset in the bar to reduce its length already but that was not enough. Put the motion in HP TDC (both ends) to test. Quick prod of the starter button and the motion moved off TDC nice and smoothly. Make sure it is a quick jab as any delay in releasing will give a loud bark and a quick crank thrash Which can be quite startling as you are technically over pressuring the LP cylinder if held too long. Had a little play, sorry, practice with the button and got to the point where I could turn the crank 1/8 of a turn with repetition.

Well I think you have had enough of my ramblings for today. So I will sign off and go and make a cup of tea.

Good informative post Lynn.
Tony

I had a lot of water running out of the back of the bellytank at first but it was due to the LP exhaust drain leaking ( no tape ) and it eventually found its way out of the cleading there. Now it is sealed it doesnt do it anymore. It was really alarming the first few times I saw it and thought "Oh bugger a leak there"

Check that the cylinder drain valve isnt blocked, mine has twice due to crud still coming out of the casting and oil which then congeals. Take off the pipe and just ram a thin wire up it whilst running, it soons blows it clear, but also make sure your timing is adjusted too.

I didnt have to take the cleading off for the test, they were satisfied with the newness of the boiler, but as I am a ME certificate it is only valid for two years, and an independant although expensive will be valid for 10 years. Don't really understand this degree of variation???

I will have to endeavour to get the start valve sorted, trying to manhandle the flywheel over TDC when the pressure has taken up the HP valve is something else, which is made worse when in second or third, needs a real effort to get it to move off, although I have found that getting the crank into just the right place before I crack open the regulator makes it much easier.

Your "thunk thunk" might not be the keys, I have found that the slide bars have bedded in slightly and I have added another "coke can" shim to just take out the slack and I have also found that the LP main bearing was just showing a tiny amount of movement as it went over TDC top and bottom and I used 600 wet and dry and a sheet of glass and took 0.2mm off each half to allow the adjuster to take up slack and it has hopefully cured that. That was a particularly loud knock for such a tiny degree of movement, especially when decelerating i.e. not under load.

Progress this morning.

Cleansing off. Found the leak. Bolts for the belly tank front support lost their seal.




Fair bit of corrosion. The blanket is prone to holding water so I am changing to wood.

Valve chests all ok.

LP side.


HP side

Hi Lynn,

Mused over your comment about the "thunk" being the keys hitting the bearing, this is not possible as the keyway in the crank does not extend right to the end, I have checked this with The Coleman whose engine doesnt have the hub on. It might be a very slight amount of movement in the main big ends as this is where I had the tinyest amount of play and the noise was very alarming, a real clunk twice each revolution. Couldnt take it out with the adjuster as the halves were tight so took the halves out and just took 0.2mm off each on a sheet of wet and dry on glass, allowed just enough of a gap to get the adjuster to do something, I am steaming tomorrow so will know the outcome.

How many times do we take these apart?? Let me know what you find for the noise.

Cheers Kev.

A trick if you do use glass fibre is to wrap it in tin foil and seal with aluminium tape. Stops the water sitting on the barrel. If you use wood another tip is to use some foil again rolled up to put between the smoke box and the end of the wood. Stops it catching fire! Not that I would know

I always smear grease on the gaskets (both sides) as this allows easy removal without tearing the gasket apart. They tend to stick otherwise, an old trick they used at Holmans. My safety valve has been on & off dozens of times now & still seals every time with the original gasket.

A mixture of graphite powder and oil works well on gaskets also. It keeps gaskets flexible and they will never stick.

Phil

Thanks for the recommendation for gaskets. I was oiling them but did not think of grease. Never mind. I am getting quite adept at making them.

Done some maintenance yesterday and I think my "thunk" has been the HP cross head and guide. Needed to reshim as there was quite a bit of play.

After resetting the LP timing I now get a more balanced hiss hiss out of the drains and she does sound better. I had to clean out the water tank and I will have to clean the injector as it was not wanting to pickup very well. Not like at first where it was instant.

Looking forward to the next steaming. Hopefully this Thursday.

Forgot. The quite thunk I was getting was caused by a couple of burrs on the 3rd gear. When the gear was cut it created a small lip in the yoke grove Nd it was the yoke hitting this that was causing another clatter..

Hi All

Having taken the cleading off and removed all the insulation. Upon inspection I have found quite significant (for her age) corrosion on the lower portion of the boiler and inner faces of the cleading. All parts were painted but!

On investigating. Most if not all the frontal corrosion has been caused by liquids leaching from the smokebox and wicking into the insulation. I did have a leaky bolt on the belly tank bracket accounting for localised problems there. The rest of the corrosion appears to have been caused by Crystal getting soaked at 3 rallies over the last year and due to not being in steam, not drying out.

So I will be modifying her cloths. She is getting wooden undergarments with an air gap at the smokebox. Also going to use one of the cleading spacers as a buffer. I am going to put the spacer ring on with Folic paste under it to create a physical barrier to heat and liquids. The cleading at the bottom will be cut back to clear the spacer ring to allow drainage from the smokebox and cleading.

When I fitted wooden strips to a full size Marshal traction engine I made up laminated hoops to fit snugly around the boiler giving an air gap of just under 1". This also allowed for most of the rivet heads to not interfere with the cleading. The 'Poplar' strips were then nailed to the hoops with stainless steel pins giving a total thickness of 1" 5/8". Make sure the wood doesn't touch the smokebox as that gets very hot & will burn the timber, I'm thinking of using wood strips & would probably leave a half inch gap between the wood & the smokebox. Spacing the strips off somewhat would be a good idea, I've seen hardboard strips used for this on full size so if they were wetted they would probably bend around our little boilers ok. I like the idea of a small gap between the boiler & the insulation for several reasons, water & oil can drain away, airflow will dry it out & less chance of corrosion. The insulation provided I'm sure is very efficient but it appears taking the cleading on & off will soon destroy it. Wrapping the insulation in tinfoil may make it more durable though.

Crystal has her cold test next Thursday 4t October.

Lynn,
Good luck
Ian

Had a test steaming today. Went very well. 2 small issues. The 2 top bolts on the weighshaft need retaped as not steam tight. The other issue is the steam injector. It just will not pickup today. Need to take it off and give it a wash out. Crystal is ready for her cold test next Thursday.

Excellent day. Crystal worked wery well. All leaks now sorted. Crystal off to bed. Tomorrow she will get a bed bath and polish up. Got to clean the firebox for her cold inspection on Thursday.

The flywheel key is not correct so the flywheel does not run true.

Do you intend to blank off the regulator input to isolate the cylinders etc?? If not I will be interested to see how you fare trying to hold back the cold water at the glands. Unless you have a different requirement for your tester it will need to hold back 360 psi for 30 mins. Quite a task having tried that myself.

I hope to have a blanking plate by then and some paperwork from Steam Traction World.

As it is RSA who are doing a commercial inspection. So my hydro should be 10 years.
If the paperwork is all correct it will be a simple day.

yes still not sure why an ME boiler test should only be valid for 2 to 4 years and a commercial 10?? Are you doing the hot test as well or will you have to call them back?

Not sue yet. Not likely as it would take the cost up. Paying for surveyor being on site while you plug all the holes and raise steam.

Eh??? All the holes are already plugged for the cold test. Just let some of the water go till the right level in the gauge glass, refit the regulator, then light up, surely it would cost as much if not more for him to drive back to you on another date, besides its all done on one day and then you're legal. Just speaking from experience as thats the normal procedure when I have done tests before as it gets it all out of the way together.

Hi

Cold inspection first. All plugs out. She is getting a boroscope inserted up her....

EEEEEEEKKK!

Ah right I see, so do you mean by cold inspection that it is just a visual on this visit?? I would like to feel that any good boiler tester would try and complete the entire thing with a miniature. I suspect your paying well into 3 figures which is the norm down here but for that I would hope they can give enough time to have a look inside, fill up and test and then light up and sign off. I know if I got 3 figures for a single days work I would consider that a bloody miracle!!!! Even allowing for fuel.