Lubricator

Hi guys.

I am attempting to finish my 5" gauge Emma Victoria but on the point of admitting defeat on the mechanical lubricator.

Made all the bits but finding it challenging to get the accuracy required, tiny pawls, springs, ratchet wheel, very fiddly,

Got it all assembled but the pawls don't engage with the ratchet wheel properly, suspect I didn't mill the teeth deep enough and/or not got the correct tooth angle.

So my question is, do you make your own or buy a proprietary one.

Bill D.

[This posting has been removed]

Made all parts for my lubricator.

If the pumpy bits work, you could get a pair of sprag clutches and ditch the ratchet/pawls

Where do you get miniature sprag clutches ?

The ratchet wheel was machined much longer than required and a slice cut off to length (spares for next project or if it wears out). A dovetail milling cutter used to make the teeth.

Arc Euro sell non-return clutches; a type of needle-roller bearing.

Paul, the Bearing Boys sell them as well, 6mm bore about £8 each. I used them on my 4" and 6" Garrett lubricators I made, they work OK, but over time the thick steam oil gets in between sprags, and fills up the gap so they do not engage. A bit of a squirt with maintenance spray and a jiggle about gets them going again. I used them on a silver steel shaft, unhardened, and after 6 years no signs of wear.

Chris Gunn

Thanks. I have a use for them on another project

Paul

Looks a nice job Paul, from pics appears to be a bit more substantial than mine which is bordering on swiss watch size components.

Thanks for info guys, I will leave it a few days to get my head round whether to remake the bits or buy one.

Hate giving up anything I am trying to make/do but we all have our limits I suppose.

Regards

Bill D.

Having pondered for a suitable length of time, I decided I wasn't going to give up and buy one but to have another go.

When I made the ratchet wheel I tried an experiment (well it is model and experimental engineering after all) I did not have a suitable milling cutter so tried making the wheel with a small slot mill set off centre, it did the job after a fashion but obviously not good enough, now have a dovetail cutter to try.

I am also going to try to make wire springs for the pawls, I could not not get the flat brass shim springs specified to position properly to exert enough force onto the pawls.

Onward and hopefully upward.

Bill D.

I've made my small lubricator ratchet wheels in the lathe. The process requires a means of indexing the chuck using, say, a change-wheel attached to the back-end of the mandrel and a plunger detent.

Turn the end of a piece of silver steel to the required diameter. Drill and partially part off. With the silver steel still in the chuck set up a suitably ground HSS tool at centre height in the tool-post and cut the ratchet teeth by traversing the lathe carriage as with a shaper and indexing for each tooth. Works very well giving accurate, well formed teeth for wheels of a range of diameters.

Finally part off and file or broach square centre hole then harden.

Didn't W. Hughes suggest this method for the Allchin?

If you're making ratchet by dovetail cutter and some kind of indexing device, make a long length. It won't take any longer, and you can then part off as many as you like for your next project

Here's a ratchet wheel made as I described above. It's 7/16" dia.

Yes got a length ready for making several wheels.

Bill D.