Oiling Cylinders in Steam Eengine

[david newman 9Participant @davidnewman9]

[david newman 9Participant @davidnewman9]

Just completed a Stuart Twin Victoria, run it on air today and it runs superbly. My question is how do I lubricate the cylinders now that it’s all sealed up ? David

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

Depends how long you plan to run it for at a stretch.For short runs all you really need to do is squirt a drop or two of light oil into the inlet port before running, and maybe afterwards too. If you are going to run for longer periods, one of those in line oilers sold for air tools would be a good idea. Note that a displacement lubricator will not work properly when running on air, so don’t try one of them.

 

regards

John

[Ramon WilsonParticipant @ramonwilson3]

Hello David ,

 

Several years back I built an ST Twin Victoria which I ran at events for the most part on steam and in latter days on compressed air. I had a single inlet splitting between the two cylinders via a block upon which was an inlet point. It was my original intention to fit lubrication injection fed by a motion operated oil pump via this point. That never got fitted and all I ever used to do when running was to undo the plug at the start of the session, inject a slug of steam oil with a syringe, replace the plug and carry on. I would do that perhaps twice throughout a display day when operating on steam. At the end of the day at home I would run on air for a while to clear any possible moisture and then again inject another slug before storing (indoors)

 

This was done every year for the first thirteen years of the Forncett Steam Museum ‘model engineers day’. It rarely ran at other events in between these days after the first couple of years and I never experienced any internal rusting or siezure from one session to the next. The lubrication system never did get fitted (as well as all the other mods and improvements thought of) and eventually I sold the engine on about three years ago.

 

This pic shows the block and the ‘filler point’ on top. The pic was taken just before it’s sale.

Hope this is of use to you

Regards – Ramon

[david newman 9Participant @davidnewman9]

Posted by Ramon Wilson on 07/04/2011 23:06:39:

Hello David ,

 

Several years back I built an ST Twin Victoria which I ran at events for the most part on steam and in latter days on compressed air. I had a single inlet splitting between the two cylinders via a block upon which was an inlet point. It was my original intention to fit lubrication injection fed by a motion operated oil pump via this point. That never got fitted and all I ever used to do when running was to undo the plug at the start of the session, inject a slug of steam oil with a syringe, replace the plug and carry on. I would do that perhaps twice throughout a display day when operating on steam. At the end of the day at home I would run on air for a while to clear any possible moisture and then again inject another slug before storing (indoors)

 

This was done every year for the first thirteen years of the Forncett Steam Museum ‘model engineers day’. It rarely ran at other events in between these days after the first couple of years and I never experienced any internal rusting or siezure from one session to the next. The lubrication system never did get fitted (as well as all the other mods and improvements thought of) and eventually I sold the engine on about three years ago.

 

This pic shows the block and the ‘filler point’ on top. The pic was taken just before it’s sale.

Hope this is of use to you

Regards – Ramon

Thanks Ramon, I have taken the liberty of copying your idea it really makes the cylinder lubrication simple. Notice you put double the holding bolts on the cylinder covers and port covers, and what are the levers for through the bed castingsunder the cylinders ?

Would love to know. David

[Ramon WilsonParticipant @ramonwilson3]

Hi David, glad that was of use.

 

The levers operate the drain cocks. These drain through those two pipes emerging from under the cover direct into the exhaust system. This inturn exhausted into a ‘temporary’ sump – the ubiquitous tobacco tin which along with so much else never did see an improvement!

 

The engine was not built from a standard kit but from just the main basic castings purchased from ST. This was when they were at Henley so that dates it (and me) a bit The ‘extra bolts’ and other small embellishments then were just an attempt to make it a little more scale like but those (relatively) out of scale flywheel rope grooves done to ST dimensions always niggled once the ‘clash of scales’ was noticed.

 

The two ‘blocks’ on top of the steam chests were milled from brass and contain two shuttle valves which are lifted/lowered by crankpins running in a groove on the valves. The two are couple together and activated by the governor. This did work after a fashion but the valves really needed a finer taper on them.

 

Over the years this was displayed a list of improvements/mods etc to be carried out gradually grew but other than starting some pedestal oilers for the big ends which along with the list still languish in a drawer something else always seemed more important.

 

It may be of interest to know that the ‘glass’ oilers are made from small sections of that crystal clear tubing that is sometimes used to protect the bristles of new artist’s paint brushes. Pushed on to a brass mandrel turned to fit the ID it is then very easy to part off to the length required.

 

Hope that helps a bit more – there are a few more pics should you desire however I don’t wish to crowd your thread

 

Regards – Ramon

 

 

[Author]

Posts