[Steam-engine] Oilers for Crosshead slides

[James Mackessy]

Hi Rick!
     No oil pump means oilers are appropriate gear! If you have all grease
cups,
it's not worth buying 5 gallons of DTE for just the crosshead slides. SAE 20
or 30
will do fine. You didn't mention the eccentric strap, which should also have
a grease
cup in this case. The reason for using "DTE" type oil is that in an engine
with a sump
and oil pump, it is impossible to avoid water getting into the oil due to
condensate coming off
the piston rod. "DTE" oils are designed to give rapid water separation and
rust and oxidation
protection in these situations. Many of the older central lubricating
systems on steam
engines purposely used a layer of water in the bottom of the sump to help
trap dirt
there, some even "percolate" the oil through the water to "clean" it, but
this was a
misconception of the times, as the difference in surface tension between the
two fluids
pretty much prevents any "washing" effect short of gravity settling out the
larger particles.
Best Regards;
Jim Mackessy
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Strobel" <Richard_Strobel7 at msn.com>
To: "Steam-engine mailing list" <steam-engine at lists.stationary-engine.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 10:21 AM
Subject: Re: [Steam-engine] Oilers for Crosshead slides


> James, there is no oil pump on this engine.  Grease cups for connecting
rod,
> crosshead wristpin, and mains...1/4" npt for the crosshead slides.
>
>   Will checkinto those lubes you mentioned.
>
> Thanks again
> Rick
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "James Mackessy" <jmackess at twcny.rr.com>
> To: "Steam-engine mailing list" <steam-engine at lists.stationary-engine.com>
> Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 9:36 AM
> Subject: Re: [Steam-engine] Oilers for Crosshead slides
>
>
> > Rick;
> >    Looks gorgeous so far! From what I can see, you may have a choice for
> > crosshead
> > slipper lubrication. Is that rod going down into the base from the
> > crosshead
> > driving an
> > oil pump? On the Troy-Engburgs, this pump fills a reservoir mounted on
the
> > upper part of
> > the engine, and from there the oil is piped to all the lube points in
> > copper
> > tubing. Each
> > lube point has a needle valve and drip window on the bottom of the
> > reservoir. This may
> > have been how the engine was set up originally, but an oiler on each
side
> > of
> > the frame will
> > work just as well and might have just a little more "eye appeal". These
> > types of engines
> > usually did blower duty or similar "non-glorious" tasks, and therefore
the
> > manufacturers
> > made an effort to make them easy to maintain and resistant to the
effects
> > of
> > neglect, as
> > far as possible. That's why the central lube system instead of
individual
> > oilers became
> > the norm. As far as oil, originally you would have used an oil such as
DTE
> > oil medium
> > or DTE oil heavy medium. The former is an ISO 46, the latter ISO 68,
both
> > are Mobil
> > callouts, descended from the old Vacuum Oil Company products back in the
> > twenties.
> > You can usually find the hydraulic versions of these, DTE 25 and DTE 26,
> > in
> > five gallon
> > pails. They have some extra anti-wear and anti-foaming additives, but
work
> > just fine. If
> > you prefer the simple life, SAE 20 will work fine too.  The cylinder, of
> > course, gets steam
> > oil through the cylinder lubricator pump or a displacement lubricator.
> > Most
> > guys use a
> > 600W.  If you are fussy about what oil you use, Mobil is the traditional
> > favorite, but
> > Conoco has come out with a series of "Hydro-cracked" oils that are so
> > well-refined as
> > to be "eye clear" in an oiler. We will probably use one or the other in
> > our
> > big Corliss, as
> > the oil is filtered and recirculated, and used for a long time.
> >      One word of caution if you find original literature and it calls
out
> > oils by name, and you
> > find that they are still available, double check the product specs. Some
> > of
> > the old steam engine
> > friendly oils have been redeveloped under the same name, but in new
> > applications. For example,
> > "Gargoyle" oils were steam cylinder oils back in the twenties, now the
> > name
> > is used for
> > refrigeration oils, an application that could cross over back then, but
> > not
> > now. Mobil bought
> > out Socony/ Vacuum Oil way back when, and Mobil tech service still had
> > some
> > steam engine
> > applications listed the last time I checked.
> > Best Regards;
> > Jim Mackessy
> >
> >
> >
> > >   Were oilers ever used in this application and what type of lube
would
> > > be
> > > best for this type of application?
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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