[Steam-engine] Wachs vertical Excentric oiling question

[James Mackessy]

Rick, a lot depends on what you want to do with this engine. If you are
going to
run it a few hours at a time lightly loaded at shows, just cutting a felt to
fit this
"reservoir" and keeping it saturated with oil will do fine. If you are going
to use
it to do some round the clock work, I would hook up a mechanical lubricator
and
arrange a copper tube from it to drip into the reservoir as the engine is
running.
The latter choice is going to make more of a mess, since the engine frame is
cast
open on the bottom and is mounted on the base, I assume without any gasket.
I
don't know if there is room to put a tin pie pan or something similar in
there to
keep the excess contained for clean up, but if it were mine, I'd try to find
some
type of pan, especially after painting her up so nice. When I run, it is
usually just
for show, on light work such as a grain grinder. I use the oil can
liberally, and
stop the engine to get to any hard to reach spots, then start again. In that
type
of situation, I'd put felt up there and saturate it with the oil can, and
just check
periodically to make sure things are staying cool. On the little Leffel, the
eccentric
strap likes to run warm, requiring an extra turn of the grease cup. It gets
just
warm enough to discern a difference from the surrounding parts, I've never
seen
it any warmer, even after running fast, the point being that you will detect
a tight
bearing or a dry one if you are checking for it.
     Rick, looking at the close-up picture, it almost looks like the top of
that
reservoir was machined flat. Is it possible that there was a thin metal
cover over
this between the casting and the bolt head at one time? If the bottom of
that bolt
head has a cylindrical part turned on it larger than the shank of the bolt,
it may have
been a cover that could be turned to add oil, then turned back. It's just a
guess from
what I am seeing, but i would seem to me there has to be more to the story
than just
an open top reservoir.Short of finding someone with either an original
engine or
literature for one, I think this will remain a mystery and open to your
individual
preference for setting it up one way or the other. Interesting, though!
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>
Cc: "Corky Harris" <mtmidway3 at msn.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 7:47 PM
Subject: [Steam-engine] Wachs vertical Excentric oiling question


> Howdy again gang...real nice day here in the big sky.
>
>   I've temporarily assembled the "D" valve operating mechanism and hung in
> on the engine hoist and put a pointer on the reservoir for the excentric
and
> the pivot on the slide guide.
>
> http://community.webshots.com/photo/188300547/383083778FmqXBE
>
>   Here's a closeup of the small reservoir.
>
> http://community.webshots.com/photo/383083578/383083578uEMmiI
>
>   To my knowledge, there are no provisions for automatically filling this
> reservoir cup.  The upper bearing surface does show signs of being hot.
>
>   This is a dry crankcase, and from the slide guide on down are hidden
> pretty good by the connecting rod and crosshead.
>
> What would your suggestions be for maintaining lube in this so-called
> Reservoir??
>
> TIA
> RickinMt.
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