[Steam-engine] Stainless vs. Sch 80

James Mackessy jmackess at twcny.rr.com
Thu Oct 6 17:53:24 PDT 2005


Andy, save yourself the grief and expense of stainless. If you were building
a stationary plant with modern
welded piping, you may want to look at it, but it is not really "appropriate
technology" for traction engines.
The mighty New York Central Railroad experimented with nickel alloys and
others on boilers and found out
the hard way that mild steel was the best. As late as 1936 they had boiler
explosions on mainline power, not
the older engines, but Hudsons less than 5 years old. They found stress
cracking, and not low water was
responsible. Mild steel is much more forgiving, and, as others have
mentioned, better all around for a variety
of reasons. That's my 2 cents on this one.
Jim Mackessy
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andy glines" <pioneersop96 at yahoo.com>
To: "Steam" <steam-engine at lists.stationary-engine.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 8:42 AM
Subject: [Steam-engine] Stainless vs. Sch 80


> Now I'm going to start a debate.  Hopefully (fingers
> crossed) it won't be long before I need to start
> installing new plumbing on the Huber.  As per
> suggestions here and at Steam School I am planning to
> use Sch. 80 steel pipe.  I have had two people
> recommend stainless steel to me this summer.  Has
> anyone gone with stainless?  Which grade of stainless
> should I use?  How much more $$$ for stainless?  Give
> me your opinions.
>
> Andy Glines
> Evansville, IN
>
>
>
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