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Thank you Dizzy But I do run into trouble with the H&S police with their rigid views
Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:34 am
by dewintondave
A month ago I decided to have another go at fixing the diesel. The lubricator was still unsatisfactory as was the boiler sight glass. So I took the L.C. Mason book - Scale Model Traction Engine Building "featuring minnie" off the shelf and started to build the mechanical lubricator. It is a delightful little mechanism, very little material, but lots of time. There's the lovely click click of the pawls skipping over the ratchet wheel
Here's the lubricator fitted to the chassis running on quiet compressed air
Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:23 am
by bambuko
That's lovely Dave
Can you please give us some more details?
for example - how big is the body of this lubricator?
Did you build it exactly as per Mason's book or have you used the book as an inspiration and adapted the design for your needs?
Mason's book (long out of print) is nowadays costing silly money
It was also described in details in vol 135-136 of Model Engineer.
Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2020 12:23 pm
by tom_tom_go
Lovely Dave, runs very smooth. I like the clicking noise as well.
The mechanical lubricator on my 5" gauge loco is of the clutch type which although works well I am concerned longer term it will fail and I will end up with seized cylinders!
Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:18 pm
by dewintondave
bambuko wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:23 am
Can you please give us some more details?
for example - how big is the body of this lubricator?
Did you build it exactly as per Mason's book or have you used the book as an inspiration and adapted the design for your needs?
Thank you
The tank is 9/16" x 5/8". I built it exactly to the plans. But the 30 tooth ratchet wheel didn't have enough teeth for my application, so I made a 36 and 42 tooth wheel next, the 42 tooth is the one being used, 36 wasn't enough either. So it's 3.5 turns of the wheels to 1 stroke of the pump. The pump delivery is adjustable, it's set to maximum at the moment
I can see myself using these on future models
Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:26 pm
by dewintondave
tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 12:23 pm
Lovely Dave, runs very smooth. I like the clicking noise as well.
The mechanical lubricator on my 5" gauge loco is of the clutch type which although works well I am concerned longer term it will fail and I will end up with seized cylinders!
Thanks Tom, it's a lovely project. LBSC would call it watchmaking
It's good to be able to see the winding handle going round rather than back and forth
Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:06 am
by dewintondave
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Drive shaft and eccentric
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Test pumping
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Milling the ratchet wheel with homemade cutter
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30T 36T 42T Ratchet wheels - hardened
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Ratchet wheel and fixed pawl
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Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2020 10:03 am
by FWLR
Another brilliant build Dave....
Made me smile when I saw what you was using for the compressed air....
Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2020 10:18 am
by bambuko
dewintondave wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:18 pm
...I can see myself using these on future models
Thank you Dave, for details and all the additional photos and explanations
BTW what solder did you use to secure cylinder cover?
Mason just says "...solder to cylinder..." without elaborating whether silver solder or just soft solder.
I can see this lubricator being very useful in other small models as well - thank you for bringing it to our attention
I have looked at "miniaturising" LBSC's lubricator... but came to the conclusion that it wasn't very practical
Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2020 10:10 pm
by dewintondave
FWLR wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 10:03 am
Another brilliant build Dave....
Made me smile when I saw what you was using for the compressed air....
Thank you Rod! I call it quiet compressed air So many use those horrid noisy air compressors
bambuko wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 10:18 am
BTW what solder did you use to secure cylinder cover?
Mason just says "...solder to cylinder..." without elaborating whether silver solder or just soft solder.
Soft solder, same for the bushes and bearings mounted to the tank
Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 3:46 am
by Old Man Aaron
Very, very impressive.
Regards,
Aaron
Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:13 am
by dewintondave
Thanks Aaron!
Well, the mechanical lubricator didn't work out. It was unreliable, so is lovingly displayed on the shelf.
The loco has run very happily with minimal oil lubrication for a long time. In fact the loco sounds best on water lubrication only. When the lubricator was working it over delivered and oil was spewed out on to the track, the exhausts and drain cock pipes were not well positioned. I have made some slip over angled pieces to redirect the pipes. Fingers crossed that it still sounds great. I'll be manually oiling the loco every lap or so through a port in the valve chest
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Re: Diesel Outline...
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:42 am
by dewintondave
Just had a good run of the loco with a full boiler of water. Had a 35 minute run with the water ending up still above the burner tubes
I had recently made an oil injection port with a non return valve so that I can manually pump oil in with my new 1mL syringes - thanks to eBay
Here's the new oil injection port
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Lovely slim syringe body. I was pumping in 0.5 mL for the equivalent of one lap of our circuit
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