Thank you everyone! And no, I didn't forget to get you updatet, just needed to find some time to continue writing.
Well, the lubricator is ready, next part was the main steam valve:
After thinking about how to make the valve and the fittings for joining the valve and the lubricator with the steam chest, I decided to make it as one part. And this is the Idea:
I first machined the main body(sorry for the blurred picture - the Autofocus didn't want to see what I wanted to take a picture of
), everything is coming along well.
I always put quite enough flux for soldering - I learned that this makes soldering a lot easier. After soldering and cleaning it, thats how it looks on the pump now. I also machined the valve spindle in the meantime. And hat is the lubricator-main-steam-valve unit finished.
Here we go, the oiler, main steam valve and therefore the pump are ready for steam!:
Now this is time for the first steam up of my pump!
Went out, heated up the boiler and tried. The pump hesitantly started running. Then I connected it to the boiler and NOOOOOO. The pump did not move
Well, there was a "wait a second" in my head. Someone (here?) told me that silicone O-rings will expand under heat. In fact, the pump could only be moved hard, with quite an amount of force.
So I stopped the whole thing, took the pump back to the shop and removed that o-ring. Instead, I made a piston packing with teflon tape.
Went back up and tried again. The pump was running smoother now and semed to be right. But no, the water wasn't pumped to the boiler, no chance.
Well, you have to start somewhere and I mounted a pressure gauge to the connection between boiler and pump.
That showed the pump doing 5 bar with only 2 bar boiler pressure.
And thats when I immediately had the Idea that the clack valve could be the evil part of the system.
And yes, indeed it blocked somehow (don't ask me how, I still couldn't figure out how).
I modified it and reduced the ball stroke and there we go:
Cheers Florian
ps: Not much left now, Cylinder cladding, valve rod stroke limiting screw, base mounting holes.
Final assembly with using liquid gasket. And maybe a paint job.