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Loco Lubrication

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john mills:
If you don't know how big the tank needs to be have a look at some of the existing designs so me have been around for a long time now and
if you look at your local club track you can have a look and see and ask what they are using . lots of designs have quite adequate oil lubricators.
John

steamer:

--- Quote from: john mills on February 07, 2024, 01:22:51 AM ---If you don't know how big the tank needs to be have a look at some of the existing designs so me have been around for a long time now and
if you look at your local club track you can have a look and see and ask what they are using . lots of designs have quite adequate oil lubricators.
John

--- End quote ---

Excellent advise John.

If you're running saturated steam, you won't need to much.   It goes up with some superheat  (100F) and then it gets complicated with lots of superheat.     With lots of superheat, you will probably need a mechanical pump and some oil suitable for the steam state.

Dave

Mike R:
Thanks for the answers, I guess I should have been a bit clearer in the question.  Lets say I'm designing a new steam engine, how is the lubricator sized if its a mechanical displacement type? 
I'm guessing the answer still comes down to experience, whether your own or learning from others and doing the copy cat method of someone else's design for as similar a use case as a first best first guess.
Enough to keep a film on everything when running but not so much that its coming out in quantity like Jo describes as coating the drivers face (or the desk if a stationary model).  I can see that for a model too much is better than not enough as using 50ml vs 100ml for a day isn't going to affect the finances in any meaningful way (except for the excess laundry).

Alex:
Mike;

The Raritan locomotive was designed with CI pistons, rings and cylinders, and a plug on top of each cylinder to squirt oil in at the end of the day. It's saturated steam, so the condensate provides the lubrication. (it has cylinder drain cocks so you can get the condensate out at the end of the run)

Most of the full sized locomotives I've had the pleasure of working on have had mechanical lubricators, each feed can be adjusted at the lubricator as each pump has an (the lubricator contained numerous pumps, depending on the model) adjustable throw. These were set by the shop, not by us!

However the Shay at the NMST had an interesting hydrostatic lubricator, 4-feed, 3 to the cylinders, one to the air compressor. The on/off valve had a setting for off, compressor only, and running. IIRC, about a drip (floats up) every 4 seconds was set by adjusting the feed valves on the lubricator body.

My model Shay (Kozo, Version 1) has a "hydrostatic" lubricator to the Gamage(?) design, disguised as an air compressor tank on the running board, but as you'll understand from talking, it's never been run, and sits inside a display case. 

My Tich with mechanical lubricator goes through its' tank of oil rapidly, but it's gunmetal cylinders and valves, and O-rings on piston and rods, and the superheater flue has been blocked since the year dot, so it's running saturated, and anyway, the oil ended up on my steaming hat and glasses and tee-shirt and...

We do tend to over oil our little models... at least I do - but once you put the time into building them, you don't want to damage them, so "another drop of oil isn't going to matter", right?

JohnS.

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