Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Builds, Repairs, Show Your Machines! => Technical Tips, Builds, and Help => Topic started by: steamwhistle on August 12, 2021, 05:51:13 pm

Title: Re: Empire Sight Glass Fittings
Post by: St Paul Steam on August 13, 2021, 08:37:17 pm

Jeff , I think you did a stellar job of it 😊👍

Title: Re: Empire Sight Glass Fittings
Post by: Dampfopa on August 13, 2021, 02:21:11 pm

Hello Jeff,

I always use liquid silicone to seal screw connections. It is heat-resistant and seals for a long time. It is important to degrease the threads carefully before.

Title: Re: Empire Sight Glass Fittings
Post by: steamwhistle on August 13, 2021, 11:25:37 am

It's not going to win any beauty contests, but it's soldered.  I'm hoping there are no leaks, but I suppose we'll have to wait until it's fired up.

I lost about a "turn" of pipe length when filing/fitting things together.  When I put things together, can I use something like loctite or gasoila to seal the threads?  When fully threaded into the boiler, the sight glass ends are no longer in the same plane unless I leave one turn on the soldered fitting.

  [attach=1]

Jeff

Title: Empire Sight Glass Fittings
Post by: steamwhistle on August 12, 2021, 05:51:13 pm

I have an Empire No. 90 engine with a broken sight glass fitting.  It was really stuck in the boiler and in an attempt to remove it during restoration, it broke  :( .  I eventually freed the pipe from the boiler.  Now I'm at a cross-road - repair or find an alternate fitting.

If I correctly identified the threads, I believe the threads into the boiler are 1/4-40?  Is this standard for Empires?

I'm tempted to attempt soldering it.  Any suggestions?

[attach=1]

Thanks,
Jeff