Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines
The Regular Stuff: Chat, Buy, Sell, Off Topic, etc. => General Discussion - Model & Toy Steam Engines – Stirling Cycle – Flame Lickers – Small Antique Originals => Topic started by: pwalchak on May 07, 2025, 08:31:17 pm
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Thank you!
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Amazon has assorted sizes of cotton swabs:
https://www.amazon.com/Grip-Industrial-Assortment-Electrical-Cleaning/dp/B079J64P7B/ref=sr_1_5?
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CLR can also be quite helpful. (Calcium, Lime, and Rust remover)
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Thanks for the tips!
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I often use penetrating oil or if it there is caked on hard water/calcium I put some CLR around the glass/fitting. Though CLR can/will eat away nickel plating, so I've learned to be careful. I can't say I ever had a engine with that setup like in your photo but once I get the slight glass off the engine these are my steps.
Soak sight glass in CLR (calcium cleaner).
Use a tooth pick to poke paper towel in (soaked in CLR) and work paper towel back & forth.
Some sight glasses you can't get a tooth pick in, so you have to live with paper towel - which is waaay fun ;-)
Rise sight glass with water
Use tooth pick to poke paper towel with glass cleaner this time and work paper towel back & forth.
Repeat until I am happy as I can be with the sight glass.
Hard water calcium can be a pain and can take time to get cleaned off. Just avoid anything harder than a tooth pick, since you don't want to scratch/damage the glass.
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Thanks for the heads-up Nickl. I do in fact have a slotted brass screw at the top.
Would a penetrating oil help? Freezing the screw? Heating what the screw threads in to?
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Your biggest challenge in that one will be if it has the slotted brass screw… use a tight fitting screwdriver and be very careful not to snap one side off… ask me how I know ;)
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Almost forgot -- thanks guys!
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Okay guys, I guess I will have to bite the bullet. Perhaps I'm too timid because I have little experience. If it was a Jensen I wouldn't be so worried because I can always get parts there, but with a Robert Fulton Lines (75 years old and being steel was never popular with collectors) it seems a foregone conclusion any gaskets are going to be unavailable. But hey, you only live once, huh?
Paul
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Same here, take it apart and use vinegar and q-tip or pipe cleaner.
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The best success I've had is taking them apart and using an ear bud and pushing it through soaked in vinegar.
[attachimg=1]
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Hi,
I have an upright with a cloudy sight glass. Can't see the water level at all. I tried filling with vinegar and soaking for an hour, then plugging it in for a few minutes to heat the vinegar, but this had minimal effect. Disassembly and replacing the sight glass is a last resort.
I see Mamod descaling liquid is still available but I have no idea if that would work here. Is there a product or a different technique I could use instead?
Paul