Hi Mike, They are actually iron bar stock so they are square. If I flip them I get the same configuration. I guess I could go with a deep Channel iron......... My trig is kinda rusty, I am not sure what size I would need to get a 1/2" gap at the top if the bottoms are 3" apart. 1/2" V V ------- ? 3...

Houston, we have a problem...............Check out the spacing ono the bars on my grate. It is worse than I thohght. They are about 3" part at the top of the bar, and ~2 at the closest point. I will get some stainless steel mesh to put in on top of them. This could be part of my problem in keeping ...

Perhaps a wear face that is attached with countersunk screws? I was having trouble finding a cast iron supplier near me, and aluminum was available, but I have since found a supplier for continually cast cast iron in my area... Now for the next question; at rectangular balanced side (instead of the...

I would expect aluminum valves to gall very quickly, esp. if one was sparing with the lubricant. I'd think hard before using anything but cast iron or bronze. Alternatively, consider bronze welding up a wear surface on a steel valve. Slide valves get a lot of abuse.

- Bart

Indeed... and best wishes for the New Year!

- Bart

I would guess that these function by inducing more turbulence in the tubes; this will disturb the boundary layer that forms against the tube wall, much as the pumping action in a Lamont boiler increases heat transfer on the water side. There's a interesting tension here between soot deposition and i...

Hi, Bart! Where have you been hiding? Mike I was in London after Thanksgiving for work... and managed to pick up a nice pair of mast head and stern lights to match my existing classic Italian brass port & starboard lights I got in the Netherlands in 1998. Need to have proper night lights even when ...

I'd use heavy 1" angle iron, corner down, about 1/2" spacing. The open side facing upward will fill with ash, which will help the grate bars live longer. The cool air coming up from underneath will help, and the space between the bars won't get plugged.

- Bart

The old steam hands around here tell me that the advantage of babbitt is that if the bearing fails, it will generally not damage the shaft; bronze bearings typically tear up the shaft enough to require turning. That said, bronze has a higher peak PV value. One of the guys typically line bores for tu...

A GPS will give you quite reasonable speed reading, but you're better off measuring distance made good (w/ GPS or chart) over ten or twenty minutes; if you're dealing with current a run in each direction is called for and the results averaged. If it's windy, forget about measuring speed; the runs ca...