Lubricator Question

[steamboatjack]

The condenser for the steam can be a coil as above or a small “pot” either way it should be as high as possible, just under the cabin roof if you have one,the colder it is, the better the control.
Regards Jack

[DetroiTug]

It is interesting that the instructions say to take the steam off above the throttle valve. This means that if the steam stop valve at the boiler is open and the engine stopped with closed throttle, the lubricator will keep on dripping. I guess the throttle is usually to close to the engine and there is usually no decent run of vertical pipe.

That is exactly correct, the lubricator should be before the throttle valve and after the main steam stop valve in a vertical run. On engine shut down, both the main steam stop and the throttle should be closed, plus the oil feed valve and steam feed valve on the lubricator should be closed. On the one I'm using, at that point, once cooled, it is drained of condensate and refilled with oil for the next run. There is no sight glass (wish there was) to reveal the amount of condensate/oil in the reservoir, so it's best to stay on top of it and refill when able. Simple to refill, and it's something else I can do while firing/raising steam and further convince the onlookers that I know what I'm doing.

The one I'm using is called a "Swift" oiler.

-Ron

[JonRiley56]

Hi,

I am still a little confused as to how it works. Steam comes in the vertical pipe with some condesate in it. Does it hen go directly into the oil reservoir ? If the oile is feeding from the high point in the reservoir to the bottom of the feed rate sight glass, how exactly is it measured in "drops" per minute ? Are the drops actually floating up thru the condensate in that sight glass ?

Soory to be dense about this........but......I have not found any diagrams of the innards of these things, nor have I seen one in action.

jon

[fredrosse]

Yes, the oil drops slowly flow upward thru water in the glass.

[preaton]

The thing to remember is that oil floats on water. Therefore when you mix them together the oil always ends up on top.

In the oil reservoir the condensed water ends up at the bottom displacing the oil which floats on it- hence "displacement lubricator".

The oil is forced through the pipe to the bottom of the sight glass where it passes through the dripper nozzle. It comes out as a droplet into the water that fills the sight glass. What does oil do when it water ? - it floats to the top. - and so you see the droplet floating up through the sight glass. Once at the top of the glass it heads out the outlet into the steam pipe.

In my setup I've made up what looks like a ink pen nib (if you remember what that looks like). It ends in the middle of the steam pipe. In this way the oil is "atomised" rather than just running down the side of the steam pipe.

When you think about it as the pressure at the inlet and outlet are the same (with wide open throttle) the driving force in the lubricator is the head of pressure created by the condenser. Hence Jack's advice to have the condenser as high as possible.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Paul

[steamboatjack]

One more thing, the "water" in the sight glass was usually salted to make a bigger difference in densities or glycerin was used.
Regards Jack