Sorry for the loooong pause between posts. In the year since the last post, a lot has happened. Whilst other-parts-of-life (mostly good) have taken priority, there has been some progress on the Shay:
- I have fired up the Shay a number of times to try and fix the various steam leaks.
- I tried running the loco on air.
- I wrapped PTFE tape around the thread of the lubricator to reduce (greasy) steam leaks.
- I replaced the fibre washers around the banjo joints to reduce steam leaks.
- I hacked around with the smokebox to deal with the problems of poor burning.
- I checked the oil level in the lubricator, and forgot to replace the PTFE tape.
When running on steam, the pressure doesn’t want to rise above 20 psi, and the motor just refuses to turn over. Steam continues to leak from all sorts of places – mainly joints but also within the steam motor itself. This video is from 4th May 2024, at Brambleton.
However, running on air is fine and sweet – the motor turns nicely. A friend in my local Model Engineering Society helped me to make a replacement boiler plug with a Shrader car-tyre valve on the end. I use a portable 12-volt car tyre inflator as a compressor. As you can see in this short video (from 10 August 2023), the pressure got up to about 40 PSI.
Thanks again to my friends, especially David and Tony, for your ongoing help. The next step is probably to take the steam motor apart and tighten anything that can be tightened.