Archive for The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum The Original Unofficial Toy Steam Forum
Established 2006
The biggest, most popular steam forum around! Accept NO imitations!
We have a growing community of regular posting members who chat about all aspects of toy and model steam.
|
michael todd
|
steam pressureat what pressure do you start engine, when safety valve begines to hiss or beforehand
|
toxx
|
Re: steam pressure | michael todd wrote: | | at what pressure do you start engine, when safety valve begines to hiss or beforehand |
... best to be careful, Mike. The SV is a good indicator, but for safety reasons I give the flywheel a fling as soon as the boiler quiets down - a signal for merrily boilng water. The engine chuff chuffs into life.
Always keep an eye on the SV! Best not to wait till it pops. Does your engine have a pressure gauge?
|
tmuir
|
By law all toy steam engines safety valves should lift at 14.7 PSI (1 atmosphere) but in reality its a bit of give and take on that figure.
Most toy engines will happily run on about 5 PSI though.
If you want it to raw into life super fast you can wait until the SV lifts or you can just give it a flick before to see if it will run.
If there is not enough pressure it will just stop, no harm done.
One thing that is good to do before running any engine every time (I must admit sometimes I forget) is to check the safety valve will operate before you heat up the boiler.
You can do this on most of them by just pulling on the centre part and making sure it will move. This way you don't have to worry that the safety valve is stuck which can happen if the rubber seals have perished or water with a lot of calcium has been used in the engine.
It's also best to use distilled water over tap water, but don't use deionised water.
|
|