Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

A special section just for steam engines and boilers, as without these you may as well fit a sail.
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DetroiTug
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Re: Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

Post by DetroiTug » Thu Mar 15, 2018 3:33 pm

I second the built up crank and sealed ball-bearings. That is how the lower end on the Tug steam engine is and literally have has zero issues and it is an area that gets very little consideration in operation. Ball-bearing supported crank bearings, big end rod and wrist pins. No issues, and no oil slinging.

On my Locomobile, it originally had a pseudo shielded ball bearing setup on the crank and big ends. I re-bored the entire lower end and installed sealed ball bearings, again, zero issues and it stays much cleaner. I built it to drive.

Lionel, that is beautiful work.

-Ron
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Re: Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

Post by Lionel Connell » Fri Mar 16, 2018 12:03 am

Thanks Ron,

Is you crank in the tug assembled with the middle main bearing ball race in place?

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Re: Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

Post by Lionel Connell » Fri Mar 16, 2018 12:19 am

Understood about building from scratch, I would go that way also for sure.

A roller chain will work fine for the eccentric shaft, if it is set up with an appropriate tensioning device to remove any backlash and allow for thermal growth across the engine, as is done with many over head cam shafts in IC engines. Nissan had a good system that used oil pressure and a piston/plunger to operate the tensioner but some just used a spring.

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Re: Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

Post by Lopez Mike » Fri Mar 16, 2018 2:20 am

Well, maybe. And I might be wildly overestimating how small the angular error might need to be.

Those tensioned systems you mention are only designed to run in one direction. When you run them backwards the tensioning mechanism is required to take far higher loads. They are now on the tension side of the chain between the sprockets rather than the slack side. There are tensioners that are non-reversing in their action but that's a lot of complication and fuss.

Also, chains tend to be relatively noisy. But you are enclosing this engine so that might not be a significant consideration.

As usual I'm over thinking all of this. Pay no attention.
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Re: Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

Post by Lionel Connell » Fri Mar 16, 2018 5:18 am

Yes Mike, good point about running backwards, I had not thought of that. It would need some thought to get around that, a tooth belt would probably be better as you say.
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Re: Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

Post by DetroiTug » Fri Mar 16, 2018 1:34 pm

Quote: "Is your crank in the tug assembled with the middle main bearing ball race in place?"

Yes it is. I had pictures, but the wonderful people at Photobucket kidnapped them all and waiting for me to pay ransom to get them back, they can keep them.

Re: The roller chain driven camshaft. My buddy has built a bunch of his little twin cylinder double acting Unaflows and he uses a roller chain to drive the cam shaft with good results. I know from playing around with timing on steam engines, they will run with a wide variance of settings, the key is finding the setting that yields the most power. As far as reverse is concerned, it's really a non issue as it is generally a very short time in running compared to forward. On our car engines the timing eccentrics are keyed and fixed in position, so we can only balance the events at the port, and we set them most powerful in forward and reverse eccentric is what it is. It's enough to back up and that is all we want.

-Ron
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Re: Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

Post by Lopez Mike » Fri Mar 16, 2018 1:41 pm

Good advice.
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Re: Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

Post by cyberbadger » Fri Mar 16, 2018 2:40 pm

It's not uncommon to have a engine that will run slightly better in one direction. During Nyitra's construction I had 1 on land steamup whose sole point was to identify the perfered direction and make sure the engine was installed with the preferred direction being the direction that turned my right hand prop in the proper clockwise for forward movement.

I like Green Velvet PB&J 220(Pin Bearing and Journal)for manual external lubrication and am happy with it in most regards. My reservation is related to cleanliness that Ron mentioned. PB&J is really sticky, so it helps attract debris onto the exposed cranks. :/

-CB
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Re: Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

Post by Lionel Connell » Sat Mar 17, 2018 2:55 am

Ron,

With your Main and Big End bearings; do you have a means of charging the bearings with oil or are they permanently sealed?

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Re: Resources/Information for Crank Lubrication?

Post by DetroiTug » Sat Mar 17, 2018 8:10 pm

Lionel,

They are factory greased and sealed. The seals can be removed and grease added if one so chooses.

-Ron
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