Hello
I want to paint my newly purchased steam engine.
What do you use as a primer and paint?
What you use for surface treatment also?
I like to chrome plating some parts.
The machine is in plain steel.
Greetings Urs
Rust protection
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farmerden
- Stirring the Pot
- Posts: 447
- Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:14 am
- Boat Name: Steam Queen
- Location: Shawnigan Lake B.C. Canada
Re: Rust protection
I chromed some parts on my engine. I also brassplated some parts. I run in the ocean and managed to polish the brass off in the first season! However the chrome is showing no signs of distress. I used a heat resistant paint designed for wood stoves. I have wondered about powder coating but worry that the temp required for powder coating is within a hundred or so degrees of the melting point of babbit used in my bearings! Any one else have any experience with powder coating? I 've shown this photo before but sometimes it's easier to show it again than to try and find it in the archives! Den
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Re: Rust protection
Just so ya know, Den, I've saved that picture in my "steam porn" file!
There are any number of coatings (paints) rated for high temperature applications. (e.g. automotive engine spray paint). I suppose there may even be specialized powder coatings that are rated for high temperature. However, I believe that traditionally the coating of choice for fancy cast iron engine parts was "stove enamel" or "porcelainizing," such as one still finds on fancy French cast iron cookware (e.g. Le Crusette brand). This stuff was much more common in decades past, being used to coat just about anything that would get hard everyday use and might rust. (Like those speckled blue campfire coffee pots people use to take camping a long time ago or the old fashioned white hospital basins and pans in use before stainless steel was common.) (Oskar Schindler supposedly operated a cookware factory turning out porcelain coated goods and there's a scene in the movie "Schindler's List" showing workers doing it.) It's still used on top end woodstoves, such as the Vermont Castings line and on expensive cast iron bathtubs. It can still be done, but you'll have to find a shop that does it as piecework. Basically, it is porcelain slurry that is applied to the piece, which is then fired in a kiln. The result is a tough glass-like smooth glossy coating of porcelain on the iron piece. There is a drawback, though, in that if a piece is dropped or struck hard with a tool, it can chip and cannot be effectively repaired without entirely recoating the piece.
As for bright finishes, I don't believe that chrome electroplating was as common back in the day as was electroless nickel plating, a chemical, rather than an electroplating process using electrical current. Electroless nickel plating, about which I don't know much, produces, to my eye at least, a deeper, slightly less garish, and much more durable bright metal finish than does chrome plating. (It's often encountered in the restoration of older, top end classic cars and other pre-WWII items, after which it was supplanted in the industrial arena by chrome electroplating which was cheaper and easier, although less durable.) There is also nickel electroplate, which has the same limitations as chrome electroplate, when compared to the chemical plating processes.) Chrome electroplate is plenty good for most purposes, if applied thick enough to last, and a chrome plating shop is a lot easier to find these days than a nickel plater, but nickel, rather than chrome, is what you'll find on the old stoves, for durability considerations, I'm guessing.
I believe the iron parts of the famed Beaumaris (Mills) engines were coated with stove enamel and the steel parts nickel plated. Together, treatments like stove enameling and electroless nickel plating produce a very subtle but unique "classic aura" that cannot be truly duplicated by modern techniques.
There are any number of coatings (paints) rated for high temperature applications. (e.g. automotive engine spray paint). I suppose there may even be specialized powder coatings that are rated for high temperature. However, I believe that traditionally the coating of choice for fancy cast iron engine parts was "stove enamel" or "porcelainizing," such as one still finds on fancy French cast iron cookware (e.g. Le Crusette brand). This stuff was much more common in decades past, being used to coat just about anything that would get hard everyday use and might rust. (Like those speckled blue campfire coffee pots people use to take camping a long time ago or the old fashioned white hospital basins and pans in use before stainless steel was common.) (Oskar Schindler supposedly operated a cookware factory turning out porcelain coated goods and there's a scene in the movie "Schindler's List" showing workers doing it.) It's still used on top end woodstoves, such as the Vermont Castings line and on expensive cast iron bathtubs. It can still be done, but you'll have to find a shop that does it as piecework. Basically, it is porcelain slurry that is applied to the piece, which is then fired in a kiln. The result is a tough glass-like smooth glossy coating of porcelain on the iron piece. There is a drawback, though, in that if a piece is dropped or struck hard with a tool, it can chip and cannot be effectively repaired without entirely recoating the piece.
As for bright finishes, I don't believe that chrome electroplating was as common back in the day as was electroless nickel plating, a chemical, rather than an electroplating process using electrical current. Electroless nickel plating, about which I don't know much, produces, to my eye at least, a deeper, slightly less garish, and much more durable bright metal finish than does chrome plating. (It's often encountered in the restoration of older, top end classic cars and other pre-WWII items, after which it was supplanted in the industrial arena by chrome electroplating which was cheaper and easier, although less durable.) There is also nickel electroplate, which has the same limitations as chrome electroplate, when compared to the chemical plating processes.) Chrome electroplate is plenty good for most purposes, if applied thick enough to last, and a chrome plating shop is a lot easier to find these days than a nickel plater, but nickel, rather than chrome, is what you'll find on the old stoves, for durability considerations, I'm guessing.
I believe the iron parts of the famed Beaumaris (Mills) engines were coated with stove enamel and the steel parts nickel plated. Together, treatments like stove enameling and electroless nickel plating produce a very subtle but unique "classic aura" that cannot be truly duplicated by modern techniques.
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Lopez Mike
- Full Steam Ahead
- Posts: 1925
- Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:41 am
- Boat Name: S.L. Spiffy
- Location: Lopez Island, Washington State, USA
Re: Rust protection
And now a word from the cheap seats:
None of the parts of my engine get any hotter than the 150 psi steam (350 degree maybe?) and I've not had any failures from 'rattle can' paints. I sand blast or power wire brush the part and then prime immediately. Then color coat, maybe two coats. Then, if I'm really getting carried away, several coats of clear.
When I'm on a vanity kick I replace visible nuts with brass. Sometimes machine then on the lathe to get that industrial revolution look.
Let's hear it for Krylon!
Mike
None of the parts of my engine get any hotter than the 150 psi steam (350 degree maybe?) and I've not had any failures from 'rattle can' paints. I sand blast or power wire brush the part and then prime immediately. Then color coat, maybe two coats. Then, if I'm really getting carried away, several coats of clear.
When I'm on a vanity kick I replace visible nuts with brass. Sometimes machine then on the lathe to get that industrial revolution look.
Let's hear it for Krylon!
Mike
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
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fredrosse
- Full Steam Ahead
- Posts: 1925
- Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:34 am
- Boat Name: Margaret S.
- Location: Phila PA USA
- Contact:
Re: Rust protection
Let's hear it for Krylon!
Best spray paint I have come across. Painted the hull (fiberglass) of the electric boat in 2004, 14 ft boat, 2 cans of Krylon, still looks good. The steel parts of the sidewheeler, the paddlewheels, the fold up rudders, shafts and whatever, Krylon again, never a problem with that stuff. Have tried many other brands of spray cans, none so far work as well as Krylon. No, I do not have stock in the company, just have had very good luck with the stuff for years.
Best spray paint I have come across. Painted the hull (fiberglass) of the electric boat in 2004, 14 ft boat, 2 cans of Krylon, still looks good. The steel parts of the sidewheeler, the paddlewheels, the fold up rudders, shafts and whatever, Krylon again, never a problem with that stuff. Have tried many other brands of spray cans, none so far work as well as Krylon. No, I do not have stock in the company, just have had very good luck with the stuff for years.
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farmerden
- Stirring the Pot
- Posts: 447
- Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:14 am
- Boat Name: Steam Queen
- Location: Shawnigan Lake B.C. Canada
Re: Rust protection
Well I had to look up "Porcilain coating" as I remember seeing automobile manifolds done in this-OK so I'm old-I can't do anything about that! It melts from 932 F to 1652 F so there goes the babbit bearing! Maybe this could be Babbited later.And porcilain would be more age authentic than Krylon-Sorry Mike! 
Den
Den