The Steamboating Forum

Just curious as to whats old ,whats new in the way of lagging? I've seen everything from rope to plaster-of-paris.Anybody done research on what works the best? If we're going to go to the trouble of wrapping our pipes we might as well be efficient about it And how do you keep it white? After a while everything I own becomes sort of gray-maybe that's the way of a steamer!! Den

good question
iám very interested in the comments

piet

For non-superheated steam pipes - cotton rope, painted with travel trailer roofing goo (a white rubbery compound).
For manifold and weldments to complex to cover w/ rope, I use a moldable paste insulation and cover it after it dries with
fabric strips soaked in lagging adhesive or that roofing patch stuff.

For stuff that's hidden behind proper lagging, woven fiberglass.

- Bart

Why not just use fiberglass insulation all over? Steam pipe and high-heat fiberglass insulation is available at any local hardware store. It might not be "period appropriate" but it would work far better than painted rope.

I suppose you could use the soaked cloth strips over the fiberglass to get that "period" look if you really wanted it.

Then again, I could be talking outta my rear end as I have yet to build a steam engine of any size.

Painted rope works well enough to keep me from getting burned, and there's something about a steam line with Turk's heads at the ends, all spiffy and white.... Barbie (my wife) does all the knot work on Otter. Around here, woven fiberglass tape for insulation is a little more difficult to find, and the other stuff doesn't deal well with getting wet.

The purpose of insultation on steam pipes is:
1. To prevent the loss of heat (and therefore "work") from the steam in the pipe;
2. To prevent living flesh (from grandma to the dog) from being burned.

The best pipe and fittings insulation comes in slit "tubes" of compressed "fiberglass", foil paper wrapped, and with the center cored out to fit around the pipe - sorta like home plumbing insulation. This is fitted around the pipe and an adhesive strip used to seal it closed and hold it in place. It's easy to apply and relatively inexpensive. When "bumped" or "grabbed" it readily compresses. Compressed insulation does not retain heat very well, so you want to NOT compress it. Commercial suppliers of steam pipe insulation also stock a light weight metal sleeve (about the same gauge metal as stovepipe) which is made in aluminum, stainless steel, or brass. Also available are "T"s, elbows, etc.

A good example of this insulation "wrapped" with a stainless steel cover is Al Dunlap's Cheng Tze, seen below. The main steam pipe to the stern wheel engines is rising vertically from the boiler and then overhead into the "house".

This is an easy and attractive alternate to the wrapped and painted cotton rope that Bart's wife, Barb, so beautifully applies to Otter.

Do NOT use regular domestic water pipe insulation unless you enjoy the smell of charred plastic.

Another method is using rope, wraped with fabric soaked in aribel (sp?)

87gn@tahoe wrote:Another method is using rope, wraped with fabric soaked in aribel (sp?)

The stuff you're thinking of was Arabol.... as far as I know, it's no longer manufactured. There are lots
of substitutes....

- Bart

We're getting a very good response. Is there anything else we should be updating? After all this is an educational forum and if we don't educate the learners -who will? Den