Aster Marine Steam Engine

I had to rebuild this engine because in my ignorance I had flushed the engine with Viakal, thinking that descaling it would be a good idea. It may have been, but without knowing, I was not able to flush out all of the Viakal from the center cylinder, and in the months that the engine was not used, the small amount of the chemicals left in the steam chest of that cylinder reacted with the casting, severely pitting the port face.
I spent a log time trying to fix the engine without knowing this, since the only way of seeing inside that steam chest was to remove the manifold that was sealed with a very strong silicone adhesive, and I was unsure that I could do that without either damaging it, or being able to re seal it. After I had taken off the manifold I could see that the port face was a mess, but since it is a cast piece, lapping the face was very tricky. I used a small wooden block with fine emery paper glued to one side, and in the limited space, slowly ground the pitted surface down. Another dilemma occurred when timing the engine, since the grub screws in the valve saddle as so short - less than a turn. One slipped in the soft brass and so I needed a new saddle and and grub made. After that I repacked all six glands, lapped the manifold and experimented, unsuccesfully, with various ways of sealing it back on, including drilling six new holes in the manifold for additional bolts. In the end I decided to use silicone adhesive, and after several attempts I made a jig that held the pieces together while the silicone set.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Aster
• Marine
• Steam
• Engine

[ThaMasterSniper]

Is this particular engine and boiler for sale anywhere? Perhaps from you yourself?

[mnewlyn]

@ThaMasterSniper

it's no longer in production.

[mnewlyn]

@prallplatte thank you, it means a lot from you.

[NGTmodels]

Viakal..., don't use that in anything.

[ThaMasterSniper]

@mnewlyn Oh, ok. Thanks anyways!

[prallplatte]

Your video-skils are growing more and more! Good clip, nice presentation, excellent engine!

[francovance1]

Beautiful piece of engineering!

[Oldsteamshop]

lovely lovely engine i need make a marine engine videos great job