Restoring a set of Steam Boiler Try-Cocks

[@RobertKohut]

So nice how you breath new life into these things!! :-)

[@OnlyTheEd]

It would be nice to see them in place on the boiler......thanks for sharing.

[@crcottre]

Playing the Keith Rucker Drinking Game. Every time he says "Like such" you have to do a shot... Thanks for another great video, Keith! I always love the steam oriented projects 😁👍🚂

[@ladamurni]

I have a variation on that game, every time he says that you have to raise your hand who ever is last has to pay for the next round. 😁🤘

[@ericdouglas9804]

ladamurni Don’t forget the “up underneath “ variation

[@oldschool1993]

We tried one where you took a shot every time he said "basically", no one remembers much of that night.

[@DavidPlass]

"On the money"

[@navigatorx1013]

"basically"

[@mohabatkhanmalak1161]

Hi Keith. The two valves that had steel (stainless) stems were corroding because of galvanic action. This takes place when two dissimilar metals touch, like in an assembly such as these valves.

[@brittmrmanly4982]

Thanks for the video Keith. Seeing you add the hydrochloric acid to water reminded of a saying I learned at Dow Chemical back in the 1970s: Remember you ought'er, add acid to water. If you do the opposite, the reaction can be violent.

[@johnsherborne3245]

By all means play safe, but hydrochloride doesn't get very warm on dilution unlike sulphuric or phosphoric, still better than getting wrong when it matters. A quick way of making 10% sulphuric is to pour the acid in steadily and stir the water, when the water begins to boil just where the acid goes in is about right.if you are using it to pickle then that's quite accurate enough..

[@danielcobbins9050]

The same with molten steel. Water on steel for quenching ,yes steel on water never.

[@dananelson479]

Enjoyed seeing that lathe in use. That collett was handy. Thanks for sharing Keith.

[@viboquet]

hello Keith, you really made the beautiful work of craftsman but unfortunately who is endangered.I have been following you for a few years and I still learn.My job was mechanic fit now at the pension but I'm still interested at the shooting making bore.I congratulate you for the ravail that you realize and good continuation and hello of Belgium and excuse my English A +

[@JamesDedmon]

Nice seein Rivett running

[@noisybarinavalon]

Reversing the tap - brilliant!

[@rennkafer13]

Interesting video, nice to see you using the Rivett lathe too Keith.

[@claytonpalsson3104]

Great video. The variation of the valves gives an idea of simplification of their world in circa 1890. A lot of interesting ways of manufacturing. It gives the ideology of a different era and how freely they changed their ways of thinking. Wonderful.

[@carlislesmachineshop431]

your Rivett loved doing that job as much as you did. great work.

[@jeffryblackmon4846]

Enjoyable, useful and educational video! Thank you, Keith.

[@dhaynes4515]

Nice work. Love working with brass. Looking forward to seeing some of your videos in the museum.

[@AustrianAnarchy]

Muriatic acid is a good way to turn all your steel tools red. Best to start off messing with it outside and keep it outside.

[@douglaspierce316]

hardest working guy on u-tube. love your page. thanks

[@dankolar6066]

Nicely done. Thank you for sharing.

[@homersimpson6176]

Nice Job !

[@ruperthartop7202]

Nice work Keith. Thanks for sharing

[@mikearmstrong9899]

Good Morning!

[@elsdp-4560]

THANK YOU...for sharing. Nice rebuild.

[@ActiveAtom]

Nice work for you Keith, way to go. Lance & Patrick.

[@Mercmad]

Tricocks were replaced in service every 1000 miles or on a time basis with reco'ed items. Because of the absolute importance of the sight glasses they had to be kept in top condition. Those didn't look so good and probably hadn't seen any attention for years before the engine was shut down . After 40 or 50 years they got that 'look' with lots of scars from pipe wrenches etc .

[@shortribslongbow5312]

Very nice video thanks for sharing.

[@kennethbell7318]

AWESOME Kieth, Thank You

[@waynep343]

i only had one thought.. i would have when thread cutting.. tried the original part on the threads before you got to the final cut. as a wider thread might have made up for wear in the threads in the collar.. since they are custom fit anyway..

[@jusb1066]

in case anyone doesnt know what the packing is, its hemp string coated with lots of graphite, and will make a nice seal that is also slippery and doesnt bind on the shaft

[@machintelligence]

I think there is also some grease along with the graphite, at least there is on the spool of packing that has been in my plumbing parts box for the last 40 years.

[@jusb1066]

@@machintelligence might even be tallow!

[@SeanBZA]

Modern ones are PTFE and graphite, with a polyamide cord as the filler, but for higher temperature ones you get graphite and asbestos ones for replacements, all of them come with a lubricant of synthetic grease as well. You also get tap packings that are pure graphite compressed into a puck, that fits in the top as a single piece.

[@royreynolds108]

@@SeanBZA Since this loco is a Glover, it is over 100 yrs old and would probably have been only 150 psi new so the steam will be under 375 degrees F. They were extremely simple machines for forestry and industrial use. That doesn't mean the locos built poorly; they were built very well for the service demanded of them with little care other than the crew.

[@dougguynn2622]

as always enjoyable

[@StreuB1]

Acid to water not water to acid. Given what you do for a living, I knew absolutely that you were going to drive that home the moment I saw you with a bucket of water and a beaker of acid. :-) Can never drive that home enough, so important.

[@powaybob]

Do what you oughta, add the acid to the watta.

[@blueridgeburnouts8265]

Would it be an improvement to add flats on the body to allow tightening and removal. Looks like those get plenty of pipe wrench action. Good vid!

[@aserta]

Yeah, that and the fact that i've seen that kind of cocks split because of the induced failure point. I would remake these, were it up to me. Tho i'm sure that it's a matter of price here, restoring something like a loco can get expensive. If it ain't broken...

[@BULLDOGG]

I love your Channel, so informative!

[@theworkshopmechanicchannel3296]

Came out very nice

[@davidmotoman4956]

Always interesting Keith Cheers Mate

[@arizonasun844]

Very educational, love them all, thanks

[@SeanBZA]

When the seats are too far gone make a nice insert seat for them, probably out of some steam resistant material, like Inconel, so that the seat no longer wears, but the replaceable valve stem does instead.

[@aserta]

You can speed up the reaction if you put the bucket on a warm plate or in the Sun under a black cap (or a black, even spray painted, bucket). Turns the time in half, even less depending on how the part is. From time to time, especially if threads or small cavities, passages are present, it's best to shake the parts.

[@RambozoClown]

I thought you would take off the pipe wrench knurl, maybe add some wrench flats, instead. Acorn or cap nut is great on a valve handle, keeps your gloves from catching on the thread.

[@BlindBatG34]

Those valves might not be original but historically just as interesting in my mind.

[@jonbobtrader]

Great video. Amazing that the angle on the stem just happened to fit and standard counter sink. I was looking forward to seeing the device you would build to test them. Maybe next time.

[@lwilton]

Well, you have to wonder how they made them originally. This sounds like a small engine that probably was on a logging railroad or more likely industrial usage. They probably used whatever tools they had handy to make the original replacements. That probably included standard countersinks for boring the seats.

[@jonbobtrader]

@@lwilton You are probably right. I'm no machinist, but the maintenance of that seat would definitely be my first concern, especially if I knew I could machine a stem to match.

[@fiorevitola880]

Nice clean work.

[@littleworkshopofhorrors2395]

Steam is not my field but I seem to remember hearing about which material should be used for such things. Should they have been made from bronze not brass, dezincifation and all that?

[@kevinmartin7760]

I was wondering the same thing, although at the end of the video I did feel that the valve bodies had that reddish look of bronze.

[@exilfromsanity]

It didn't take long to put the Rivett lathe to work,

[@clham612]

I hope you lapped those valves in. Just cutting them is not enough on a steam application. The fit has to be perfect to be steam-tight.

[@cpad007]

I was just about to ask if that would be necessary and decided to scroll the comments a bit.

[@pvrs87]

Are they for the Tennessee Coal Co 0-4-0T in Kennesaw, GA at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History?

[@Peter_Riis_DK]

Perhaps this is why they call it a bowler hat? Some Rucker style off center square on the valve rod, though.

[@larryblount3358]

How much cleanup after the pars soak? Did you use brass brush to clean up the threads, etc? Or just wet rags to prevent damage?

[@mattthescrapwhisperer]

Keith, what disposal method do you use for the used acid solution once the job is complete?

[@Orxenhorf]

Reminds me... Keith, did you see the video of what happened to Southern Pacific #18?

[@bcbloc02]

Orxenhorf I did. Looked like they had their piston clearance a little too tight and it grew and seized when it got hot operating hard.

[@doctwiggenberry5324]

How did you measure the taper of the seat, or is it standard.

[@migtrewornan8085]

No lapping?

[@johnnyholland8765]

While a very good refurbishment I think I would have given the outside a bit of a turn to remove all those wrench bite marks. Your friend should be very pleased.

[@svenschlenkrich]

Hi Keith, you did again a quite nice video, so far thanks a lot for that. But for an experienced machinist with a very good equipment in your machine shop, the result is a little bit poor. Those valves only seal up well, if the spindle (or stem like you call it in the US) thread is concentric with the sealing surface on the end. Quite a serious run out is visible at several scenes. The badly worn life center and obviously the slightly off-center collet chuck itself make things worse. Why not checking it with an indicator? When you turned the sealing cone of the spindle it is a extremly bad surface as the spindle is reaching out the collet much too far and bends under tool pressure. Finally checking thread fit should always be done with the valve body and not using a new nut to regard the wear. Lapping in the valve to the re-machined seat is always necessary and I doubt, if the shown method of dick'n'dirty re-machining the seat is a good way to get a concentric alignment. Usually the seat in the body should be not more than 1-2 mm wide. Also brass is not the first choice of spindle material, because of dezincification. Red bronce, gun metal are much better. Of cource this field-repair style works for a short time, maybe the customer will need a pipe wrench or a special tool to get in the spokes of the hand wheel, that we call here "valve killer" so get it really tight and sealed, but a good made valve should be opened and closed by hand only. I know you guys in the states do a lot things in a different way, but we all can learn from each other. As my mentor said: Only when all the fingers of your hand have the same lengh, than you can stop learning, because you know everything! So do it once, but do it right! I'm working in the loco restauration business, and did recently a lot of steam armatures. So if you need some inspiration for steam loco armature work I can recommend you my blog facebook.com/projekthilax/ Kind regards from overseas Sven

[@bigun447]

Thought I tunned into the wrong channel. Saw a lathe that had old paint. Tee Hee.

[@amtk415w]

Great video and nice restoration. BTW, they're spelled tricocks, not try-cocks. There are 3 of them, hence the "tri", not necessarily because you "try" them out.

[@johnnytakisawa]

I was gonna say....

[@iamthetarget52]

"Didn't pack his nuts" I understand ... My wife keeps mine on a shelf ... she won't let me pack them either.

[@aforman1951]

Packing catalog: chestertondocs.chesterton.com/Lubricants/EN24651_Core_Products_Catalog_EN.pdf

[@Francis362003]

Why not make one out of stainless steel?

[@paulcopeland9035]

I didn't know they had stainless steel in the 1890's !!

[@victoryfirst2878]

I can tell you have some problems with your lathe. Lots of banging noise and the extended rod has some runout. Keep on a lathing too.

[@doctwiggenberry5324]

if i would have waited 45 seconds you would have answered the stupid question... :>)

[@rgmoore]

Isn't it "tricocks" instead "Try-Cocks"? I really can't stop laughing though I know its puerile.

[@grafixbyjorj]

Just to summarise the comments thus far, it seems these were made from the wrong material, on the wrong machine, using the wrong tools and to the wrong dimensions, not to mention that the complete cocks should have been rebuilt from scratch rather than restored. Unless, of course, Keith noticed as I did that they are going on a steam preservation loco which will probably run light duty 4 weekends a year and it doesn't actually matter much if it's out of service once in a while, so doing a low cost fix which will probably last a decade under that duty cycle is better value that doing the full industrial/commercial job which would have been justified if the loco was working for its living 52 weeks a year.

[@grafixbyjorj]

@chris0tube Bronze is more expensive than brass. I agree it might be better value if the brass one is actually going to wear out, but that's not a given. You also have to consider what was around in the ready material pile, because ordering in a length of suitable bronze rod would have added even more time and expense to the job.

[@grafixbyjorj]

@chris0tube It all comes down to honest communication between customer and supplier; if the customer says "get this thing running as quickly and cheaply as possible", you have to tell him he's likely to be back next week/month/year to get it fixed properly. Sometimes that's the best solution anyway. If the customer says "do this properly", you have to tell him how much it will cost and how long it will take; in my experience, that often leads to customers asking to "get this thing running as quickly and cheaply as possible" :)

[@garys9694]

It was a half-ass job, that's for sure!

[@erik61801]

Tri...

[@Blazer02LS]

Actually try is the proper term as these are used to test the water level by opening them and trying the water level.

[@StreuB1]

@@Blazer02LS Yep, exactly. "How much water you got in that boiler anyway?" "I dunno, go give it a try!!"