[SEL] Hot tube material

[George & Norma Armstrong]

Steve,
  Oddly the tube does not act like a glow plug but rather acts as a small
ignition chamber as the gas/air mixture is driven into it by the piston.
The length of the hot tube determines the timeing  of the engine so you may
not want to use a "short stub" of a tube.  The tubes we use on a Pattin, a
Reid and a Bessemer vary from 5" to 6" in length and some of them we use are
stainless tubing with a screwed on stainless cap; items that should be
easily purchased.  Ours are from a local steel mill which uses these items
in their coke batteries and continuous casters.  They work very well.
George
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Gray <segray at mlode.com>
To: The SEL email discussion list <sel at lists.stationary-engine.com>
Date: Monday, May 02, 2005 3:07 PM
Subject: Re: [SEL] Hot tube material


>Hi Arnie, Luke, Peter & Curt -
>
>   I kind of suspected that a good grade of stainless might be involved.
>Having spent the last 4 years of my employment machining Inconel,
>Nitronic, Monel and various grades of stainless, I feel everyone's past
>experiences with machining the stuff! (Sadistic is an accurate
>description, Curt!!)  I may even have a chunk of Nitronic kicking around
>in the material bin, but whatever the case, thinking about it, I agree
>something along those lines should suffice well. I doubt it would have
>to be too awfully thick to do the job. It just needs to be a short stub
>to act as a glow plug for starting this monster. Now you guys got me to
>thinking....!
>
>Thanks,
>
> Steve
>
>--
>Steve Gray
>Member EDGE & TA, Br. 13, 27 & 49
>Sonora, California USA
>e-mail:   segray at mlode.com
>Home page:   http://www.oldengineshed.com
>
>
>
>Curt wrote:
>
>> Steve,
>> Inconel 718 might be the alloy you are thinking of. It is a nickel
>> alloy well suited for hot work. I use it for some of the hot rolling
>> mills in our foundry. Unless you are up for a sadistic machining
>> experience you might just try to buy one already made. It is
>> absolutely miserable stuff to machine as it work hardens as you turn
>> it/drill it. It is also 8x as expensive as H13. You'll probably be
>> able to buy several finished hot tubes for what you could buy the
>> tooling for.
>> We also use H13 which is a very good hot work tool steel. While not
>> easy to machine either, it is far easier than Inconel.
>> Perhaps the OFES guys can say if they have luck using H13 for hot
>> tubes.....
>> Curt Holland
>> Gastonia, NC
>>
>>
>> Steve Gray wrote:
>>
>>>   OK, guys. I know this has been covered before and I've perused some
>>> of the available list archives to no avail, so I'll ask a repeat
>>> question. What's the general opinion about the type of material used
>>> for hot tubes? I'm in the process of sanitizing the Fairbanks "Y" oil
>>> engine I just bought and will be replacing the starting hot tube.
>>> Easily made, but would like to come up with the proper material. My
>>> feeble brain cell SEEMS to remember something about nickel being used.
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> - Steve
>>>
>>
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>
>
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