Steam line insulation

[AKPakrat]

 I'm in the middle of building a Dumas Creole Queen kit. Ive decided to power it with a Saitio 2cylinder steam plant and I need to insulate the 3/16" lines from the boiler to the engine. Does anyone know of a source for insulation to fit 3/16" line??
Thanks!!
Dave in Alaska

[Red_Hamish]

Hello there Dave in Alaska ! My goodness we are getting to be a diverse community in all points of the globe  I never noticed your first posting about the kit you desired to build but it looks like you got sorted out on that. To the lagging of your steam delivey pipes I don't know of any commerciially produced thin insulation to simply slip on. What I have seen done is the whipping around of a cotton cord of a slightly smaller diameter and then fixed in position by the application of a model paint normally white. This looks very effective but as I'm not a steam modeller I don't know just how it works. I feel confident that the more learned members will contribute their thoughts.

cheers

Jim (just below 60degN)

[crash93]

cake string or a bit thicker and a bit of Superglue on the ends only, I have seen and tried PTFE tape (gas tape) it gives a nice smooth Finnish that can be wiped down .

Peter

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's........Dave...Jim is certainly correct with cotton string...but they stopped making it [for general use] 25 years ago.... ...go to the hardware store & ask for cotton string....

The attractive young lass will point you to a shelf.....& will find long chain polyetherlene string, short chain polyetherlene string & medium chain polyetherlene string  ...you will also find renditions of brown JUTE which is not all that suitable for the intended task

You may need to enlist the help of a Hobby shop.... ...where they sell rigging cotton yarn for model sailing vessels...so for $5.00 you will get more than enough for your Creole Queen

The temperature of the stream line discharge @ the boiler will be approx 150 degrees C & will discolour white enamel paint...so an alternative is to paint the insulating string with LIQUID PAPER correcting fluid

So one drop of CA at the commencement of the insulation......& one drop of CA at the entry & exit of each bend & hey presto + the LIQUID PAPER fluid encases or adds additional insulation

I am fortunate.....I have a of a 25 YO roll of cotton twine  

[Red_Hamish]

Hello all, well Derek thanks for reminding me that we in the North of Scotland are still using antiquated practices  The company who I worked for until yesterday are still selling 40M rolls of 2.4mm dia cotton string for parcelling up things. Admittedly when I started there as a boy we had them in imperial sizes and they came in gross boxes (144 rolls /box) 
When I checked the stock situation just now  there were only 5 left on the shelf @ £15 /roll. The smaller 1.2mm dia had plenty left at £3.90 /roll .
So in essence Dave there must be  good old fashioned ironmongers / hardware store in your town. I didn't realise just how large Fairbanks is until I looked it up on Google Earth. There appears to be some rather nice building plots around and quite a bit of development too.

cheers

Jim (about 4 degrees latitude South of you)

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's......& .... Dave .....stay away from that 2.4 mm diameter imitation Scottish cotton string ...the real 1.5 mm diameter is the preferred size....[1.2 diameter would be acceptable]....tis all to do with the air gap....think about UUUUUU being upside down strands of cotton wound around the live steam tube work

Naturally if you used 2.4 mm diameter cotton you would end up with UUUUUUU & hence a greater air gap between the top of each strand.....

Posssibly our colleague Moritz  ...could provide a mathmatical model on the relative differences between 2.4 mm diameter imitation Scottish cotton string & the real genuine OZ cotton string of 1.5 mm diameter

I am a little surprised that... that EAGLE eyed Jim did not pick up on the PLONK stain on my 25 YO roll of 1st class OZ cotton string as shown below.......

[FlashTwo]

Hi,
I tried using ordinary cotton string to insulate my steam pipes, but the string caught fire when the steam exceeded 340degC (yes, degC, it is a flash boiler!).

I purchased fibre-glass 3mm rope and wrapped it around the pipes. Alternatively you could use the fibre-glass tape. You could also experiment with filling the rope with polyfilla to get a smoother appearance.

I purchased my rope from http://www.stove-glass.com/.

Ian