# Making a steam cleaner for small locos



## RickWeber (Mar 7, 2011)

Steam cleaner for small locomotives. Modified one of my vertical boiler designs, added high temp hose and valve. Does a great job cleaning out oil, gunk, coal dust, etc. from small locos. Cheap and easy to make.


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## Charles (Jan 2, 2008)

Certainly an good tool to have for keeping the locomotive and equipment well attended to. BTW- boiler is it home built?

Thanks


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## RickWeber (Mar 7, 2011)

Charles, yes, the boiler is home brewed. I hope to submit a building article with plans in an upcoming issue of Steam in the Garden mag.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

I hope to submit a building article with plans in an upcoming issue of Steam in the Garden mag.Including the steam cleaning wand I hope. Looks like a neat thing to have.


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## csinc (Jun 8, 2008)

Does anyone know of an electric boiler that could be used with this wand. Is probably easier to boiler the water that way. Seems like a great way to clean a locomotive.


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## JPCaputo (Jul 26, 2009)

I would be tempted to attach a hose to a steam mop and use that.


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Walmart has a Wagner 915 small steam cleaner for 80.00 plus. Looks like it would do the job.
Also can be used to do other honey do stuff around the house.


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## Shay Gear Head (Jan 3, 2008)

What about a small hand-held steamer to take out wrinkles. May not produce enough steam?


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## RickWeber (Mar 7, 2011)

The wrinkle steamers supply probably couldn't be constricted down enough to produce a concentrated blast like the little wand does. In past years, I've made a couple of these in larger sizes for my 7.5-inch gauge locos. At the end of the run, I would get up a head of steam before dropping the fire. There would be plenty enough to steam clean the loco. But these little locos would need for the fire to be continued to produce sufficient quantities of steam to clean 'em up at the end of a run. That's why I made a separate boiler specifically for the wand. A guy could make an adapter between the flexible high-temp hose and the live steam piping on his loco and then keep the fire on and the boiler perking at the end of a run. That way there would be a sufficient supply of steam for cleaning. 

So, I'm working on refinements to the wand and hope to have an build article in Steam in the Garden mag in the near future. No promises, but maybe I can have a few wands at Diamondhead for sale. I'll figure out the costs and post here in the next few weeks.


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Take a look at the DB-Tech multi purpose steam cleaner. At Amazon for 32.99 . Just another idea that looks like it will work.

Checked Harbour Freight, they have a McCullough 1275 that looks a lot like the Wagner. Has a video that shows really cleaning up some nasty greasey stuff.
I have the Wagner coming tomorrow. Will let you know how it works on one of my steamers.
Always something to spend money on and keep me out of trouble.
Gosh I love the smell of alcohol and coal in the morning.


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

http://youtu.be/ZxGjTP3dgHo 
Okay
Got the Wagner 915 steam cleaner and hooked it up today to see how she works.
Takes about 10 minutes to heat up about 36ounces of water to get steam and away she goes.
SRRL 24 was not all that dirty but wanted to see how much pressure it would build ,so as not to blow everthing off engine.
If the engines are dirtier, a little Orange solution before hand would do the trick.

BTW
Started using a new film editing program and it is responsible for music in background.


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## RickWeber (Mar 7, 2011)

How did it work?


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By RickWeber on 14 Sep 2013 06:58 PM 
How did it work? 
Rick
The short video I have up above give some idea about how it works. I think it wii do great if you happen to have a reeal dirty engine, just apply small amout of precleaner. I did not put the steamer as close to the engine as I will in future because I did not know how much pressure it would apply.
I will use it next time on my coal fired engine to really give it a test.


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

I just use kerosene and a small paint brush.


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By RickWeber on 14 Sep 2013 06:58 PM 
How did it work? 

Rick,Maybe one of your wands could be adapted to use with the Wagner. The wagner doe put out a lot of steam and probably could be more concentrated.
BTW John, it is a lot nicer smelling than kerosene.


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

Art, I like the smell of kerosene "in the morning". lol


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

A caveat to those that might be considering using some of these commercial "steamers" as a pressure vessel... There is the temptation to narrow down the outlet to get greater pressure and velocity in the steam for better cleaning action, but that could be VERY DANGEROUS thing to attempt. Those devices are not designed for pressure. They are designed to produce steam and direct it out of a wide nozzle AT atmospheric pressure, NOT above atmospheric pressure.

If you do "bottle" the steam up, the device will probably not give you any sort of warning that it is about to rupture... It'll just go kablooey. I doubt if it would be enough of a kaboom to break a window in the room or throw shrapnel around, but it WILL expel boiling water that is flashing into steam due to the sudden reduction of pressure. (Do an on-line search for the term "BLEVE" if you want to understand the process, but suffice it to say that water under pressure can be raised to a temperature above the 212° atmospheric pressure boiling point and if the pressure is released, the water will suddenly flash to steam.) That boiling water will most likely land on YOU and/or anyone near you, giving you at least 2nd and possibly 3rd degree burns.... Not pleasant at all.

If you do attempt this, be sure you include a safety valve that is capable of releasing the steam at a pressure of only 1/2 the pressure that would be required to burst the unit.... The only ways to know the pressure that would burst the unit would be to either, know the materials, material thicknesses, and the manufacturing technique and calculate the strength of the vessel, or get a big bunch of the devices and hydrostatically test them to failure (and maybe test a few to failure under operating conditions to prove that the hydrostatic test is producing reasonable numbers!). You test a bunch, not to average the results, but to eliminate (as best as possible) variations in materials and manufacturing so that you can have some reasonable assurance that, in use, a different unit will not be of lessor strength than the tested units. The safety valve must be set to 1/2 the design maximum pressure as a safety factor. It also must be capable of releasing steam at a greater rate than it can be produced by the device.


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 16 Sep 2013 06:35 AM 
A caveat to those that might be considering using some of these commercial "steamers" as a pressure vessel... There is the temptation to narrow down the outlet to get greater pressure and velocity in the steam for better cleaning action, but that could be VERY DANGEROUS thing to attempt. Those devices are not designed for pressure. They are designed to produce steam and direct it out of a wide nozzle AT atmospheric pressure, NOT above atmospheric pressure.

If you do "bottle" the steam up, the device will probably not give you any sort of warning that it is about to rupture... It'll just go kablooey. I doubt if it would be enough of a kaboom to break a window in the room or throw shrapnel around, but it WILL expel boiling water that is flashing into steam due to the sudden reduction of pressure. (Do an on-line search for the term "BLEVE" if you want to understand the process, but suffice it to say that water under pressure can be raised to a temperature above the 212° atmospheric pressure boiling point and if the pressure is released, the water will suddenly flash to steam.) That boiling water will most likely land on YOU and/or anyone near you, giving you at least 2nd and possibly 3rd degree burns.... Not pleasant at all.

If you do attempt this, be sure you include a safety valve that is capable of releasing the steam at a pressure of only 1/2 the pressure that would be required to burst the unit.... The only ways to know the pressure that would burst the unit would be to either, know the materials, material thicknesses, and the manufacturing technique and calculate the strength of the vessel, or get a big bunch of the devices and hydrostatically test them to failure (and maybe test a few to failure under operating conditions to prove that the hydrostatic test is producing reasonable numbers!). You test a bunch, not to average the results, but to eliminate (as best as possible) variations in materials and manufacturing so that you can have some reasonable assurance that, in use, a different unit will not be of lessor strength than the tested units. The safety valve must be set to 1/2 the design maximum pressure as a safety factor. It also must be capable of releasing steam at a greater rate than it can be produced by the device.

Nuff said. I will not try to reduce opening. Works fine right now.
Do not need any more injuries Thanks for uptick..


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## anthonyjohn (May 12, 2018)

good work.
great disscussion
keep it up guys


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

anthonyjohn said:


> good work.
> great disscussion
> keep it up guys


This is a 5-year-old thread, so I doubt you will see any more discussion.


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