Lagging material

[pappde]

I am ready to put on lagging onto my boiler.
What is a good lagging material and where to obtain it?
Denes

[ccvstmr]

Denes,
You might want to go and check out the Live Steam BBS archives. I think this has come up before. Just do a search for the word "lagging" and set the time frame to cover as far back as you can go and see what comes up. Hope this helps. cb

[John Greiner]

I used 1/8" cork sheet on my Allen Mogul. This works good because it is waterproof and does not yield, yet is flexible and easy to work with. I believe you can also get 1/4" cork sheet. I got mine at Hobby Lobby.

[FredR]

I got my insulation from http://www.vintagesteamproducts.com/catalog.html
It comes in 1/16" or 1/8" in sheets. You can get whatever length you want and is 24" wide. FiberFrax is suppose to have 5x better insulating properties of asbestos. They also carry rope, tubing and calking of the same material. Check out the webpage. The guy is a real nice guy to talk to.
Fred

[UnkaJesse]

Someone did some lagging research that was posted on the old Chaski board. He found that it did not seem to help, but he was going by the amount the boiler heated up his shop from radiated warmth. I wonder what would happen if one measured the actual temperature drop in the boiler water itself? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/confused.gif"%20alt="[/img] Looks to me like it has to help to have lagging on there so I use the stuff that RRSC sells/sold. Maybe Fibrefrax, dunno. I do know that it is white, sort of felt like, must be kept wet while working it and seems to have glass fibers scattered throughout it because it makes clicking noises when cut with scissors. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif"%20alt="[/img]

[FredR]

FiberFrax sheeting is almost foam like. You can cut it with scissors, xacto knife, fingernail, or just plain tear it. In fact, it almost tears easier than paper, just not as clean.

Fred

[David_W]

Fred, What about water retention. I (think) I remember from the old thread that cork won't "soak it up and hold it" potentially creating rust- does the FiberFrax "stay dry?"

[pappde]

As usual I forgot to give you the whole story on my 0-4-0.
It is going to be a saddle tanker, and my main concern was to prevent the water in the tank get too warm for the injectors to work.
Denes

[UnkaJesse]

Pappde, you might want to check with Brad Smith about the insulation. His 2-6-2T gets too hot for the injectors to work so he uses the water from the saddle to supply his mechanical and hand pump. He draws cool water from a tank on the riding car to feed the injector. I don't know what he used for insulation, but it was not enough to keep the tank cool. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif"%20alt="[/img]

Unka(We have plenty trouble in our Southern summers trying to keep our injector water cool) Jesse

[Tel]

yeah, or you can pipe your water thru a well tank down between the frames under the footplate - that's how the Simplex is set up

[Phill]

I have used both Ceramic fibre sheet (similar to Fibrefrax, but in 3mm sheet - 2 layers compressed down to 3mm) and 3mm cork sheeting. I'm sorry to say that the cork gave me a lower wrapper temp than the ceramic fibre, and I only had the odd spot of surface rust on the boiler barrel after 8 years. I don't know if I'll have more or less rust when I one day remove the ceramic fibre insulation.
If you can get 6mm or more of cork (2 x 1/8" layers) between your barrel and wrapper, you shouldn't have any problems with a saddle tank, as the refill rate when you're drawing from it really helps to keep it cool.

Cheers,

Phill.

[TrotFox]

One thing that has always bothered me is how people refer to compressable insulations. I had been taught that air gaps in the insulation do a lot to keep it from transfering heat (fluffy insulation does a better job than solid insulation.) It seems counter-intuative to add more insulation of you have to squeeze the air out of it to do so. The silicone insulation we use on out 150C heated pipes here at work is a whipped foam material. It feels like fine foam rubber but is stronger and doesn't melt until 200C or so. ; ]

Trot, the semi-versed, fox...