In some of my antique model steam engines, the piston rods, the cylinder end-caps, the steam valves etc. are made of a bright material that is easy to machine - like brass - but it is not stainless steel.
Does someone know what kind of material that might be and where I can buy it?
Could it be some kind of stainless pot metal?

wrote in message
...
In some of my antique model steam engines, the piston rods, the
cylinder end-caps, the steam valves etc. are made of a bright
material that is easy to machine - like brass - but it is not
stainless steel.
Does someone know what kind of material that might be and where I
can buy it?
Could it be some kind of stainless pot metal?

The copper/nickel alloy family called Monel or German Silver (which
also contains zinc) looks and resists corrosion like stainless. US
coins are made from it.

I tried to buy some nickel-alloy gas/TIG rod at the welding store, my
usual handy source of metal rod up to 1/4" diameter, but the price was
outta sight.

jsw

On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 19:08:11 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

wrote in message
...
In some of my antique model steam engines, the piston rods, the
cylinder end-caps, the steam valves etc. are made of a bright
material that is easy to machine - like brass - but it is not
stainless steel.
Does someone know what kind of material that might be and where I
can buy it?
Could it be some kind of stainless pot metal?

The copper/nickel alloy family called Monel or German Silver (which
also contains zinc) looks and resists corrosion like stainless. US
coins are made from it.

I tried to buy some nickel-alloy gas/TIG rod at the welding store, my
usual handy source of metal rod up to 1/4" diameter, but the price was
outta sight.

jsw

One of the nicest machining maerials I have ever encountered is the
alloy used in 6" dia. screw on fuel tank caps picked up along the
freeway. They look like aluminium, but slightly more gray than the
spring loaded vent disk in the centre. I suspect that they are aloyed
with magnesium.
---

Gerry :-)}
London,Canada

On Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:37:20 PM UTC-4, wrote:
In some of my antique model steam engines, the piston rods, the cylinder end-caps, the steam valves etc. are made of a bright material that is easy to machine - like brass - but it is not stainless steel.

Does someone know what kind of material that might be and where I can buy it?

Could it be some kind of stainless pot metal?

Hi,

Model steam engines were often sold as a set of castings & bar stock in a kit that you machined yourself. They can also be one-offs made from whatever scrap materials were handy.

Perhaps a leaded steel? That's easy to machine.
Are the parts attracted to a magnet?

Cast iron is also easy to machine, and commonly used in model steam engine cylinder end caps.
It can be polished to a bright finish.

I doubt it is an aluminum alloy if the engines are truly "antique".

Are these any of the Stewart model steam engines by chance?

As far as buying some material, tell us what you really want to do, and we'll be able to suggest a material and its likely sources. McMaster's has about anything I ever needed for my steam engine building hobby uses.

Need a little more investigation and data to answer this one for sure.

G'luck,
PaulS

On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:37:20 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

In some of my antique model steam engines, the piston rods, the cylinder end-caps, the steam valves etc. are made of a bright material that is easy to machine - like brass - but it is not stainless steel.
Does someone know what kind of material that might be and where I can buy it?
Could it be some kind of stainless pot metal?
If heavy like steel but non-magnetic and really machines as easily as
brass I would suspect a zinc alloy. See if the chips melt at a low
temperature, much lower than aluminum.
Eric

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