Sight Glass Calibration

[barneey]

With my latest creation viewtopic.php?f=6&t=60600&hilit=+sight I made a note of getting the sightglass as low as possible so it actually reads from the bottom of the pot. On calibrating the thing I`ve close the tap and gently pour water into the pipework for the sightglass and bottom tap drain - made a note of the dead water then started calibration from there, if I empty the entire HLT I just make an allowance for the dead water that was in the tap pipework (but we are not talking alot to really worry.

[alexe]

I`ve gone down a slightly different route, calibraten the sightglass at say 20c, I`ve then placed a permanent set of scales under the MT and the boiler.

What sort of scales are you using for this, Barneey? I have been thinking of doing something similar.

[barneey]

I got some from ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LARGE-300Kg-6 ... 1187995565?

They are quite a large footprint with 50g increments upto 200kg then 100 after that, there are also loads on ebay with smaller footprints 20g increments etc so depending on your set up / how accurate you want to be + how much money you have.

BTW dont pay full price for the scales the seller normally has auctions that end with alot lower prices.

[alexe]

Thanks Barneey!

[Belter]

I got some from ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LARGE-300Kg-6 ... 1187995565?

They are quite a large footprint with 50g increments upto 200kg then 100 after that, there are also loads on ebay with smaller footprints 20g increments etc so depending on your set up / how accurate you want to be + how much money you have.

BTW dont pay full price for the scales the seller normally has auctions that end with alot lower prices.

Clive if you don't mind me asking how much do they usually go for in auction. I see a few others have very similar slightly smaller base versions for about £50. Not sure if it would benefit me paying £250 more. The listings are almost identical but with a smaller footprint.

[barneey]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from= ... =1&_ipg=50

[Belter]

Are you taking the p1ss? 0 results.

[Matt12398]

The link works

[barneey]

These young pups and their computers

search for "LARGE 300Kg 660lb Heavy Duty" advanced and tick the completed box

[barneey]

Never seen them lower than this a very good buy http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LARGE-300Kg-6 ... 0696524377?

[Belter]

Thanks. Didn't work for me. That's more like it price wise.

I'm tempted to go for these as I don't need 300kg. They aren't as big but that won't really matter.


http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewit ... 1186835132

[barneey]

Originally I didn't need the 300Kg, not too sure with all that Oak now tho, the only reason behind the 300kg was because of the large platform size but that would depend on the pot you using, you could always enlarge the platform.

The £299 price makes the 300kg unit look ridiculously expensive

[Belter]

Yeah exactly. £100ish is more like it. I want a larger platform but... My HLT is 52cm and the platform is 40.5 x 35.5. I don't see it being a problem that my HLT overlaps. It just won't look as cool right?

[darkonnis]

Nonsense, means you can justify a fancy scaffold frame to hold it altogether

[minesapint]

Back to sight glasses.
Old railway steam engines used to have a long , narrow, vertical board just behind the glass tube of the water sight glass. This board had black and white diagonal stripes on it, just like the black and yellow hazard tape you see nowadays.

The water in the sight glass refracted the image of the diagonal stripes and bent the diagonal lines into the horizontal.

That way the water level could be easily seen from a distance instead of having to get close up to it to read it.

Try holding a pencil at an angle of about thirty degrees from the horizontal behind a tumbler of water and look through the tumbler.You should get the idea.

It may be of some use in your set up.

And before you ask.
I am definitely not a train spotter.

Cheers All.