Cheapest Goodall valve and filler bottle ever

Posted By Jack - Freshwater Models on 03/02/2009 7:16 PM
Cheap bottle but the hose looks a bit complicated, small, and expensive??? Is that an airbrush fitting and hose? Do ya have to screw it on the Goodall type valve every tine you want to add water? I'm sure it will work fine but....

I bought a $0.99 spray bottle at the store and removed the spray gutz. Bored out the knozzel adjuster gizmo. Turned a part to fit the knozzel adjuster gizmo and hold a plastic hoze. Assembled it. Made a Goodall type valve with a hole that just fits da hoze. Da hoze shoved into the hole and the water pressure expands da hoze to make a seel with the valve. Pretty simple and cheap.

Jack




Jack, that's how my Goodall valves all seem to work, the "hoze" stuck into the hole, the ones I bought from Sulphur Springs, the ones I got from Royce and the refeeding valve from Regner. I don't use the metal tipped fill jug anymore. I'm gonna try my hand at converting my Frank S fill plug to a goodall valve, but I have a question. How big is the hole you drilled for the fill tube? 4mm? 5/32?

I tested it out on my 4-4-0 today. I see what you folks mean about screwing it to the top. Man that sucker was hot! But I haven't given up on the idea yet, I think I have an idea for an insulated grip that will make it easier.
I drilled 2 holes in it.
One at 3/32 going straight down from the top and dead ending an 1/8" from the bottom of the valve.
The other was 1/16" at 90 degrees to the steam and straight through.
I was going to use this valve original on my Ruby, but found that there wasn't enough clearance for the banjo fitting for the fill tube and the valve, so this one will be used permanantly on my 4-4-0.
One annoying thing I found out while I was trying to determine when to add more water is that accucraft water glass. It seems to have a mind of its own. Sometimes the water level goes right down to the bottom and then right back up again. I was thinking maybe some air got trapped in there while I was filling it. I'm thinking of adding some type of breather valve on the hour glass fitting so that I can open it up and let air out while I'm filling it up.

Hi Richard,


The prototypical solution would be to install a sight glass blowdown like the one on my 3.5" gauge 0-4-0:



 
As you can see there is a small valve at the bottom fitting.  Just a quick opening of the valve blasts all the air out-- and it does so with a big cloud of steam which is fun too ;-)


My thought to mount a sightglass blowdown on a loco where access was restrictive was to add a pipe that goes outside the cab, and then mount a miniature globe valve, under the cab, to control it.  I have been thinking of doing this on my Konrad.


Regards,
 

Posted By Eric M. on 03/04/2009 8:59 AM

SNIP....


My thought to mount a sightglass blowdown on a loco where access was restrictive was to add a pipe that goes outside the cab, and then mount a miniature globe valve, under the cab, to control it. I have been thinking of doing this on my Konrad.


Regards,




Naw, you just need a schwinky valve.

Yeah the schwinky valve sounds like a great solution too. Effectively does the same thing-- blast the bubbles right the heck outa there!!!! Either way you are looking at a bit of custom fab work. The advantage I see to my solution is that you could aim the blowdown pipe to the opposite side of the loco so you can blast innocent spectators with steam!

I have one question about the schwinky valve; do you have to say "BAAMM" when using it? Isn't "Baamm" Emiril Lagasse's intellectual property?


Regards,

Eric

Maybe if I said it with less A's or M's.

I took a couple of pictures at lunch but I couldn't find my USB cable to download from the camera. I DO have a conceptual drawing.


Push the collar downward and release the pressure on the oring, enough steam can escape through the hole drilled through the plug for the shaft. The steam released causes the water in the sight glass to bounce and return to the actual level.