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Since I completely took over Richard Kapuaala's thread on Goodall valves, I decided to put my own thread up about the Schwinky valve.
What's a Schwinky valve you might ask? It's a quick acting valve to allow easier, more accurate reading of your sight glass. Most people are aware of the issue of air bubbles or capillary resistance causing problems with reading the actual level of the boiler with the small bore glass tubes that are common in these scales. Some folks here have done many different things to address this issue. Electronic sensors, larger sight glass tubes, blow down valves, etc. My solution was to create a small purge valve that mounts on the top of the sight glass water column. It's the opposite of a blow down valve, since the steam actually blows up, but I didn't want to call it a blow up valve for obvious reasons. All you need to do is press on the top of the valve, a slight bit of pressure is released through the very small gap between the pushrod and the hole drilled through the sight glass plug. The water column bounces and 9 time out of 10 settles at the true water level inside the boiler.
Here's one of my first conceptual drawings:
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I like how Richard explains it, "looks like a reverse safety valve."
Of course some will say it's dangerous, or you might get burned. I've been using one on my Regner Willi for months and have more issues with heat moving the reverser on my Willi or my Aster CLIMAX.
Here's a pic of the valve I made for my 3 cylinder shay:
![]()
Here's one with the valve open.
![]()
It's pretty easy to make, I built these on my mini-lathe, but it can most likely be made on a drill press. The only part that really needs to be fabricated is the disk that pulls the o-ring against the modified sight glass plug. The hardest step is finding the o-ring small enough. The disk on the end of the push rod is soft soldered after I peen the end of the rod enough to mechanically hold it in place. If anywhere along the way you decide to back out, just fit a small piece of brass rod into the hole that's drilled in the plug and braze it shut. The springs don't need to be that long, and height could be a problem for some closed cabs, but those are the springs I had available.
Here's a picture of the Schwinky valve installed on my Willi.
![]()
As I stated in Richard's post "Please ignore the fireman, it's a "King Cake Baby' from Diamondhead, and there are no child labor laws being violated." (and I'm still looking for some scale asbestos diapers)
What's a Schwinky valve you might ask? It's a quick acting valve to allow easier, more accurate reading of your sight glass. Most people are aware of the issue of air bubbles or capillary resistance causing problems with reading the actual level of the boiler with the small bore glass tubes that are common in these scales. Some folks here have done many different things to address this issue. Electronic sensors, larger sight glass tubes, blow down valves, etc. My solution was to create a small purge valve that mounts on the top of the sight glass water column. It's the opposite of a blow down valve, since the steam actually blows up, but I didn't want to call it a blow up valve for obvious reasons. All you need to do is press on the top of the valve, a slight bit of pressure is released through the very small gap between the pushrod and the hole drilled through the sight glass plug. The water column bounces and 9 time out of 10 settles at the true water level inside the boiler.
Here's one of my first conceptual drawings:
I like how Richard explains it, "looks like a reverse safety valve."
Of course some will say it's dangerous, or you might get burned. I've been using one on my Regner Willi for months and have more issues with heat moving the reverser on my Willi or my Aster CLIMAX.
Here's a pic of the valve I made for my 3 cylinder shay:
Here's one with the valve open.
It's pretty easy to make, I built these on my mini-lathe, but it can most likely be made on a drill press. The only part that really needs to be fabricated is the disk that pulls the o-ring against the modified sight glass plug. The hardest step is finding the o-ring small enough. The disk on the end of the push rod is soft soldered after I peen the end of the rod enough to mechanically hold it in place. If anywhere along the way you decide to back out, just fit a small piece of brass rod into the hole that's drilled in the plug and braze it shut. The springs don't need to be that long, and height could be a problem for some closed cabs, but those are the springs I had available.
Here's a picture of the Schwinky valve installed on my Willi.
As I stated in Richard's post "Please ignore the fireman, it's a "King Cake Baby' from Diamondhead, and there are no child labor laws being violated." (and I'm still looking for some scale asbestos diapers)
