Steam & Excursion > Whazzit? (27)

I think about all of us know what this is, but describe its use.  Who? On What?  When? How?  Where? Why?

Describe your good and bad experiences.  And precautions.

-LD

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It’s a finger chopper.

Posted from iPhone

NEVER REMOVE THE FINGER GUARD....!!!!
ITS LONGER THAN YOUR YOUR FINGER, FOR A REASON !!!!

Anybody got a good, current source for 'fodder' for this device??

​W.

Alemite hard grease gun for doping the rod bearings.
Very scarce.

Flash34 and Wes are referring to that 4" long piece of pipe standing erect at the center of the picture, into which sticks of hard grease are fed as the trigger at the right is toggled so air pressure forces grease into the coupling at the extreme left.  Many operators will remove that finger guard.  It is easier to feed grease sticks without the guard, but it is risky.

The coupling is slid onto each grease fitting on the rods. Fitting is shown below.  Each engine is a bit different - a mikado with Walschaert valve gear might have somewhere around 23, a Pacific about 17.   It's almost  always an odd number - the reverser is only on one side.  A engine with Stephenson valve gear would have fewer since it's usually lubricated with oil and soft grease, not hard grease.

There is an air fitting at the bottom, connected by hose to a shop air supply, or to the No. 2 main air reservoir of the engine (usually the one on the engineers side as it contains less water than the No. 1 reservoir).  Greasing should be done at the start of each shift.  Bearing temperatures checked and relubricated as necessary through the day.  Some engines neeed relubeing at 25 miles, others less often.

Keep a pair of gloves (rubber ones work well, but could use leather, too) exclusively for this purpose, and store them in a plastic bag.  You can't believe how dirty they get.

If anyone drops a stick of grease, pick it up, dust it off, and throw it into the firebox.   Do not take any chances of getting sand or other debries into those bearings.

-LD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/20 15:30 by LarryDoyle.

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I may be imagining this, but I hazily recall they originally would have had a plunger that would be used to push the grease down through the tube that John describes, although this would have inevitably gotten lost. Does anyone else recall ever seeing this? It would be easy to make one.

In the late 1960s, and the early days of Ross's High Iron Co., the HICO Office Manager,
Don Smith, searched for a source of rod grease for use with our Alemite guns, illustrated above.

He contacted the U.P. Stores Department, and soon located THE source.
Don inquired about pricing, and agreed to their number
( I have no-idea what he paid, but it would have been ridicously LOW),
and soon we had about 6 , 50-lb. cases delivered to our Lebanon, NJ, HQ.

It was quality stuff, and each stick had been rolled in flake graphite!
I suppose it had more to do with storage and shelf-life, than with any
lubricating assets.  RR Store Houses can be very hot places in the summer,
and the un-treated sticks could melt & become one 50-lb box of a solid block of grease

In '67 thru the early 1970s, it was such a pleasure to have the Right Stuff 
for our rod bearings on the several locos we operated.
We ALWAYS had the finger guard in place---- the flake graphite helped each stick 
slide right into the double-action grease pump..

I should have had Ross buy tons of the stuff--- UP obviously had a good vendor back then
and replacements would have been no problem.

Earlier, while searching for the stuff in NJ, we had contacted 
Texaco, they knew of what we were describing....and the last customers they'd
had for the stuff was steel mills, where hot slabs of steel were rolled.
Before entering the mills' rollers, the mill workers would throw a whole block
on the hot slab ---- to have the hot steel roll-out easier....
Texaco had no more.... But, Smitty had found our source in Cheyenne, Wy!

And in May, 1969, The Golden Spike Centennial Limited, the 'blue train',
& UP 6900 paused for an overnight stay in Cheyenne... 

Was a small world, back then...

​W.


 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/20 17:42 by wcamp1472.

I've not seen an OEM part such as you describe, but, yes, often 4-6" piece of a wooden dowel.

-LD

If you make, or add, a tube-like Safety Guard to the Alemite gun, be sure to add a 'stop' 
to the improvised 'pusher stick'.

A cross-bolt from a piece of all-thread..clear-through... would make a good 'stop'...

The grease pump 'in-take" slot has a two-stage chopper-piston.... 
While operating the gun, the trigger is manually pushed forward, the large diameter
air-piston moves rear-ward.  The grease pump's larger diameter chopper-piston 
moves towards the operator's handle ....that move chops-off a chunk of grease
and stuffs the chunk into a 'forcing chamber'.

As the operator releases the trigger handle, the large diameter air-piston moves towards
the operator's handle ---- the pin-like smaller diameter grease-forcing pin crams the
chopped-off gob of grease into the small tunnel that leads to the rod's  grease-fitting .

The forcing pin and the chopper piston move together, so that a fresh 'chop' of grease is 
forced into the pin's path--- waiting the release of the operator's trigger.

Its a two-stage pumping process ...chop, then FORCE...the grease eventually gets forced into 
the rod and it's bearing surfaces.

​W.

I don't remember any more where we bought our pin dope.   We ended up with a press from the NS steam shop with fixtures for making grease cakes for the driver grease cellars.  For that we had the "good" stuff, Texaco Hi-Tex 8 and guarded it with our lives.  We got that from Daylight Loco Wks, about 200 lbs.  
The grease we got for rods worked fine.  We had a fixture with holes in the end and would extrude "turds" which we rolled in graphite and stored in ammo boxes.

In Action.

-LD

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Everything is OK... Yet, No Finger Guard...

Probably because the operation is very self-explanatory, loud and no
Nonsense in purpose...
However, the large diameter
‘Chop-off’ plunger is VERY close to the shallow, threaded, hole that retains the intended
“finger safety-tube”...

W.

Posted from iPhone

I know a couple guys who have found out the hard way.

Posted from iPhone

Notice that they inspect the interface of the main rod with side rods.  A large 1/4" thick brass washer separates the two rods on the wrist pin.  When the bearing they are packing is full, excess grease will ooze into the intersticies between the rods, and present iteself as a standing, but thin, film of surplus grease.  At the first sign of that oozing, they are done with that bearing, and can move on to the next.  What they are doing in seeing if sufficient grease has been packed into that bearing.

-LD