Re: S.P. #18 on 02/27 - (more pics)

Russo Loco Wrote:
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> Dave Morrison heating the sleeve
> around a staybolt cap to expand it, after which I
> sprayed the cap itself with VERY
> cold water to shrink it away from the sleeve:
>
> After a similar hot-and-cold treatment, Marty
> Fortney attacked another staybolt cap with a
> crescent wrench;

I am thrilled to hear of this engine being restored, and can’t wait to see her under steam. On the other hand, the photo of Dave Morrison reminds me of a scary safety lesson we learned a number of years ago.

In heating a stuck staybolt cap, a few drops of water trapped between the cap and the head of the staybolt turned to steam and blew the cap out of the sleeve like a rifle shot, stripping the threads, blowing out the acetylene torch, and narrowly missing the mechanic doing the heating. The cap then ricocheted off of an I-beam supporting our overhead crane (leaving a nicely polished mark in its surface). We later found the cap down range in the shop, folded up like a fortune cookie.

The majority of flexible staybolt caps either won’t have water under them, or will have a passage around the staybolt head to allow any steam formed to bleed away, but that one in a hundred that have a well seated staybolt head acting like a check valve can be deadly. Since that day, any stuck caps we come across get a 1/8" hole drilled through them prior to heating in order to be on the safe side.