What are all you Stanley (and White!) technicians using these days to wrap steam pipes? Throttle-to-superheater, loop, loop-to-engine? I've found some ceramic woven tape, but if you do the calculation, it would take a lot of wraps to bring 700° (which I'm probably not really getting) down to 100°. Have been thinking of using header wrap as an inexpensive alternative. What's working for you?

Kelly

Sixty-eight years ago my Father built my first steam engine. I still have it. Like any six year old I had to touch things and got my first burn from a hot pipe. The next night when Dad came home from work he handed me a ball of cotton string and told me to wrap some around all the pipes. I think I had to do it over once or twice but then he took it down to the shop and painted them with some Shellac. Worked great.

Today I like to keep pipe as straight as I can, on the straight sections I use 1/8 inch Fiberfrax sheet, I cut a strip around ¾ of an inch wide and wrap it around the pipe till I get about ½ inch thick. This gives me my width I need to cut the sheet. I use contact cement on the edges to hold it to the pipe and at the end to secure it. On the curved sections I use round fiberglass rope or braid, fiberglass is cheaper then Fiberfrax braid and works just as well. Although Fiberfrax you can get square rope (more money) looks like square packing two rich for me. Then I use Fiberfrax caulk to fill in all the low spots, (I use to use furnace cement) and cover the complete job with finishing cloth and paint.

Rolly

Vintage Steam Products offers its #261 Flexweave Tape for just this purpose.

1/16" x 1" An exceptionally durable woven textile made from textured fiberglass. It is an excellent insulator with very low thermal conductivity; ideal for spirally wrapping steam lines. Far superior in strength to asbestos tape, it resists water, is reusable and good for continuous use to 1000 degrees F.

Available only in 100' rolls which is enough to wrap over 30' of 1/2" pipe steam line.

Free Roll if you buy our 1925 Stanley SV252A!

Very best wishes!

Don, Carolyn, & CJ Hoke

Wanted: Parts for 1924 Stanley Model 750 and 1925 Stanley Model SV 252. We buy steam car parts and literature. Visit the virtual steam car museum at www.virtualsteamcarmuseum.org.

For all your steam car needs, visit www.vintagesteamproducts.com.

Vintage Steam Supply's #261 Flexweave Tape works for me too. It is a good value for the good long lasting insulating job that it provides. With all of the dangerous hot steam lines wrapped, the steamer is no problem to work around while it is still hot.

Vintage Steam Supply's #261 Flexweave Tape also acts to keep heat in. I found an increase in performance when I wrapped all water lines on my 1922. I have not had to rewrap my lines yet and some lines have been wrapped almost 15 years now.

CWR