Roger Feeley
09-08-2016, 5:11 PM
I'm sure you've all seen a valve from a car engine. I'm betting that very few of you have seen a valve from an old natural gas pumping engine. These beasts were made by Cooper Bessemer. They had cylinders 3' in diameter and ran on natural gas. They were used to run booster pumps on gas pipelines from the fields in Kansas to wherever people needed gas.
My father-in-law used to work at one of those pumping stations and everything was big. They used to use chain falls to handle wrenches. Getting the valve involved a tour of the plant where I got to see the engines. He told me that some guys used to take old pistons home and use them for coffee tables.
Anyway, many years ago, he gave me a valve (exhaust, I think) from one of the engines. I don't have a picture and it's packed away. The face is about 10" across and the stem is just shy of 30" long and about 2" in diameter. I figured I would make something out of it someday. I've moved it from house to house for the last 30 years.
We are building a new house and we need a round table with a single post in the center for a banquet. My wife suggested that I use the valve. But I would need to have a wider base bolted/welded to it. The end of the stem is threaded and my hope is that it's a standard pitch.
Here's the thing. I'm betting that that is a sodium filled valve. Where would the sodium be in a valve? Is it only in the stem?
The real question is whether it would be safe to weld the valve to a disk of metal. The bed would be right around the edge. Alternatively, I could drill and tap the valve but then I might run into a hard alloy or something. frankly, I like grinding and welding best.
My father-in-law used to work at one of those pumping stations and everything was big. They used to use chain falls to handle wrenches. Getting the valve involved a tour of the plant where I got to see the engines. He told me that some guys used to take old pistons home and use them for coffee tables.
Anyway, many years ago, he gave me a valve (exhaust, I think) from one of the engines. I don't have a picture and it's packed away. The face is about 10" across and the stem is just shy of 30" long and about 2" in diameter. I figured I would make something out of it someday. I've moved it from house to house for the last 30 years.
We are building a new house and we need a round table with a single post in the center for a banquet. My wife suggested that I use the valve. But I would need to have a wider base bolted/welded to it. The end of the stem is threaded and my hope is that it's a standard pitch.
Here's the thing. I'm betting that that is a sodium filled valve. Where would the sodium be in a valve? Is it only in the stem?
The real question is whether it would be safe to weld the valve to a disk of metal. The bed would be right around the edge. Alternatively, I could drill and tap the valve but then I might run into a hard alloy or something. frankly, I like grinding and welding best.