Brass Globe Valves

Captain Jerry · Jan 27, 2012

OOP! My bad. These things aren't all that reliable. The first couple of valves that I built worked just fine so I was fooled by success. When I finished the batch of five, three of them leaked badly. So back to the drawing board.

The problem seemed to be in sealing the valve insert in the valve body. When the valve stem was seated, air would leak past the insert. I was using locktite to assemble and did not attempt to solder the assembly but It seems that there may not be enough surface contact between the two pieces. The redesign of the insert changes the inlet and outlet from a full slot milled across the part to a narrow slot (.063" x .125") and leaving a full diameter across the bottom end.

I also modified the valve stem to permit safe use with steam (thanks Dave). The inner end of the valve stem is left 1/8" diameter and the upper end is threaded #4-40tpi. The stem cap is drilled and tapped to match and the lower end is drilled 1/8" diameter to a depth of .150" (drilled with an endmill for a flat bottom shoulder to prevent binding) The stem is screwed into the cap from the bottom before the cap is installed in the insert. This means that the handwheel must be secured with jamb nuts top and bottom to keep it tight. The nuts are not shown on the drawings. I use small pattern nuts from Micro Fasteners.

I have attached a PDF file with my working drawings and with my apologies for bad form. I have no professional experience in making or using drawings. These drawings will make the professionals cry in anguish but its all I've got. Its what I use and it makes sense to me. The location of the dimensions is all wrong but the values are correct (I think). You may have to look a little bit to find them. If there is some critical dimension that you can't find, let me know and I will try to add it to the drawings.

I have some pics of the changed parts but I left my camera in my daughters truck which went to Tennessee for the weekend. I'll post some next week if you are interested.

I hope my earlier design didn't lead anyone to wasted effort. Refunds will be considered if time lost is fully documented.

Thanks for watching.

Jerry

View attachment CJ Valve.pdf