Aster Schools rebuild

[sdelaroque]

Hello! As I said in my presentation I recently bought an Aster Schools class in non working condition


I started dismantling it to understand why it didn't run


It appeared the left crosshead was not straight: the sliding part and the nut were misaligned. We can see on the photo below the sliding part "going up":


While waiting for a solution I continued the dismantling to make sure there's no other issue. I found the left side was also binding because there was too much graphited yarn in the piston groove. I reasswmbled the piston without anything to fill the groove but I read some folks add a cotton wire with copper grease
About graphited yarn, there was nothing in any gland, so I wrapped teflon tape to replace the graphited yarn where the manual says we have to add it


I then assembled the two cylinders and air tested them by blowing and manually acting on the valves


I then mounted the cylinders and links, trying to make the left cylinder work by not screwing the left slider but this didn't make it


What do you think about the cylinder groove? Do I have to make it vapor-tight with a greased cotton wire, or get graphited yarn?

Thanks for reading

 

[ol_hogger]

Hi,

Maybe ran into something similar with Else:

Post in thread 'More Regner Else and no water' More Regner Else and no water

I very cautiously applied the lathe, my reasoning being that piston and rod might be misaligned or off-center or askew, therefore binding regardless of what the groove is filled with.

 

[sdelaroque]

Thanks! I swapped the right and left crossheads for testing and it did not bind so I'm pretty confident the binding comes from the left crosshead
A new left crosshead should arrive in the mail next week, fingers crossed