Tapered Bronze Valves

[Poche]

Has anybody serviced their valves in place? Not just greasing but cleaning, lapping and greasing. Does that work out? Mine, fortunately are easy to get to.
Talking to the boat yard, they apparently remove them and work on them in their shop.
The one valve that I'm practicing on was disassembled fairly easy when I loosened the nut.
I'm planning the first haul out and as you know lay days are expensive.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Poche

Has anybody serviced their valves in place? Not just greasing but cleaning, lapping and greasing. Does that work out? Mine, fortunately are easy to get to.
Talking to the boat yard, they apparently remove them and work on them in their shop.
The one valve that I'm practicing on was disassembled fairly easy when I loosened the nut.
I'm planning the first haul out and as you know lay days are expensive.

Get some Lanolin, use that, not grease in the valve. (LanoCote is fine) It works great even on rough tapered surfaces. No honing etc required. I've never done them outside the boat.

Some of the valves in the boat in my avatar didn't even have smooth surfaces, there were some rough cast marks on the tapers that apparently didn't clean up when machined new. Lanolin solved that problem. It can make turning the valves a slow motion thing, but they will never freeze up.

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by Poche

Has anybody serviced their valves in place? Not just greasing but cleaning, lapping and greasing. Does that work out? Mine, fortunately are easy to get to.

the marine howto guy (aka mainesail) shows his seacock being lapped and serviced in place.

[Poche]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Get some Lanolin, use that, not grease in the valve. (LanoCote is fine) It works great even on rough tapered surfaces. No honing etc required. I've never done them outside the boat.

That's interesting. As you know, "Lanolin (from Latin lāna 'wool', and oleum 'oil'), also called wool yolk, wool wax, or wool grease, is a wax secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals. Lanolin used by humans comes from domestic sheep breeds that are raised specifically for their wool." (from Wikipedia).

[keepondancin]

I do mine in place. Once you lap them, and lubricate them, you will only need to service them every couple years. When you lap them, you will see the difference on the surface of the plug each time you take them out to see how it is going. All of a sudden they will be all one color showing good even contact. It surprised me how easy it was after I did the first one. Does take a little time, but the will work well. I do use the grease from Spartan. I figure they will be selling the correct product that you should use.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Poche

That's interesting. As you know, "Lanolin (from Latin lāna 'wool', and oleum 'oil'), also called wool yolk, wool wax, or wool grease, is a wax secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals. Lanolin used by humans comes from domestic sheep breeds that are raised specifically for their wool." (from Wikipedia).

By the way, it's great for SS screws into aluminum. They wont seize up. You can buy Anhydrous Lanolin from the drug store, although they may have to order it. The "Anhydrous" part means it repels water. You can't wash it off your hands without a lot of effort. That's why it works so well.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000I1OYNK...osi&th=1&psc=1

[Poche]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

The "Anhydrous" part means it repels water. You can't wash it off your hands without a lot of effort. That's why it works so well.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000I1OYNK...osi&th=1&psc=1

Any downside to using it other than it sticks to your hands and the valve is harder to turn?
I'll give it a try.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Poche

Any downside to using it other than it sticks to your hands and the valve is harder to turn?
I'll give it a try.

You know... not really that I have found. Exposed to sun for a long time it gets a bit crusty, but not an issue on seacocks.
Put it out in the sun for a few minutes before applying it so it's not so thick.
I tried lubing the threads on open turnbuckles with it, It stayed good inside the threads pretty well, but any oozing out got crusty over time.

I discovered it in manufacturing , we used it to lube o-rings for water pressure up to 5000 psi!

[Steve Bean]

A couple of years ago I bought a pound of lanolin from Soapgoods.com. I'm using it on the SS screws to fasten mast steps on the aluminum mast. There's plenty of information on YouTube about other uses for lanolin.

[Poche]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

I discovered it in manufacturing , we used it to lube o-rings for water pressure up to 5000 psi!

That's impressive. I ordered some lanolin and the Spartan. I'll try them both.

[kmacdonald]

Originally Posted by keepondancin

Spartan sells both a lapping compound, and a grease. I use them to maintain about 10 seacocks on my boat, and I have had great success.

Yes. Same here. They don't require much maintenance.

[bcboomer]

Why not install Trudesign thru hulls and ball valves. No maintenance, no looking for the right grease, no lapping, no worry about corrosion.
But not as pretty as polished bronze.

[Poche]

The boat has quality bronze valves in excellent condition that need servicing. I want to know the best practice when I do that.
I don't mind maintaining the boat, I really actually like doing it.
I have vintage sewing machines that will be sewing well long after I die with good care. Kinda the same thing.
I do not like our "throw away" culture. Using things that work ok until they fail after a few years and then you throw them away.
To me, there are very few things on a boat you can install and forget, lol. Especially in a salt water environment.

[Poche]

Originally Posted by keepondancin

Spartan sells both a lapping compound, and a grease. I use them to maintain about 10 seacocks on my boat, and I have had great success.

Finally got them and they are fantastic products. My valve will not leak and I am ready for the haul out when I service my other valves. Thanks for the help.