My steam needle setup
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 9:33 am
I just made a steam needle setup from assorted parts. I got the hypodermic tubing and high-temperature hose from McMaster-Carr. The hose is pressure washer hose. It's not rated for steam, but I am hoping it will hold up in this application, since there is very little pressure and consequently the steam temperature is only slightly above boiling.
I made a fitting to adapt the hypodermic tubing to the hose.
I also made a pressure regulator/safety valve. I'm connecting the hose to the top of a pressure cooker where the pressure regulating weight normally sits. By doing so, there is no longer any safety valve in the system. My engineering background makes me all twitchy about a steam vessel with no safety valve, so I duplicated the setup on the top of the pressure cooker and put it inline in the hose. It's a block of aluminum with 1/4" NPT threads at the ends of a hole through the block, with an intersecting hole coming down from the top for a duplicate of the regulating weight spigot to thread into.
Is it really necessary? Probably not, since the hose and needle are free-flow, but I feel better having it. At full boil the weight does lift at 5 psi, and it will take care of the case of the needle getting clogged.
It works. StewMac sells a needle and hose assembly for about $46, I thnk. That would be a lot easier, though it doesn't have the regulating/safety valve.
I made a fitting to adapt the hypodermic tubing to the hose.
I also made a pressure regulator/safety valve. I'm connecting the hose to the top of a pressure cooker where the pressure regulating weight normally sits. By doing so, there is no longer any safety valve in the system. My engineering background makes me all twitchy about a steam vessel with no safety valve, so I duplicated the setup on the top of the pressure cooker and put it inline in the hose. It's a block of aluminum with 1/4" NPT threads at the ends of a hole through the block, with an intersecting hole coming down from the top for a duplicate of the regulating weight spigot to thread into.
Is it really necessary? Probably not, since the hose and needle are free-flow, but I feel better having it. At full boil the weight does lift at 5 psi, and it will take care of the case of the needle getting clogged.
It works. StewMac sells a needle and hose assembly for about $46, I thnk. That would be a lot easier, though it doesn't have the regulating/safety valve.