Passing the John D. Leitch on the St. Clair back in July.
u/CubistHamster — 24 days ago
u/CubistHamster
▲ 5 r/AskEngineers
Best way to accurately place a clinometer in a tugboat engine room?
I'm an engineer on an Articulated Tug-Barge combo on the Great Lakes.
The tug connects to the barge via a pair of toothed pins that extend from the front sides of the tug, and fit into a toothed track on either side of the barge. Any time the weight of either vessel changes significantly (loading/unloading cargo, fueling) we unpin prior, and pin in again after. Routes on the Lakes are mostly short, so this happens at least 10 times in a normal week.
Pinning in can be tricky, and having the tug trimmed flat first makes it much easier. We've got a pair of high-quality bubble clinometers ( in the engine control room, but I have a suspicion that their readings are misleading because they are not mounted level.
Any advice on the best way to fix this?
The "tank top" level of the engine room serves as the primary connection point for the main engine, gearbox, and prop shaft foundation framing. It's also used as a reference for measurements in many of the construction drawings, so I'm kind of assuming that it would also be a decent reference to zero the clinometers against.
Is this the right approach, and if so, what's the best way to actually do it? All I've come up with so far is buy a decent digital level/angle gauge, place that on the tank top and store the angle reading. Then go back up to the control room and match the placement of the clinometer to the stored reading.
Unfortunately, my company doesn't want to pay for a decent digital angle gauge. Any other ways to go about this?
Thanks much!
u/CubistHamster — 5 months ago
Coupling Got a Little Warm
I'm an engineer on a Great Lakes ore freighter. This is what's left of the motor coupling for one of our main ballast water pumps. (This happened last year, and we've switched to a different type of coupling that allows for a lot more misalignment.)
We'd had alignment issues with that pump for a while, but never resulting in a failure like this. Usually they just disintegrate into chunks. This one got just warm enough to melt slowly and spray itself onto everything in the immediate area.
u/CubistHamster — 5 months ago
Wondering if anybody has ever used UV-fluorescent dye for finding ME coolant leaks.
There are plenty of products out there, but every one I've found seems like it's primarily aimed at smaller gasoline engines.
Mostly curious if anybody knows about negative interactions with coolant additives, or other potential damage to the coolant system. (Given the tiny quantities involved, I'm skeptical, but selling my Chief/Port Engineer on it could be a challenge if I can't point to something that says "this won't hurt anything.")
*(Engines are MaK M32Cs; 4-Stroke, medium speed, for reference.)*
u/CubistHamster — 6 months ago