The Nathan lubricator handle for 470's Westinghouse Cross Compound Pump has been completely reproduced and replaced using a 3D metal printer at the University of Maine's Orono campus, Advanced Manufacturing Center. The original was removed from 470 by vandals sometime during the past seven decades. It is a very specialized piece. Not only does it serve as a hand crank, it is centrifugally weighted to turn on demand of the lubricator. Drawings for the part were supplied to the Capstone pump team by the Steamtown shops, which may own the only original detailed drawings of this part.
Again, we find modern technology coming to the rescue of discarded twentieth century machinery. Obviously, steam power belongs in the twenty-first century!
Huge debts of gratitude to both Steamtown National Historic Site and an extra large thank you to the University of Maine College of Engineering and the Advanced Manufacturing Center.
