Simple Filters and Strainers

[Chris Hollands]

I was looking for filter mesh to suit a couple of filter housings I was making for the Westinghouse compressors on the

Challenger and came across these Swageloc filters / strainers.

I machined the face off the hex fitting until the little filter disc dropped out and then fitted it to the housing looked perfect.

I though these items could be used on quite a few things on our engines like in the tender for filtering water to injectors

and pumps etc or inline working filter baskets with little work to modify to suit , undo the top of the housing and pull out the strainer and clean

The little strainer baskets are about 1/2" OD + 1" long and come in various micron ratings .

I'm sure there is other brands out there like Parker / SMC etc that may do the same thing , I just find Swageloc is easy to get but a little pricey

Just a thought .

[Greg_Lewis]

Cool. Thanks for the tip.

[ccvstmr]

John, getting ready to draft a thread about tender work. Have the following filters in my tender...

The left assembly appears to be a piece of round brass that was hollowed up with large openings in the sides and a male 7/16-20 thread fitting on the bottom. The brass fitting was wrapped with stainless steel screen material and held in place with some finer stainless steel wire.

The center assembly has a commercially made screen filter with a 7/16-20 female thread on the bottom. The builder wrapped a piece of fine mesh stainless screen material around this and held the screen in place with a couple of O-rings.

The right assembly was used to replace the center filter mount. Will explain in the thread.

Carl B.

[Fender]

A Y strainer like this is easier to clean, because you can insert them into the line from the tender to the injector, and don't have to disconnect the lines to clean the mesh strainer.
https://www.mcmaster.com/44305K25/

[Pontiacguy1]

If you are looking for strainer parts, one of the easiest places to look, and one which is often overlooked, is your local Farmer's Co-Op! They should have all kinds of spraying equipment parts down there for crop and weed spraying systems, and most of these spray nozzles have a small cup-shaped metal strainer in the line before the spray nozzles. They are often in various mesh sizes too. Go down there and look through their assortment of stuff, and you can usually find something that will work for your application.

For those who want something in-line between your locomotive and tender, I recommend the clear, glass bodied fuel strainers that you can find at auto parts places, usually in the "performance" aisle. They have mesh strainers, not the paper filter elements, and can easily be taken apart and cleaned. I have used one of these for years in the water supply line for my injector. When you are somewhere with less-than-ideal water, this is great to have. Just recently I was running and the injector stopped picking up well, kept spitting and blowing out the overflow. Looked in the tender tank and it was half full. Took about 5 minutes to remove the strainer, clean it out, and put it back in the water line. Injector then picked up perfectly, first try.