Allen
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 128
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Any idjit who still dreams of living "off the grid" with a steam powered gen-set set should have came to help us Wednesday... we'd have cured ya.
Sunday of Portersville's Fall show the Kewannee boiler in the boiler house sprung a leak in a tube (minor as far as problems go, but very inconvenient as it tends to try to put out the fire)
They had a half cooked batch of apple butter and 5 boxes of cut up apples left that needed processed. My father got this GREAT idea that Pap's half scale would be "easier" to hook up to do this than a full sized engine.... and he 'volunteered' Kim and I to fire it. We lit off at 8:30 on Wednesday morning.
Hooking it up WAS easy... KEEPING UP was another story. Between the 2 large kettles using about all the steam the boiler could evaporate, even with the blower on hard, and the "free" crap coal (somebody donated about 5 tons of black dirt to the club) we had to work with, Kim and I were busier than a couple of one armed paper hangers with hives. We went through 4 tanks of water (about 240 gallons), about 1/8 cord of hardwood scraps, and twelve 5 gallon buckets of coal... in 9+ hours.
The biggest problem was clinkers. I had to strip the fire 4 times to clear the grates (I did this in thirds so we didn't have to shut off the kettles, so basically I had to fish clinkers 12 times). at one point we were firing so hard that the hot gasses ignited in the smokebox. a little more overfire air cured that problem. However, my ears are still ringing from the blower roar for all those hours.
I got to break a few times about as long as it takes to go pee - otherwise I was firing, adding water, or breaking up slag. Kim was my waterboy and fuel scrounger. (Why would anybody want to do this 7 days a week just to save a few nickles from the power company? A gen set big enough to power a modern house uses a LOT more steam than 2 old kettles)
I don't know what the kettle crew did most of the time. Kim sez they mostly BSed... and complained about clinker stink every time I stripped the fire, We finally got to shut the steam off at 6PM
This is about half of what we made...
Sunday of Portersville's Fall show the Kewannee boiler in the boiler house sprung a leak in a tube (minor as far as problems go, but very inconvenient as it tends to try to put out the fire)
They had a half cooked batch of apple butter and 5 boxes of cut up apples left that needed processed. My father got this GREAT idea that Pap's half scale would be "easier" to hook up to do this than a full sized engine.... and he 'volunteered' Kim and I to fire it. We lit off at 8:30 on Wednesday morning.
Hooking it up WAS easy... KEEPING UP was another story. Between the 2 large kettles using about all the steam the boiler could evaporate, even with the blower on hard, and the "free" crap coal (somebody donated about 5 tons of black dirt to the club) we had to work with, Kim and I were busier than a couple of one armed paper hangers with hives. We went through 4 tanks of water (about 240 gallons), about 1/8 cord of hardwood scraps, and twelve 5 gallon buckets of coal... in 9+ hours.
The biggest problem was clinkers. I had to strip the fire 4 times to clear the grates (I did this in thirds so we didn't have to shut off the kettles, so basically I had to fish clinkers 12 times). at one point we were firing so hard that the hot gasses ignited in the smokebox. a little more overfire air cured that problem. However, my ears are still ringing from the blower roar for all those hours.
I got to break a few times about as long as it takes to go pee - otherwise I was firing, adding water, or breaking up slag. Kim was my waterboy and fuel scrounger. (Why would anybody want to do this 7 days a week just to save a few nickles from the power company? A gen set big enough to power a modern house uses a LOT more steam than 2 old kettles)
I don't know what the kettle crew did most of the time. Kim sez they mostly BSed... and complained about clinker stink every time I stripped the fire, We finally got to shut the steam off at 6PM
This is about half of what we made...
