solid fuel tablets

[firebird]

Hi

I haven't tried the tablets in my small steam engine or the boiler I built as yet. Just playing about at the moment. As I stated earlier the 3 inch boiler runs well on the meths burners (as does the small engine) but care must be taken not to spill any liquid especially when they are hot. I'm sure the small engine will run with tablets, not sure about the larger boiler though. I have to carry out some tests. one idea I have is to have a couple of trays to hold the tablets so as one nears burning out another is ready to go in. Not much time in the shop at the moment so it will have to wait a while.

Cheers

Rich

 

[firebird]

Hi

Its me again, a thought has just occurred to me. I have to make some trays to try out the tablets, not being a mamod man I'm not sure on how to make them. Do the tablets just sit in a tray or are they on a grill of some sort, ie an air space underneath. Is there an optimum distance I should aim for between tablet and boiler???.

Cheers

Rich

 

[johnthomp]

just for experimental purpouses i used to use the short end of a corned beef or spam tin after youve used the key to open the tin the lid makes for a pretty good makeshift fuel tablet tray with a bit of wire coat hanger brazed to one end of it
keep it cheap and cheerful and the original mamod trays never had any gauze or mesh in them it was just a little flat bottomed square tray roughly the depth was the same as the thickness of the tablet and just big enough to take 2 tablets side by side

 

[firebird]

Hi John

Thanks, a simple tray it is then.

Cheers

Rich

 

[firebird]

Hi

I have just completed a solid fuel tray to replace the meths burner of my small steam engine. It works pretty well. If you go over to the A WORK IN PROGRESS section and look at the topic A SMALL STEAM ENGINE you will see the results.

Cheers

Rich

 

[firebird]

Hi

Today I made a couple of trays to hold solid fuel tablets for use in my horizontal boiler. I have posted the build over in the A WORK IN PROGRESS section in my topic A BEAM ENGINE.

Here's a video.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmoh7k1B7Gg[/ame]

Cheers

Rich

 

[SignalFailure]

Those esbit tabs are ok but the smell annoys the hell out of my missus!

I recently repaired a Mamod traction engine for a friend; to test it I put some 'lint' (from a first aid kit not from someone's belly button in case that doesn't translate well) in the tray and soaked it with meths. Ran like a dream for ages

 

[terrywerm]

I know what the "mystery material" is in the fire lighters, or at least what they use in them here: paraffin. When my kids were young and in Boy Scouts, we made our own fire lighters from sawdust and paraffin poured into little paper Dixie cups. Just light the cup with a match and put it under the wood you had set for a campfire. They worked great for starting campfires, but they did tend to put out some black smoke, so I would agree that they would not be too good for powering our small boilers. Oh, and you didn't want to cook anything over a fire that still had a fire starter burning in it, as it left a really nasty taste in whatever you cooked.

 

[firebird]

Hi

I have just posted a test steam up over in the A WORK IN PROGRESS SECTION A BEAM ENGINE using solid fuel tablets. I'll give the you tube link here as well

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v30YY1vFKgc[/ame]

Cheers

Rich

 

[bentprop]

It's funny you should mention this now,Rich.I've just been playing about with some ex-army hexamine tablets.They are cheap as chips from the army surplus shop.I put two in the tray,and even after bringing my boiler to the required temperature,they were still burning happily.
I did find they required a bit more air to keep going,so i temporarily propped the boiler up a bit.I reckon I would get a good half hour's burning time out of two tablets.I'll drill a few more holes in the boiler casing to let more air in.

 

[IronHorse]

I found this Sterno like product in the camping section of the hardware store. It is called EcoFlame non-toxic Lighting Gel/ Fire Starter. and it comes in a 20Oz squeeze bottle. Burns a little hotter than the Esbit tablets.

IronHorse