Steam engine for a sternwheeler

[apointofview]

Hey guys I wanted to share a big day with you guys. I was able to get my steam engine to the point of running on air and just for test running. I have been working on and off on this engine for a long time and needed to see it run to keep my nerves down. I have so much time making chips without knowing if it would actually work !!

I have been making this engine up as I go along. All I have is a few pictures of full scale machines and a couple of books about these amazing power plants. To think these were built so long ago with very limited tools is nothing but amazing to me. My engine is mostly T6 aluminum bar stock and brass from the scrap bins of a machine shop near where I work. I can buy it by the pound ! Fasteners are stainless as are the rods to hopefully hold up to getting wet when it gets on a pond someday.

Lost and lots of parts to go but today was a great day to see and hear it run !!! What a relief !!!!!! It is only being fed 1-2 psi I'm sure that will need to go up when it gets a load from the paddle in the water.

I am a very very slow builder and learning how to machine as I go. Its all being done manually on the chinese mini lathe and mini mill and....a sawzall. I have been taking pics of the build so far until my camera vanished a few weeks ago ( no one in the family is owning up to what happened to it ) if anyone wants to see them.

Here is the video
[ame]http://youtu.be/0lkgsXzCYoM[/ame]


Pete

 

[hitandmissman]

Looks great and love how it runs slow.

 

[Philjoe5]

Congratulations on a fine running engine. It runs quite smoothly. You did a great job on engine details and I'd love to see some closeup photos.

Thanks for showing your work.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[Herbiev]

Great work. Love the slow graceful movement. What is the bore and stroke ?

 

[wagnmkr]

That is definitely a labour of love and it is a great runner. The sound and visual impact are excellent.

That is exactly what I am looking for! Does anyone know if there are plans anywhere for one of these engines?

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Steve J]

Lee Hogson (sp?) sells plans and castings for it. he is the guy out of cinncinati who sells the plans and castings for the 9 cylinder radial engine. I'm sure if you google him you will find his info and be able to find what you need.

 

[kvom]

You do not have AN engine, you have a SET of engines.

Nice work.

 

[apointofview]

Hey, that's right a set of engines, never looked at it that way...I guess I should refer to it as a power plant !

Thanks guys for the kind words, I'll start gathering up a few images to show the build on my next days off.

I saw the ageless engines power plant that Steve mentioned, it looks great but it is even more complex because of the added cutoff mechanism it has. It is much more to scale of the Delta Queen's drive system. Mine is just an attempt to build something similar to the western riverboat lever engines.

I saw the sternwheeler down at Disney Magic Kingdom in Orlando and was hooked !! The great movement these power plants have are fun to watch and the full scale one on the disney ship didn't disappoint. They even run a steam turbine/generator from the same boiler to provide the electricity for the boat.

My bore is 5/8" with a stroke of 3 1/2" Those dimensions came about because that was what the round stock I had at the time would accommodate. Not very scientific but it worked.

The slow movement has been hard to achieve. Lots of problems with the full stroke cam driving against the springs holding the valves closed. The force to push 4 valves at the same time made the movement jerky and requires 5 to 10 more psi. I had to lower the spring pressures and line the cam with teflon tape to get the friction down. I don't know how it will hold up. The piston had a viton 'o' ring for a seal but it also had more drag than I wanted. I am trying graphite tape packed into the 'o' ring groove for now, its a lot slicker. Its the same stuff the steam locomotive guys use for gland packing. The paint can and steel bars for a paddle load helped too, lots of mass to keep it smooth.


Hope I didn't miss any questions
Pete

 

[wagnmkr]

Thanks SteveJ for the link to Lee Hodgson. I found it OK and will check it out when I get time.

Tom

 

[Banjoe]

Everything is beautiful and in duplicate....so double great work on your part.

That action is hypnotic. You should set this video to music.

 

[don-tucker]

If only there were plans I would have found my next project,that is beautiful and I don't mean the tin can 😀 . Well done
Don

 

[crueby]

Very nice!

 

[chucketn]

If only there were plans I would have found my next project,that is beautiful and I don't mean the tin can �� . Well done
Don

There are plans, from Lee Hodgson at :

http://www.agelessengines.com/sb-plans.htm

Chuck

 

[ozzie46]

Bueatiful running engine!!woohoo1woohoo1

 

[apointofview]

Again thanks to everyone for the complements !

The ageless engine plans will be quiet a bit different than what I built. Those are a scale version of the delta queen I believe. It has a lot of soldered brass. Mine is just a personal design that operates similiar to it made to bolt together mostly of aluminum bar stock and is much simpler in steam control than the plans from ageless. He runs a much different cam setup too.

There is a video of that looks like that engine design running at a show you can see how different it is.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0OmPBQMUXU&feature=related[/ame]

It sure is a beautiful power plant with even more great movement !

Pete

 

[doubletop]

One of those Wow! moments when you see something fascinating

Can't wait for the camera to re-appear so we can get to see the build pictures

Pete

 

[apointofview]

Here ya go, pictures….( still no camera for the latest stuff )
I started with boring the cylinders. The stroke was figured by finding what round stock I had and what might look good for a crank throw on the yet to be built paddle. I later came up with 3 ½” but I started out with about a 4 ¼ hunk of metal to allow for cleaning the ends and if I wanted a 4 inch stroke.
My mill can’t handle that length along with the drill bits and reamers, so I went with the lathe. I know this all looks bad but it worked. My 4 jaw wouldn’t chuck the 3/16 extension drill bit so I had to chuck my R8 mounted Jacobs chuck on the 4 jaw and get the run out to zero. I made a holder for the round stock to hold it on the compound. This worked pretty good, and when I used the reamers to step up the hole I was able to use the lathe feed to move the cylinder into the reamer for the final cut.
Overall the holes looked pretty good. I followed up with valve lapping compound and a close fitting brass slug on a rod to knock down the high areas. Last I ran very very fine sand paper on a butterfly rod on an angle grinder. I didn’t know where to get a hone to clean up such a small deep bore.
More progress pics later
Pete

 

[micro-thai]

So Cool.. thank you

 

[apointofview]

Thanks !!

I put the cylinders between centers and was able to get enough pressure to not have to use a dog. I just cleaned up the surface enough to get rid of all the ugly on the outside. I may dress them up some more later we'll see.
On to the ends of the cylinders.
I had a plate of .600 T6 that I cut the 4 ends from. I painted up the plate with layout fluid and drew out what I wanted the parts to look like roughly. I just hacked them out with an endmill to get them loose of the plate. I did spend time getting the center hole located correctly and sized to the final bore. I made a jig to line up the loose part on the rotary table and get the bore under the mill correctly. This was my first use of my new rotary table, so I took it slow and got the end supports down to their final size. I counter bored the ends to accommodate the cylinder on one side and the end cap on the other using and end mill and the rotary table since it was already squared up.
Pete

 

[doubletop]

That's different. Keep them coming please...

Pete