# Steam power Fan.



## Rocket Man (Nov 8, 2011)

Has anyone ever seen a steam powered fan? 

For several years I have been thinking about building a steam powered fan with a 12" blade for my wood stove. Steam has some good power so a 1" dia. power piston will probably work fine, I probably need to do some experement to make sure. I also want a .125" water pump piston to pump 1 drop of water into the boiler every time the crank goes around.


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## ShedBoy (Nov 9, 2011)

Not seen a steam but definately stirling ones.
Brock


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## Wrist Pin (Nov 9, 2011)

Sounds interesting. Plenty of heat available. Do you have a drawing or design?


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## lazylathe (Nov 9, 2011)

Not seen steam ones as you would need a lot of water to make a lot of steam to keep it going
for any length of time.

These ones are available:
http://www.arbourshop.com/product.php/4395-4395/400533

As well as Stirling engines that would be far more efficient.

Andrew


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## dgjessing (Nov 9, 2011)

You'd have a humidifier as well! ;D


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## Wrist Pin (Nov 9, 2011)

Sounds interesting. Do you have plans or a design?


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## Rocket Man (Nov 9, 2011)

Wrist Pin  said:
			
		

> Sounds interesting. Do you have plans or a design?



NO Plans just an idea. I want to make a 1/4" steel plate to replace one of the wood stove lids. I am thinking I will drill and tap 7 holes for 1/4" NPT then screw in 7 pipes about 6" long that will hand down into the wood stove fire box. All the pipes need the ends welded shut. Weld a small boiler tank about 3" diameter 6" tall to the top of the lid. A 1" piston with a 1.5" stroke on top of the boiler. Also put a water storage tank on top too with a tiny 1/8" piston water pump. I need a sight glass on the side of the boiler so I can see the water level. With the fan running when I notice the water level is low I can pour a cup of water in the top and the 1/8" piston will pump the water into to boiler 1 drop at a time. I might need an hospital IV bottle to keep it full of water. LOL. The steam engine needs to run slow and a longer stroke will be more efficient at slow speed to make use of as much power as I can get from each cylinder full of steam. I am also thinking I will use a top dead center valve inside the piston and cylinder. The valve is actually inside the boiler and a needle valve pushes the valve open only for about 5 degrees of top dead center every time the piston comes up. This type valve only gives the cylinder a very small percentage of the steam it could actually use but it saves water and keeps the RPMs low. The fan only needs to run about 250 RPMs to circulate heat from the stove around the room and it should run quiet at that speed. This is an easy valve to work on the needle valve adjustment is in the rod side of the piston so that makes it extremely easy to adjust the mount of steam that is needed with a screw driver. Its a very simple engine no cam is needed for the valve. Steam vents out through holes in the side of the cylinder wall like a 2 cycle engine.


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## Lew Hartswick (Nov 9, 2011)

Speaking of Hospital IV bags etc. Having just been hooked up to one for a day, I was 
wondering how they set the drip rate. Mine was doing a double drop every 4 sec.
The end flow is set by the peristaltic pump (Ive worked on bigger ones of those)
but how does the drip rate get established? 
 I drug home the injector section to examine the fittings. 
  ...lew...


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## Robdrto (Mar 2, 2013)

I think that I just saw two portable steam powered fans in the Maharana's Palace in Udaipur (?) from say c. 1910 or before.    But I can find very  little on the Internet.      The fan blades are the usual size but there is a piston which swivels and converts reciprocating power to rotational power per the usual device of a crook for the piston to rotate the circular shaft with.     There could be a steam chamber below  and a charcoal or wood burner below that.    Certainly there is no visible electric cord on this very black, ironish looking pedestal.    Wood is still being used in some of the so called three star hotels that I am staying in in India to heat water perhaps mostly for the restaurant kitchens which are the fashion here along with what looks like very simple but efficient  solar heaters for hot water, usually with back up resistent electric heating elements.

Bob H.


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## mcostello (Mar 2, 2013)

I would be greatly interested in plans for both types of engines, they would need to be self starting though.


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