Experimental Flash Steam and others

Richard Hed · Jan 8, 2025

Steamchick said:
Sorry, we use bows and arrows...
K2

I use a slingshot. did I ever tell yhou the story of a man named Don? He shot down a fighter jet which landed on a tank which caused a chain reaction of all the tanks shooting each other and some of them even shot down the bad guys jets. He also shot one of the enemy soldier in the head with his slingshot and th emarble ricocheted all over the place killing all the enemy, or at least knocking them out long enough for Don to tie them up and march them to the rear. Yes, Don, Great Don, the hero of WWIII. Based on a true story.

Steamchick · Jan 8, 2025

Was he "Flying Ball Don"? - Never heard of him. But a fun story!
Must have been related to a guy called David, mentioned in the Old Testament... He knocked people down with his balls too.
K2

Richard Hed · Jan 10, 2025

What happened to today's forum ? I always read it in the morning but it wasn't in the email.

Richard Hed · Monday at 3:17 PM

I have received the Stuart Sirius this week. Has anyone ever done one of these? I have been drawing it up so it is easier to deal with on paper. And, as usual, Stuart's drawings are never complete enough for my satisfaction.

However, the little thing is really something to behold. It is 400lbs, which with 75lbs shipping comes very close to 600USD. Not terrible, but would be nice to be 500$ for all that. As y'all probably already know, that little Sirius won the war (WWII). It was apparently used to charge batteries in enemy territory for spys and others peeps needs. You can find a few online running. Keith Appleton has two, one of which he takes appart and repairs. They don't make a lot of noise when properly working./

So, if anyone has any build log or suggestions, be so kind as to add what you can.

P.S. If anyone knows what the generators were and what kind of steam generator were used, I would appreciate knowing that too.

Tug40 · Monday at 4:00 PM

Way to go! Can U post a pic of the parts laid out?
R U gonna make a build log?

EDIT: I Just watched the Keith Appleton #1 video with the green & red engines. Very interesting, like all of his videos.
Have fun.

Richard Hed · Monday at 6:59 PM

Tug40 said:
Way to go! Can U post a pic of the parts laid out?
R U gonna make a build log?

EDIT: I Just watched the Keith Appleton #1 video with the green & red engines. Very interesting, like all of his videos.
Have fun.

Ah krap. I didn't take a photo of the parts in the package, but tomorrow I will take photos if I can remember to do so. The parts are not here where I live, they are where I work. But I managed to do a little on the steam chest. drilled the hole for the valve but I don't have a system to bore the hole, so I drilled it close. HOwever, I don't have a 1/2" reamer so I drilled it undersized and reamed it to .487" I can see inside a bit and it looks like there is a small area that is not properly reamed. I'll try to get a small hole measuring device in there and see what's up.

One thing I am NOT going to do is use the BA screws. I would have to buy all kinds of thread taps and that's not going to happen. I don't kare about "authenticity" one bit. My purpose is to create engines that can run on almost any fuel (including grass and buffalo chips, potato chips and wood chips--you know all the junk food we can buy). I have to say, those screws are VERY nice but forget using them--will NOT! When the war with China comes, I will have one of the few machines that will heat my house, cook my food, boil my tea & coffee, heat water for bathing, and make electricity all in one.

Anyway, just take a look at those Sirius's chugging along. Can you imagine all the interesting little devices like that that were war tools and now no-one knows about them.

Steamchick · 2025-01-21T07:31:47-0500

I built a SUN engine around 2001. TAKE SPECIAL CARE when drilling the cast iron block with 1mm drills or whatever small sizes you use. I broke a 1/16th drill while drilling the oilways in the side of the block. It is still there and I had to drill elsewhere to do the job. The drill-ways define the oil level when running.
SPECIAL CARE when boring the cylinder bores. They MUST BE ROUND AND PARALLEL & perpendicular to the crankshaft, or you'll get a LOT of bad wear. Conrods must have good bearings - again PARALLEL.
Crankshaft must be accurately made and bearings truly aligned. _ however you set-up to make the crank.
ENJOY! You have a rare set of castings, unless Stuart have done a re-cast run since I made my engine. Back in 2001 the Sirius castings were like rocking horse poo in the UK and commanded high prices then.
K2

abby · 2025-01-21T08:24:02-0500

Wow at 400 lbs that is very heavy, must be bigger than a 1500 cc (90 cu in) car engine!

Richard Hed · 2025-01-21T11:21:25-0500

abby said:
Wow at 400 lbs that is very heavy, must be bigger than a 1500 cc (90 cu in) car engine!

I knew that would be confuzing. Yes, I do not have a symbol for the British pound, but I do have one for the USD $$.

K2, I don't see any oil ways in the block in this Sirius. But what does your comment "Back in 2001 the Sirius castings were like rocking horse poo" mean? (That was before I was born.) Rocking horses don't have poo and so this must mean they are very rare. Do you have photos of your Sun? I was looking them up and they are almost identical to the Sirius. I also came across something called the "Star" but could find no photos or other references to it. Maybe I have not lookt properly for the oil ways that you are talking about, maybe you could tell me where to look.

Because of the grainy-ness of CI and the surface hardness, I could understand a tiny drill bit breaking. Was the Sun designed before the Sirius, do you know? I'm very curious, of course, about this engine as fully enclosed engine blocks are usually associated with ICEs, but I know that fully enclosed SEs were being developed about the time as the advent of ICEs. This kind of engine intrigues me.

I'll look more closely at the drawings, see if I can find these oil-ways.

Experimental Flash Steam and others

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