DIY Tesla Impulse Turbine

[The Ignoble Troll]

Those couplers should have an rpm/temp rating for the spiders iirc. Unless they are random internet ones

 

[Toymaker]

Those couplers should have an rpm/temp rating for the spiders iirc. Unless they are random internet ones

The couplers were purchased via AliExpress :Plum Coupler
The only specs given are diameter, length, and shaft size,....and the spider is Polyurethane.

 

[The Ignoble Troll]

The couplers were purchased via AliExpress :Plum Coupler
The only specs given are diameter, length, and shaft size,....and the spider is Polyurethane.

@nerd100 probably has the right idea then, going all metal.

 

[Richard Hed]

Steam flow rate was 0.83 LPM (Liters Per Minute) at just over 100 C and at nearly zero pressure. The coupler melted before I had a chance to measure RPMs and the voltage reading was made after RPMs had already dropped off. This test ended too quickly to have provided adequate data.

I THINK the coupler melted from heat created by friction as the stainless steel TT drive shaft spun inside the aluminum coupler, after the steam heat loosened the connection. I don't believe the steam heat alone melted the coupler's plastic spider. I'll tighten the coupler onto the shaft a bit tighter for the next test,...hopefully, that will be enough.

Both TT bearings are full ceramic which run "dry" (no grease or oil).

Wait a minute, wait a minute. .83 LPM? you must mean .083 LPM? at .83 you would have a veritable explosion. You'd need a huge boiler.

 

[Toymaker]

Wait a minute, wait a minute. .83 LPM? you must mean .083 LPM? at .83 you would have a veritable explosion. You'd need a huge boiler.

Compared to most boilers found on HMEM, my 10" diameter x 13" long monotube flash boiler, containing 30 feet of 5/8" diameter copper tube, is huge.

The following video was taken just before I redirected steam flow into the Tesla turbine via a 3-way valve. Midway through the video I focus in on the K24 flow rate meter (Blue face plate) which measures feed water into the boiler and is displaying 6.0XX liters total flow (big number) and 00.83 to 00.86 LPM (bottom smaller numbers). So, unless the K24 flow meter is off by a factor of 10, which seems unlikely, the boiler is indeed making 0.83 LPM steam at a 53% power setting.