Experimental Flash Steam and others

[lee webster]

I stumbled across the posting by mistake. I have read several of the posts and find them in the whole, but then again who wouldn't? I believe that the intention was to generate discourse that wouldn't be discoursed anywhere else but here it is, so am I. So with that sorted I will bid you a due.

 

[Zeb]

I stumbled across the posting by mistake. I have read several of the posts and find them in the whole, but then again who wouldn't? I believe that the intention was to generate discourse that wouldn't be discoursed anywhere else but here it is, so am I. So with that sorted I will bid you a due.

Yes, the sarcasm filter safety helmet must be donned before entering.

@Richard Hed The Philippines probably provides you the ultimate steam engine experience, where you reside inside the boiler instead of the cab. Do steam engines run spontaneously in the open aire?

 

[Richard Hed]

I stumbled across the posting by mistake. I have read several of the posts and find them in the whole, but then again who wouldn't? I believe that the intention was to generate discourse that wouldn't be discoursed anywhere else but here it is, so am I. So with that sorted I will bid you a due.

LOL, u r rite, butt was it a misteak, or was it feight?.

Zeb, My house is specially designed to allow the cool nite air to come sliding in without any cats, chickens, snakes or other critters (and it works)but someone blocked one of the vents last nite and I would surly like to kik them in the a$$ for doing that as ther air circulation was cut off. The circulation really helps a lot for the basement and a little for the main room upstairs. My wife let her sister-in=law put up curtains that ablock the windows (with screens to keep out the critters) so there can be no air circulation at nite thru the windows. The word "window" comes from the words "wind hole" but therre is no hole and no wind coming in to cool the house at nite. Why design a house meant to passively cool? Because electricity here is about the same cost as in New York. But every feature is blockt by idiocy of friends and neighbors (and the little wifey, but don't say that too loud).

I have tried to find the materials to make a simple reflective steam generator but this place it is very difficult to find materials that are "advanced", e.g., it is only about 5 years since they got glass wool type insulation (and the wifey resists using insulation to keep the heat OUT). Truly the house is like a boiler along about noon to 6:00PM here, except for the basement which is about 20 degs cooler (Fahrenheit), if we run the air con, it is quite nice.

 

[Richard Hed]

Ladies and Scholars,
I have been trying to get an arbor press for some time, but auctions sell them at a price I cannot afford, not to speak of ones brand new. So I have been thimpfking that I should simply build one! Really, they are not very complicated--some heavy flat steel welded together with an arbor on which to mount a gear assembly and a rack to be pushed by the pinion gear.

Has anyone built their own? Does anyone have plans or suggestions? I have lots of plate and several gears of different size. The rack would be the most difficult and, really, not all that difficult--may even be able to do the rack on the lathe.

 

[Steamchick]

Richard, maybe you can find an old and wound mangle for a strong gear box and hand crank? Also old farming jacks were often made using a straight rack..?
Hopefuly not everything OD has been scraped or over priced as "antique fashionable ornaments"?
K2

 

[ajoeiam]

Ladies and Scholars,
I have been trying to get an arbor press for some time, but auctions sell them at a price I cannot afford, not to speak of ones brand new. So I have been thimpfking that I should simply build one! Really, they are not very complicated--some heavy flat steel welded together with an arbor on which to mount a gear assembly and a rack to be pushed by the pinion gear.

Has anyone built their own? Does anyone have plans or suggestions? I have lots of plate and several gears of different size. The rack would be the most difficult and, really, not all that difficult--may even be able to do the rack on the lathe.

Mentioned a similar desire to a buddy (who is also a machinist/welder) and he said that he made one himself as part of his training.

Thought that I would be further ahead to fab up a hydraulic press.

HTH

 

[Richard Hed]

Richard, maybe you can find an old and wound mangle for a strong gear box and hand crank? Also old farming jacks were often made using a straight rack..?
Hopefuly not everything OD has been scraped or over priced as "antique fashionable ornaments"?
K2

Sorry, what's a mangle? aLSO, what do you mean my OD?

 

[Richard Hed]

Mentioned a similar desire to a buddy (who is also a machinist/welder) and he said that he made one himself as part of his training.

Thought that I would be further ahead to fab up a hydraulic press.

HTH

That's a possible solution simply because it has more uses, however, it's very tight in my shop. I could put that outdoors, so might be a better solution. I have enough metal to do that too. I really can't understand why they are so high priced.

 

[Steamchick]

Sorry, what's a mangle? aLSO, what do you mean my OD?

Hi Richard, sorry, a typo, OD should have read "old"... (I get frustrated when I see on TV or in a bar, restaurant or wherever, an "Old" piece of equipment painted and used as an ornament, not "re-used" for a "Modern" purpose or restored and used as the original.).
A "Mangle" (From the Norwegian "Mangler"? meaning to twist, squeeze, or something, as in wringing-out wet fabric, clothes, etc.) is a device comprising 2 rolls, with variable gap, for squeezing-out water from folded wet clothes, that is hand-powered by a large cranking handle and gear box capable of handing the torque that is achieved by a strong person. My Mother had one when I was a child (about 6000 years ago?) but later changed it for one with an electric motor, as my Father believed in saving as much work as possible by using powered machinery. (Later, he was the first in our street to buy a spin-dryer for Mum.. I guess you may be old enough to know what one of those is? I haven't had a stand-alone one for 40-odd years!).

Sorry for any confusion,
K2

 

[Richard Hed]

Hi Richard, sorry, a typo, OD should have read "old"... (I get frustrated when I see on TV or in a bar, restaurant or wherever, an "Old" piece of equipment painted and used as an ornament, not "re-used" for a "Modern" purpose or restored and used as the original.).
A "Mangle" (From the Norwegian "Mangler"? meaning to twist, squeeze, or something, as in wringing-out wet fabric, clothes, etc.) is a device comprising 2 rolls, with variable gap, for squeezing-out water from folded wet clothes, that is hand-powered by a large cranking handle and gear box capable of handing the torque that is achieved by a strong person. My Mother had one when I was a child (about 6000 years ago?) but later changed it for one with an electric motor, as my Father believed in saving as much work as possible by using powered machinery. (Later, he was the first in our street to buy a spin-dryer for Mum.. I guess you may be old enough to know what one of those is? I haven't had a stand-alone one for 40-odd years!).

Sorry for any confusion,
K2

Ah, yes, now I know==We, in the US called it a "wringer" and we even have some naughty ditty abgout getting "your *** caught in the wringer". Yes, parts off a hand cranked one might be a quick start and avoidance of makking the parts.

 

[Steamchick]

Sorry, The English language is made up from the input from so many languages, it must be hard to follow the various words we use without even thinking of "American" English, "Australian", or other colonial languages.
K2

 

[HMEL]

Here is a simple design you will need a jack.

 

[Richard Hed]

Ladies and Scholars,
I have a question about crossfeeds. I see that on most crossfeeds with slots for attachments, most of the slots are lengthwise along the screw axis. However, I am designing one with the slots the other way, that is, across the screw axis. i'm curious if anyone can advise me which is better.

 

[HMEL]

Ladies and Scholars,
I have a question about crossfeeds. I see that on most crossfeeds with slots for attachments, most of the slots are lengthwise along the screw axis. However, I am designing one with the slots the other way, that is, across the screw axis. i'm curious if anyone can advise me which is better.

The longer the slot the more adjustment is available, but if you have attachments that can mount to shorter slots its ok, I prefer the slots orientated to the screw because it allows the attachment to be moved forward or back from center line. I do have one 90 degrees to the screw and it accepts so far what ever I have attempted to mount to it. Never gave it a thought until now. But the spacing of the slots from each other is probably the more critical dimension. There is probably some standard that is followed by the manufactures. The other consideration is which directions the force will come from when you use an attachment. South bend by the way made some of the slots 90 degrees to the screw.

 

[Richard Hed]

The longer the slot the more adjustment is available, but if you have attachments that can mount to shorter slots its ok, I prefer the slots orientated to the screw because it allows the attachment to be moved forward or back from center line. I do have one 90 degrees to the screw and it accepts so far what ever I have attempted to mount to it. Never gave it a thought until now. But the spacing of the slots from each other is probably the more critical dimension. There is probably some standard that is followed by the manufactures. The other consideration is which directions the force will come from when you use an attachment. South bend by the way made some of the slots 90 degrees to the screw.

Well that makes me thimpfk that maybe the long ones would be best but that maybe I could put a couple across as well, or maybe a couple shorties on the front side, say a couple a quarter the way across? I thimpfk I will examine that idea. Seems like a winner.

The cross slide I am making is extended by about 4 inches, a significant amount thicker than the one I have now in order to make the new slots. There are a few other modifications to make it work.

 

[Steamchick]

STIFFNESS IS EVERYTHING. Proportional to the cube of the thickness that makes it stiff. Slots make the part much more flexible in one axis, so it flexes that way. Like corrugated cardboard... Therefore, for your planned attachments, consider which way the cutting forces will try and bend the cross-slide, and plan cross-slot direction accordingly for STIFFNESs.
Well Done for doing this project. Love to see a photo of finished slide in action.
K2

 

[Richard Hed]

STIFFNESS IS EVERYTHING. Proportional to the cube of the thickness that makes it stiff. Slots make the part much more flexible in one axis, so it flexes that way. Like corrugated cardboard... Therefore, for your planned attachments, consider which way the cutting forces will try and bend the cross-slide, and plan cross-slot direction accordingly for STIFFNESs.
Well Done for doing this project. Love to see a photo of finished slide in action.
K2

Yes, what you say seems to me too, to be a great concern, it seems that in each perpendicular slot, there would be relatively more tendency to "buckle" or to cause the mechanism to chatter. i thimpfks you have the strength thing wrong, however, I thimpfks it is proportional to the square of the thickness not cube, but I could be wrong. Strength and stiffness are not identical.

 

[Steamchick]

Hi Richard. I thought I was taught that Inertia of a beam is to the 4th power of thickness, and stiffness the cube of thickness. But that may be my cubic thick head getting it wrong again? !!
Inertia proportional to B x D Cubed comes to mind now..... so you must be right.
Either way, a 1 in plate with 1/2 in deep grooves across the bend is hugely stiffer than a 3/4 in plate with the same grooves... however, with grooves along the beam it is still hugely stiff.
I consider that anything - like a tool post, or jig to mount the workpiece, should span the whole width of slide rails beneath, for max. Stiffness. So that negates the worry over the grooved slide from bending. But in the case of grooves parallel to the slides, and something mounted in the middle, it will rely upon the stiffness of the thin parts of the "beam" across the slides as support and with a bending torque applied where the object is mounted in the middle.
Sorry, needs a picture that I can't do on this simple tablet.
K2

 

[Richard Hed]

Hi Richard. I thought I was taught that Inertia of a beam is to the 4th power of thickness, and stiffness the cube of thickness. But that may be my cubic thick head getting it wrong again? !!
Inertia proportional to B x D Cubed comes to mind now..... so you must be right.
Either way, a 1 in plate with 1/2 in deep grooves across the bend is hugely stiffer than a 3/4 in plate with the same grooves... however, with grooves along the beam it is still hugely stiff.
I consider that anything - like a tool post, or jig to mount the workpiece, should span the whole width of slide rails beneath, for max. Stiffness. So that negates the worry over the grooved slide from bending. But in the case of grooves parallel to the slides, and something mounted in the middle, it will rely upon the stiffness of the thin parts of the "beam" across the slides as support and with a bending torque applied where the object is mounted in the middle.
Sorry, needs a picture that I can't do on this simple tablet.
K2

I understand what you are saying, but like I said earlier, I am not sure if stiffness is the same as strength. Strhength is definitely proportional to the cross section.

 

[Richard Hed]

Ladies and Scholars,
I just finished reading the **** "Eye of the Needle" by the famous British author, Ken Follet. In this ****, a 1924 Morris Cowley Bullnose was used by the badguy, stolen from two old ladies. This engine was 1548 cc side valve. Being a gasoline engine, does anyone know what a "side valve" is? Has anyone heard of this engine?

The **** is a WWII spy novel, I find Ken Follet to be an EXCELLENT author.

Everyone named "Ken" should respond.

P.S. I did find one of Follet's ****s to be awful, but only one.