Experimental Flash Steam and others

[Richard Hed]

Regular poppet valves - as used in Infernal combustion engines - have a long and well proven history in that application, but I am not sure they lend themselves effectively to steam engines where they close-off the high pressure and superheated steam against lower pressure in the cylinder (e.g. during the exhaust stroke).
Slide valves - in various forms - have been very effective for 200 years of engine development, so what specific issues are you trying to overcome with their limitations?
A friend at the local club has made a Corliss valve engine - but is still trying to get the timing correct - he would tear his hair out if he had enough left! - That's all I know on the subject.
K2

I managed to buy this book by J. Stumpf from 1912 or 1922, don't remember which, but it was difficult to find and difficult to buy. This book has great analysis on the different portions of a uni-flo engine. His analysis is that Uni-flos are superior in efficiency to all other types of steam engine. In this book, there are no slide valves recommended, nor rotating valves. They are a sort of poppet valve. Naturally, I was considering whether or not a triple expansion engine could be made this way. The way that the steam exits the cylinder, however, might make this problematic.

 

[Zeb]

Ladies, Gentlemen, behold, the Vapordyne....

I want to fashion one after Bill Lear to power my pneumo- brakes, actuatored by the northombobulator lever on my Dunlop equipped Spitfire MkiX and cooled by Tecalemit-Kilfrost-Sheepbridge Stokes fluid through a handpump near the gear lever and of the same shape and color so as to confusel the pilot -Blenheim style.

This is the thread I always kneeded.

 

[Richard Hed]

Ladies, Gentlemen, behold, the Vapordyne....
View attachment 131504
I want to fashion one after Bill Lear to power my pneumo- brakes, actuatored by the northombobulator lever on my Dunlop equipped Spitfire MkiX and cooled by Tecalemit-Kilfrost-Sheepbridge Stokes fluid through a handpump near the gear lever and of the same shape and color so as to confusel the pilot -Blenheim style.

This is the thread I always kneeded.

Does that come with a Ginsu knife?

 

[Zeb]

@Richard Hed Guaranteed, but if you order now, a thighmaster is included to keep legs a safe distance from the P8 compass radiation during flight.

 

[Steamchick]

Hey Ken, How are you doing on Linux? I haven't heard anything about it in a while. did you find out how to access your files?

Thanks for the interest Richard, but I gave up while I had too many other jobs at the front of the queue. (Front door and redecorating, time with my dear lady, some water pumps to complete boilers, lathe motor and variable speed control problems, etc.). Meanwhile the slow Windows has been automatically updated and is much quicker now.... so less motivation for Linux.
But I'll get back to it sometime....
K2

 

[Richard Hed]

Hey guys,
I have a nasty problem in which I have a mill arm stuck in position -- looks like rust, but looks also very greased -- it will not move by the internal rack and pinion. I have been loading it with anti-rust stuff (like wd40), have struck it with wood and sledge but it won't budge. I am thimpfking of trying a hydralic jack between the neck holding the motor and the ring which mounts the arm.

Can you thimpfk of any other scenario in which would bind the mechanism. The bolts holding this tight for work are completely loose. I cannot see but there must be some kind of gibs in there. Is it possible the gibs could gaul up or do something weird? Maybe the shaft that turns the pinion gear is rusted or jammed in some wayu. This is a Bridgeport and one would expect this to be a simple fix, but . . . .

Any advice might break it loose.

 

[Zeb]

Make sure the quill auto feed is not engaged if it has one, and the up-down lock thingie for the spindle is not stuck internally. I would definitely disassemble it before applying a jack, and WD40 will wipe off grease and gaull any sliding surfaces.
Speaking of the Gauling...The Gauls defeated the Romans at Faesulae, but later the Romans defeated the Gauls at Telamon. 223-193 BC: Given those circumstances, the Bridgeport should definitely find success.

 

[Richard Hed]

Make sure the quill auto feed is not engaged if it has one, and the up-down lock thingie for the spindle is not stuck internally. I would definitely disassemble it before applying a jack, and WD40 will wipe off grease and gaull any sliding surfaces.
Speaking of the Gauling...The Gauls defeated the Romans at Faesulae, but later the Romans defeated the Gauls at Telamon. 223-193 BC: Given those circumstances, the Bridgeport should definitely find success.

The problem is not in the head itself, rather it is the swivel base which has a rack and pinion (I'm beginning to thimpfk this may be the main prob) with a nut transmitting force by the pinion to the rack. The dovetails may not have mooved for years thus allowing the grease to oxidize or evaporate or something. Goo nooz: we got it moved about 5". ONe would thimpfk that it would start sliding easier, but if it is, it's not much easier. It's now hanging off the edge of the dovetails about 2-1/2 ". about 10-12" more to go.

I thimpfk this whole thing will have to be disassembled, cleaned, greased, bearings chekt and all the rest before anything else. Wh;en I got it, they said there was something wrong with the hed, but they din't way what that was. That's prol'y why I got it so cheap. I suspect the ting sat for quite a while.

And don't forget, how gauling Charles was.

 

[Zeb]

Why of course! Charles de Gaulle airport has been the location of many a sliced dove tail. I thought you might have meant the rack and pigeon on the head but makes sense know. The Romans will be victorious crossing the port by bridge.

 

[Richard Hed]

Why of course! Charles de Gaulle airport has been the location of many a sliced dove tail. I thought you might have meant the rack and pigeon on the head but makes sense know. The Romans will be victorious crossing the port by bridge.

That sounds suspiciously like that guy from Frahns who worshipped "Our Lady" and made all those predictions about 'Napoloron' and 'Hister'. Maybe YOU should get into the prediction business?!

 

[Richard Hed]

Just a report:
I used a hydraulic jack between the neck on the hed against the neck on the body, that is, the swivel base holding the arm. The swivel base has a pinion which moves the rack which is part of the arm. I managed to get the swivel base to move, it wasn't easy, until the pinion came to the end of the rack which, did not go all the way to the end of the arm. That was a surprize, but I understand why. So I tried to knock the pinion inward toward the inside of the swivel, howevr, when the thing came to the end of the gear portion, it naturally could not go any further. After a while, I decided to try to knock the pinion outward which workt wonderfully. Turns out the pinion turns completely freely when disengaged from the rack.

Proceeding with the hydraulic jack, I managed to get the swivel off the arm. It weighs about 125-150 lbs. Too much for the 98lb weakling I am.

Well to make a short story long, the ways are completely gummed up with oxidized and hardened grease, varnish. In fact, it is so awful that it appears that someone has glued a strip of something on the ways. So, I am going to proceed with a razor blade and other tools to remove as much as I can before proceeding to the varnish remover.

So here is my question: What in the world is the best thing for varnish removal? I will be doing this in an inclosed space, a small garage and I really do not want to inhale fumes for vary long. When I light up a cig (outside, not in the house, car, garage or any other enclosed space) I doesn't want my lungs and hed to explode. I'm thimpfking some kind of nasty fluid with scothc brite. Any better suggestions? I'll try to remember to take a photo of this, a photo is worth 100 pages of explanation.

 

[Steamchick]

Nitromors paint stripper is likely to do the trick. But wear adequate eye and skin protection as it contains phosphoric acid as an active ingredient. DO NOT SMOKE! Phosphoric acid fumes turn to phosgene in the glowing cigarette, and phosgene was used by Germans as killing gas in the WW1 trench warfare! But well ventilated and without smoking you should be safe. Read the safety instructions!
K2

 

[Rocket Man]

When I saw, Flash Steam, I tough you were taking about something else. About 30 years ago I filled a plastic cough syrup measuring cup with water about 1 tablespoon & 4% salt to make water conduct electricity. Discharge a very large capacitor bank into the water it turns to steam 4 times faster than Black Powder explodes. It blew a basket ball size hole in my work bench. There should be a way to do this inside a V8 car engine to make it run on water. How much water per cylinder maybe 1 or 2 drops for a Chevy 350 engine?

 

[Richard Hed]

When I saw, Flash Steam, I tough you were taking about something else. About 30 years ago I filled a plastic cough syrup measuring cup with water about 1 tablespoon & 4% salt to make water conduct electricity. Discharge a very large capacitor bank into the water it turns to steam 4 times faster than Black Powder explodes. It blew a basket ball size hole in my work bench. There should be a way to do this inside a V8 car engine to make it run on water. How much water per cylinder maybe 1 or 2 drops for a Chevy 350 engine?

That sounds very exciting! The thing is, a capacitor releases it's energy very quickly. If one could get a battery to release it's energy this quickly, you would have a house sized hole in your work bench. To try this as you say, in a car, you would have to have a bank of capacitors filled and ready for each cylinder and then the caps refill again. You might be in the "energy laws" where the expanding steam would be equal to or less than the energy in the caps. Thus you could not recharge the caps, at least not very long. But I lilke the idea.

 

[Steamchick]

Back in the 1970s... ("I remember it well...") Rover - in the UK - used capacitor discharge into solenoids for their electric locking doors. It took 3 seconds to re-charge the capacitor on the car I had. (15A wiring) but a fraction of a second to discharge the capacitor (30A wiring!). Nowadays, everyone uses small motors, gearboxes and allow "10 times" longer for lock operation (which is still less than 1 second!) but only uses 10A wiring...
And "capacitor discharge" ignition has more or less been replaced with coil-on-plug small coils driven by high-speed electronic switching of low voltage and low current as it saves so much cost of wiring....
Capacitors really pay for themselves in power transmission for impedance balancing/phase correction... Not as high power discharge devices. Except in High Voltage test labs, where capacitors - charged in parallel at low voltage - are discharged in series to develop incredibly high voltages to simulate lightning, etc! But for high current testing, switching generators onto "short-circuits" is the better way to dump the power! (Very exciting when a 5 ton test rig jumps 2 m into the air when things go wrong! The magnetic pulse stopped a few (mechanical) watches that day! - Needless to say, my test rig and the equipment on test survived, but the test lab had a week of repairs and replacement connections to resolve!).
Nostalgia, ain't what it used to be...
K2

 

[Rocket Man]

That sounds very exciting! The thing is, a capacitor releases it's energy very quickly. If one could get a battery to release it's energy this quickly, you would have a house sized hole in your work bench. To try this as you say, in a car, you would have to have a bank of capacitors filled and ready for each cylinder and then the caps refill again. You might be in the "energy laws" where the expanding steam would be equal to or less than the energy in the caps. Thus you could not recharge the caps, at least not very long. But I lilke the idea.

The down side is capacitors charge so slow each cylinder will need probably 60 capacitors charging so they can discharge in, 1, 2, 3, order each time the piston is in the firing position. My capacitor bank is 3 caps in parallel, 5000 VDC 18,000. amps each = 54,000. amps total = 270,000,000. watts discharge. These 3 caps weight close to 100 lbs total. A vehicle will need to pull a 100 ft trailer full of capacitor but this could be done with a stationary engine with a building full of capacitors. Experimenting will be required to determine minimum capacitor size and water injection into a insulated discharge cup. RPM of the engine will be determined by the number of capacitors being charged. My cap bank takes about 40 seconds to charge, 60 caps charging will allow the piston to fire 1 time per second = 60 RPMs. When my capacitor bank discharges it will vaporize 4 ft of solid 1/8" diameter steel wire, it flashes as bright as the sun and sounds like as 30-06 rifle. A much smaller cap bank can be used to vaporize 1 or 2 drops of water for each cylinder.

I had a used 5000w airport runway landing light this cap bank flashed it 1 time the entire light bulb vaporizes even the glass was gone.

 

[Richard Hed]

The down side is capacitors charge so slow each cylinder will need probably 60 capacitors charging so they can discharge in, 1, 2, 3, order each time the piston is in the firing position. My capacitor bank is 3 caps in parallel, 5000 VDC 18,000. amps each = 54,000. amps total = 270,000,000. watts discharge. These 3 caps weight close to 100 lbs total. A vehicle will need to pull a 100 ft trailer full of capacitor but this could be done with a stationary engine with a building full of capacitors. Experimenting will be required to determine minimum capacitor size and water injection into a insulated discharge cup. RPM of the engine will be determined by the number of capacitors being charged. My cap bank takes about 40 seconds to charge, 60 caps charging will allow the piston to fire 1 time per second = 60 RPMs. When my capacitor bank discharges it will vaporize 4 ft of solid 1/8" diameter steel wire, it flashes as bright as the sun and sounds like as 30-06 rifle. A much smaller cap bank can be used to vaporize 1 or 2 drops of water for each cylinder.

I had a used 5000w airport runway landing light this cap bank flashed it 1 time the entire light bulb vaporizes even the glass was gone.


View attachment 131954

I would thimpfk it would sound more like a cannon going off. This Photo, I guess it's a cap?

 

[Richard Hed]

Nitromors paint stripper is likely to do the trick. But wear adequate eye and skin protection as it contains phosphoric acid as an active ingredient. DO NOT SMOKE! Phosphoric acid fumes turn to phosgene in the glowing cigarette, and phosgene was used by Germans as killing gas in the WW1 trench warfare! But well ventilated and without smoking you should be safe. Read the safety instructions!
K2

When I put the arm back on the swivel, have you got any suggestions as to which kind of lubricant should be used? Grease or way oil? I thimpfk way oil is the wrong choice as this is for something that it is for something that is constantly moving. But the ways on this mill arm hardly ever move. That is most likely what happened to this arm, it was never moved for probabgly decades and the lubricant turned to varnish. Would gear oil for the lathe gears be a good choice? I have some of that but of course, I can obtain whatever else would be a better choice.

An odd thing I found in this arm is chips up inside the hollow area! I have no idea how they could have gotten in side there. It's incongruous! But I have to clean them out and degrease the area.

 

[Steamchick]

I would be tempted to use a Molybdenum grease, as this is ideal to prevent anti-scuffing. The Molybdenum (solid material - effectively hard spherical dust!) in the grease will always permit sliding when you want it. - Unless the grease (oil mixed with waxes) has completely dried-out to a lacquer - as has happened in your case. But my GUESS is that your dried out gung is tallow (animal grease) that has chemically degraded over time (the molecules de-hydrate) to re-form as lacquer. Mineral greases (as used in Moly slip or lithium grease) are much more stable over time... Or at least during the brief moment in time where we exist... (Hey Brian, we may think of you as Methusalah, but compared to the time it took the planet to convert vegetable matter to crude oils you are just a young stripling!).
K2

 

[Richard Hed]

I would be tempted to use a Molybdenum grease, as this is ideal to prevent anti-scuffing. The Molybdenum (solid material - effectively hard spherical dust!) in the grease will always permit sliding when you want it. - Unless the grease (oil mixed with waxes) has completely dried-out to a lacquer - as has happened in your case. But my GUESS is that your dried out gung is tallow (animal grease) that has chemically degraded over time (the molecules de-hydrate) to re-form as lacquer. Mineral greases (as used in Moly slip or lithium grease) are much more stable over time... Or at least during the brief moment in time where we exist... (Hey Brian, we may think of you as Methusalah, but compared to the time it took the planet to convert vegetable matter to crude oils you are just a young stripling!).
K2

Do you know any trade naems? Just look it up on duckduck go?