Experimental Flash Steam and others

[Richard Hed]

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]

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]

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

 

[Richard Hed]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Richard Hed]

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.

 

[Richard Hed]

Very funny thing did NOT happen on the way to the forum. I have a nice Olympic camera, which I took photos of the Sirius casting kit, but when I got home, found that I did not have the cable for it to the computer. Left it in the Soviet. So yesterday, took photos with cell phone. So it turned out to be a small nitemare to get the photos off that--had to email them to myself in order to get them off the computer.

So here they are:

 

[Tug40]

richard, thx for the fotos.
It appears you’ve started machining some flat areas?
Yeah I’m not a purist either when it comes to fasteners.
I use 4-40 or 6-32 a lot, try to match original size somewhat with stuff I can buy at the local hardware store.
And as with older motorcycles, I love things with bevel drives.
Have fun!

 

[Richard Hed]

richard, thx for the fotos.
It appears you’ve started machining some flat areas?
Yeah I’m not a purist either when it comes to fasteners.
I use 4-40 or 6-32 a lot, try to match original size somewhat with stuff I can buy at the local hardware store.
And as with older motorcycles, I love things with bevel drives.
Have fun!

Not a prob, (except for the nitemare of getting a photo off a phone). Yes, I have started the machining. I first did the top (cylinder area) of the cylinder block, taking very light cuts not because the mill could not do deeper cuts, but because of the precarious clamping action of the vise. I didn't want to crush the casting, yet had to be as secure as possible. Well, that went well. then I could not turn it upside down and clamp it in the vise so I bolted it to the table. That went well also. Then I skimmed the two edges to the base. Thus, all my important points are covered and cleaned up for the proper start points.

Now it is all ready to machine all the rest of the important places to be 100% in line with those established flats and planes. That would be perpendicularity for the cylinders and in line with the base edges, also the two end cover/bearings to be positioned properly and also in line with the base edge. Shouldn't be too much of a prob but I am always wary of crushing the block in the vise. I'm not too worried about the bearing holes, but the two cylinders, I don't have a proper method (because of a lack of correct tools) of carefully cutting the cylinders. Also, I would like to have a 1" reamer to finish those cylinders, but do not have one in Nevada. I thimpfk I will wait till I can order a reamer (that is, have enough moolah) to do the cylinders. But in the mean time I can do the bearing holes and lots of other operations on other parts.

I thimpfk I will start the simple cuts on the crank shaft, as I have no proper machine to finish the actual crank surfaces at this time. Of course, the kit did not come with simple steel that can be purchased anywhere in hardware stores, for instance, the valve which I am particularly excited about turning. I am a proponent of these "barrel" type valves over slide valves. I am particularly interested to see if their bad points are all that relative. ONe point is that they apparently wear badly, but in that case, a drill rod cut then hardened should be better. BTW, I drilled and reamed the hole thru the valve chest (body might be a better word for this) and I found a small hole in it. If anyone has a suggestion how to fill that hole, I have three ears ready to listen and one eye ready to read. I thimpfk probably JB Weld? maybe epoxy? the hole is smaller than a pin head, so it is not reallly much, however, it is in an important point where the valve passes.

As far as the nuts and bolts, I want them to do their proper job of holding whatever it is they hold and yet not be too large to breach a thin spot or too small to not do the job. Yup, I use a few 4-40, and a lot more 5-40s, and a few 6-32s. I was examining a chart that has the BA TPIs--?? I can't help but thimpfk the chart is wrong. The ones I lookt at were not a one anything close to a digit thread.