Oscillating Stern Paddle Wheel Engine.

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

For the last couple of months I have been playing with designing and making a simple engine to power a model of a stern wheel river boat. I wasn't sure whether a long stroke oscillating would deliver enough power on a direct drive. Following are photographs of a rather large engine made to see if it was possible. I will post the photographs taken so far in batches, there are rather a lot! If there are any questions please ask.

First some drawings.

I will start with the photographs next post.

Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

Start of photographs.

VIDEO


More to come.

Regards Tony.

 

[gus]

Hi Tony,

Will be great to see your engine driving a paddle boat.
Been building double acting oscillating engines myself. But your engines run better than mine. Mine had too many leaks.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

More photographs.

VIDEO.

VIDEO.


VIDEO 25psi.


More to come.

Regards Tony.

 

[Herbiev]

Great project Tony. Looking forward to next instalment. Also great pictures and thanks for sharing

 

[Tony Bird]

Hello Again,

This engine is more or less finished but too large for any boat I might make. It had one major problem before starting on steam it took some time to clear the old steam oil and condensation from the long steam/exhaust pipes. Also the cylinders needed time to heat up. I mostly make small garden railway type locomotives some of which use oscillating engines with geared drives. These models also have similar problems starting and due to the gear reduction it isn't easy to clear hydraulic locks by turning the wheels. I wasn't my idea but someone came up with the idea of putting a valve on the cylinders to allow steam to flow to the atmosphere so clearing oil/water from pipes and heating the cylinders. I refinned this a little by allowing the valve to feed the steam from the steam passageways to the engines exhaust passageway and on to an oil separator, a little less messy.

It was decided to build another smaller engine that hopefully would be powerful enough to push along a hull about 36" long with a paddle wheel 4" diameter and 4" wide.

First the drawings.

A test paddle wheel was made.

Construction photographs to follow.

Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Constructing cylinder photographs.

Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Lining bearings and cylinder up drilling ports in port block.

Regards Tony.

 

[aonemarine]

Very nice!!

 

[Gedeon Spilett]

Hi,
nice photographs, simple and clever design.
in all your posts I see that you are addicted to tangential tools. I would have to try one someday, maybe I would make nice engine too...

 

[Tony Bird]

More photographs. Lapping cylinder and making hydraulic relief valve.

VIDEO.


Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi Zephyrin,

nice photographs, simple and clever design.
in all your posts I see that you are addicted to tangential tools. I would have to try one someday, maybe I would make nice engine too...

Yes I have used one for about 20 years and find them very good. In recent years they have brought out a right hand version which i hope to get one day, maybe a birthday present.

Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

Video of the engines first run as a twin cylinder on air.



First run on steam. Running on air is OK for testing with a plentyful supply of air but run on steam tells you whether it will work as it should! The springs on the cylinders need to be tighter!



Regards Tony.

PS. I had a look at your models Zephyrin, I don't think you need a diamond tool to improve your modeling!

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,
The engine is more or less finished and in steam developes more than enough power to turn the paddle wheel made. One wonders what the larger engine would manage at 25psi it takes a bit of stopping. The hydraulic relieve valves fitted to the cylinders work well and allow the engines to start without a lot of fuss. The steam coming from the right hand engine is because one of the port block securing screws nicked one of the steam passageways this has now been plugged and drilled again.

VIDEO.

Relative sizes.

New cranks and a regulator/reversing valve fitted

I think this is the end of this thread.

Regards Tony.