steam engine build

[boatmadman]

And then there were two )

Closely followed by steam chests, not quite finished, waiting for a 2mm slot drill and 6mm machine reamer to arrive.

Ian

 

[bentprop]

Looking good,Ian.I have a half built one sitting on the bench waiting for some brass flat to make the bedplates.I should get off my fat hump and do something :big:
I had intended to put this engine in a 30% enlarged version of MB's "Rose" launch,but thought it would be too big for that.
Looking forward to more progress,it might convince me to get back to working in mine. :-[

 

[Deanofid]

Steam chests are looking good, Ian. Lots of locating work in those things!
Looking good.

Dean

 

[boatmadman]

Managed to finish the steam chests, then went on to make the steam spindle couplings, the steam chest blanks and the eccentric webs.

 

[4156df]

Ian,
Really nice work on the steam chests. I'm looking forward to watching your engine come together.
Dennis

 

[boatmadman]

HELP please

Whilst tapping an m2 thread into one of the steam chests for the spool valve gland, the tap snapped right inside the hole. :wall:

Is there any way of extracting the broken part, or am I just gonna have to make a whole new steam chest?

Ian

 

[Deanofid]

Well, darn it, Ian. Don't fret too much, there is a way to get it out. You are going to have to hunt
around for some stuff called alum. It's a chemical, and when mixed with water, you can soak your
brass piece in it, and it will eat away the tap without damaging the brass.

Alum is also called aluminum potassium sulfate. It's often used in food preservation, so you may have
to go to a place like a health food store, or a store that sells canning supplies, or maybe a pharmacy.

Mix it to a saturate solution with water, and put your piece in it for a few hours to a few days, depending
on temperature, the composition of the tap, etc.

Dean

 

[mklotz]

If local sources fail you, you can buy alum from these folks...

http://www.americanspice.com/catalo...type&_ssess_=193b20eb27f12084a73f696adfe8ae14

You can accelerate the reaction by gently heating the solution and providing some form of agitation around the offending tap - I've used an aquarium pump.

After a day or so of soaking, pull the part out of the alum solution and use a pick to dislodge whatever pieces of tap have been weakened by the chemical reaction so that the solution can reach fresh metal.

 

[Tin Falcon]

You can also check your local swimming pool supplier
https://secure.hosts.co.uk/~poolandspachemicals.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Water_Treatments_8.html
Tin

 

[Deanofid]

I don't see any alum there, Tin. The thing at the top says aluminum sulfate, but that's not the same thing
as aluminum potassium sulfate, unless I'm far off. Is there something there I'm missing?

Dean

 

[boatmadman]

Thanks for the tip Fella's, alum now on order.

I set out to make the steam valve spools and had problems. The first one came out ok, but no2 somehow came out off centre >>:-(, as did no 3, no4, no5 and no 6. >>:-(

So, I left them for a while and tried again, this time with success, all 4 are ok, I think!

I then thought I would do a simple job, so made the flanges for connection to the steam chests.

Having succeeded with those, I thought I would tackle the steam control valves next, that went well, although time consuming getting them right.

Ian

 

[Blogwitch]

Things are lookin' good Ian.

Nearly time to try out your silver soldering.

Expect to relap your control valve after the soldering, as flux might get into the bore and you might get slight distortion of the block. Don't go overboard with either flux or heat, just enough to get the job done.


Bogs

 

[Deanofid]

All those parts came out nice, Ian. I don't see a broken tap anywhere..

The spools have a ring of small holes about mid-length. Are those for exhaust?

Dean

 

[boatmadman]

Bogs,

Think I will practice silver solder on a bit of scrap first

Dean,

The ring of holes midway are transfer ports, the engines are double acting and the spool valve has a drilling part way through the centre to the transfer ports.

Ian

 

[Tin Falcon]

Dean if you go to the safety section they say this:

Supplied in kibbled form, these are large flakes of Aluminium Sulphate, also know as Alum. It is the traditional coagulant for water treatment applications including swimming pools with sand filters. In alkaline solution, Aluminium Hydroxide is formed which is insoluble and has a positive charge. The negatively charged particles, which contribute to water cloudiness, are attracted to the positive Aluminium Hydroxide particles, which become larger and heavier and more easily removed from the water. The best practice is to ensure that this takes place in the filter, not in the pool water itself. The following should be taken into consideration.

Tin

 

[Deanofid]

Thanks, Tin. That's what it says, alright.

This page says alum = aluminum potassium sulfate, and is not the same as aluminum sulfate.
I wonder who is right, and more importantly, does anyone know if the pool stuff will dissolve steel.

Dean

 

[boatmadman]

Today I thought I would have a go at some steam pipe and silver solder.

Not having done much ss before, I decided to do some practise items first. The first pic shows a flange blank ss’d to a short length of copper pipe and cut in half. As I wanted to be sure to get full penetration (ooeeerrr), I cut the item in half to have a look.

Success, it appears to have gone all the way through!

I then cut 2 more blanks and had a go at soldering from the pipe end, pic 2 shows the result, not so good, think again.

I then turned a flange with a spigot for the pipe to sit in with the idea of putting a ring of ss in the bottom of the spigot, apply heat and let it do its job, but, the pcd of the bolt holes is too small to let me do this with the design requirement of 4mm pipe, so, think again!

I then soldered blank flanges onto a length of pipe from the open end of the flange, filed back to near flat and finished on a flat plate – success, pics 3 and 4 show the results, with some added bling!

Next I needed to work out a way of getting 4 bits of pipe the same. Pic 5 shows a flange positioned 20mm or so from the end of the pipe., with flux and ready to solder.
Pic 6 sees that pipe in the tube bender, using the flange to locate for length, and pic 7 shows the pipe after bending.

Pics 7 and 8 show the finished and polished pipes. These will need to be cut to length to fit into the control block at a later stage.

Overall, I am happy with the results, they aren’t as good as some I have seen, but they’ll do!

Ian

 

[boatmadman]

and the rest

 

[boatmadman]

here we have engine no. 1 mostly assembled and timed. Just needs the blank plates fitting to the steam chests, the cylinder covers bolting on and the steam control block fitting.

It turns with two fingers on the flywheel, its just a little tight, but I hope it will improve with running in.

Now I have to wait for more copper pipe for the inlet/outlet connections.

Then I will have to beg steal or borrow a compressor!

Ian

 

[shred]

Looks good! If it turns over with a couple fingers, it should be a nice runner. If you put air on and it kicks but doesn't run, you might want to visit my 'paddleducks' thread around part where I was timing the engine-- I misinterpreted the instructions which caused no end of annoyance before I got it sorted.