Steam engine for a sternwheeler

[apointofview]

Thanks Guys !!
I can start to see the light at the end of this tunnel I got myself into.
I am really looking forward to seeing it 'steaming' on the pond and not 'sinking'
Pete

 

[apointofview]

A little more progress, this time on the smoke stack. I used a 1.5 inch brass tail piece I found at Home Depot. Its chromed on the outside so I will have to rough that surface up for paint. I made the fatter parts of the pipe out of oak. I dont have brass tube that size so this is what I came up with. I glued several layers of board together and then turned them on my lathe to get the right look. The flared part of the stack was done with my mill and a ziz wheel. I marked off 30 degree increments and then rotated the tube and made a cut. The tapers were just eyeballed and shaped with a sanding disk. I bent the points around a dowel to get a good radius. I think it came out pretty good !
Pete

 

[barnesrickw]

Awesome detail.

 

[apointofview]

Its been awhile since I last updated because the wood work isnt really a good fit to this forum, but the completion of the whole machine fits !

Big day for me today, I put the boat into the test tank and ran it on air. Everything went great, one problem with one of the cam push rods getting loose and water getting in the hull when the paddle runs in full reverse. Other than that it floats exactly where it needs to with 5 lbs of ballast in the bow and she didn't leak a drop. I didn't run on steam because the gas feed system isn't finished, but the full tank of fuel was on board.

The engines are running but they are not timed to my liking right now. With a few tweaks to the cams and the throttle valves it should get smoother like it ran on the bench.

Still have a few details to finish out like a servo mount for the whistle valve and gas shutoff valve. Wiring for the lights has a ways to go and leak check of the water supply tanks and pump. I had to make an extension for the manual side of my boiler feed water pump because of my lack of planning. When I extended to bow to get more buoyancy I forgot to check the clearance of the pump handle so when I remounted the pump I found I had no access to the handle with the extended superstructure in place. Oops, well I have a handle mounted up on the bow now with a push rod under the deck to operate the pump. The handle is removable when its not in use and its actually a better setup now.

I am sure there are a few other items that need completing that I haven't thought of too.

Getting a bit excited to see it out on the water on its own power !!

Video and pics of the day,

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQHisuJegus[/ame]
































Pete

 

[barnesrickw]

Beautiful boat. A true work of art.

 

[RonGinger]

That is a fine model. Are you likely to bring it to the NAMES or Cabin Fever shows? Cabin Fever would be great because of the boat pond where you could run it. I would sure like to see it up close.

 

[ozzie46]

Very impressive looking and running model. You did well.

Ron

 

[apointofview]

Thanks guys, its been fun building it but a lot more work than I originally thought it would be ! I started out just with wanting to build the engines, but once they were far enough along to see they would work I thought running them in a boat would be neat. I had no idea at the time what that little whim would get me into

As far as hauling this boat out to a show, I have been shooting for getting it up to the Cabin Fever show this January. I don't know if I can get her done by then, but my wife thinks I will. So much so she has booked our room and looking for stuff to see in the area and on the way up there.

NAMES doesn't allow running on steam so I wont go there, its not cheap to get to these shows living way down in Georgia, and not being able to run her would put a damper on the fun.

Pete

 

[charlesfitton]

Amazing - great project.

(did you sneak a little "get home" motor in there?)

 

[apointofview]

charlesfitton - yep...good eye, there is a jet drive setup made from part of a pvc drain trap from home depot and a plastic three blade propeller running on a brass rod in a close fitting brass tube. There are so many reasons the paddle might quit turning while the boat is out of reach so this seemed like a good backup. I am going to add a deflector to the exhaust to direct the water down a bit, because as it sits the water column hits the paddle buckets pretty hard ( it even turns it slowly ) and it seems to make it a lot less effective.
Sure is funny that just that little electric motor and prop moves that whole boat pretty well and is a whole lot less complicated than the steam system

It doesn’t do it with much style though....
Pete

 

[apointofview]

The day finally arrived ! Lots of work here and there chasing down gremlins and bad initial designs on my part to get to this day.

Everything went great it didnt sink, burn, or break down !!

The boat by the numbers works out like this :
47lbs, 6ft long, 18 inches wide, 27 inches tall. A 30min boiler firing and run consumes almost 1/2 gallon of water, burns 4oz of propane, produces 8oz of oil/water mix in the condensation tanks.

It is super quiet, all you hear is the paddle hitting the water and a little bit of the steam exhaust. ( most the noise in the videos is a road nearby )

I carried a block of foam on the bow that had 80lb test fishing line on a reel attached to heavy structure on the boat. The idea was that the foam would float in a sinking event bringing the reel of line to the surface for a recovery.

Forgot a fire extinguisher that day but didnt need it

The picture with the big plume of steam on the right side oops i mean starboard side of the front of the boat is the 40psi relief valve blowing. The backup 42psi relief valve exits forward over the bow to let me know which one opened. If the second one goes its time to shutdown it should never hit the higher valve.

Pete



Video - https://youtu.be/BSn42yYE9_A
Video - https://youtu.be/mG-1L4AHjOU

 

[Cogsy]

Extremely cool and beautiful work. I doubt I'd have the courage to risk such a masterpiece on the water but it's obviously built to be enjoyed. Congrats!

 

[RonGinger]

WOW! That is spectacular. great job. It runs at a nice slow speed, very realistic looking.

 

[pickleford75]

That is a thing of beauty..... congrats on a very nice build!

 

[Blogwitch]

Fantastic work there Pete.
It is such a shame all your hard engineering work is covered up when running, but of course there is always the WOW factor when you take the superstructure off.

John

 

[Swifty]

Amazing model, the detail is incredible. Mickey Mouse is a nice touch.

Paul.

 

[apointofview]

Thanks for the kind words !

Cogsy - Yep it was terrifying to send it out on the water, This little pond is only 8 ft deep supposedly but the thought of sinking was in my mind the whole time. The other biggie was fire. It had a small fire during bench running that I got out fast, but way out on the water with a pound of propane, it would take awhile to get it back to put it out and that dry wood would burn nicely i bet. With all that I had to float it for my own sanity, It had to work at least once to make it successful in my mind.

RonGinger - I was actually running it faster than it could because that made the exhaust look better under a little more power. I had thought about somehow adding drag to the system to get more pressure in the exhaust yet keep the paddle slow.



pickleford75 - Thanks, I am really happy with the results. I am no scale boat builder though. Looking around the net at pictures of boats guys have built is really amazing. I wanted just enough to look nice but the whole goal was to make the engines do their job with some style.

John - Yep it is hard to see but on a bench raised up you can actually see quite a bit because it is so open. I deviated from the original full scale boat back in the engine area because I wanted to see the engine better. The Disney boat has solid walls on the aft section of the lowest level, I just continued the post and rails the full length.


Paul - Thanks, the characters were actually my wife's idea. She even found the safari versions that fit the feel of the boat perfectly.

Pete

 

[tms6401]

A wonderful end to an incredible build. That is a job well done for sure and an accomplishment you can be extremely proud of.

Tom

 

[ozzie46]

Fantastic job.
Some of you may remember Mickey Mouse actually started life as Steam Boat Willy. Seems as thou he returned to his roots.

Ron

 

[bouch]

The day finally arrived ! Lots of work here and there chasing down gremlins and bad initial designs on my part to get to this day.

Everything went great it didnt sink, burn, or break down !!

Wonderful work! Very jealous! Have LOTS of fun with it!

Mike