Steam feed water pump

[Paul_C]

Now that my fathers steamboat has made it's maiden voyage and runs well on the water the limiting factor is needing to bring it back in every 5 minutes to hand pump in more feed water. In the youtube links below is the type of feed water pump I'm looking to build. Does anybody have any links, plans or info to build one. I'm not looking for a scale model, just one that works. I saw a picture of a Coles steam pump but it looks a little too too elaborate and is a bit pricey. If there is another kit available it would sure be considered. Thanks, Paul.


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQpoNa4C9Qk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQpoNa4C9Qk[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_6f1FLuN4w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_6f1FLuN4w[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxTzQhD6PlQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxTzQhD6PlQ[/ame]

Here's a video of the maiden voyage in the neighbors pool. The burner is fueled with a Coleman propane/butane camping gas. There is a full cabin that has to be finished and installed along with all the little detail accessory's. Building a "working" boat is more fun since everything doesn't have to be perfect.

 

[Jasonb]

Southworth Engines do several different ones.

http://www.southworthengines.smartemail.co.uk/pumps.htm

Model Engineer has recently covered the build of one and there is another in the following thread

http://modeleng.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=statgeneral&action=display&thread=4361

Jason

 

[gbritnell]

Paul,
Years ago I built the Stuart single acting steam pump, first because it was unique and second to supply my Stuart stationery boiler setup. The problem with a single acting pump is when you apply enough pressure to pump the water then on the return stroke where there is no load the piston rod shoots back to it's starting position. "So what" you say, well with it returning so fast it can't pull the water from the supply tank quick enough so it cavitates. By cavitate I mean it pulls air with the water and then when the piston is on the pump stroke it gets erratic because it's not pumping all water. I could never get it to work properly.
Years later there was an article in Live Steam, I believe. It was a build article on a scratch built double acting pump. I built one of those because I always thought that the piston/valve action was fascinating to watch. Now this thing pumps water!!! You might contact Live Steam magazine and see if you can get a back reprint of that issue. I'm sure I have it somewhere but boy I'd have to dig to find it. It would probably be a little large for your boat but could probably be scaled down to a more suitable size.
gbritnell

 

[Paul_C]

Thanks for the links Jason. Although the Southwest little duplex looks about right I was looking for something simpler and cheaper. Also looking to get something built in the next few weeks. It did send me on an R/D quest and I started to sketch up my own.

gbritnell, I looked at Live Steam publications online. Does the article titled "Steam Pump Project - But not for Amateurs" by Donald Haskins sound about right. It's listed as Vol 31, No 1, Jan/Feb 97. Unfortunately Live Steam only has back issues to 2007. I agree that a double acting pump would work better. Preliminary napkin drawings seemed to suggest a double acting feed pump wouldn't be that much more complicated. Only reason I could see a single acting pump being simpler was if the steam cylinder and pump cylinder were one piece but then the valve gear would get more complex.

I disassembled a steam feed water pump I have from the Overman Automobile Co. Just a bit too complicated to scale down and make easily but over a hundred years old it still works well. One thing I noticed was the steam piston and water pump piston were the same 1 1/2 inch diameter. Research and common sense say the water piston should be smaller but perhaps it wasn't a feed water injector. I don't mind design, trial and error but was looking for prints that would avoid the error part since I was looking to get something constructed in short time. Anybody have a copy or scan of the Live Steam article but I'm not looking on anyone to impinge on copyright.

Thanks all,
Paul

 

[Dan Rowe]

Paul,
Here is a set of pump plans. They are for castings that most likely are no longer available but the designs can be made from bar stock. Half way down the page:
http://www.livesteamsupplies.com/livesteamsupplies_004.htm

Dan

 

[Paul_C]

Thanks Dan, I ordered the book. I browsed akrailways website previously and didn't see the book but it is a rather confusing website.

Paul

 

[bearcar1]

What if you were to build a small pump that could be driven off of the crankshaft, using an eccentric strap for motivation. That would eliminate the need for a steam cylinder etc. Terrific looking hull BTW, what ship is it modeled after?

BC1
Jim

 

[steamer]

Guess I am glad I got my Duplex pump when I did! ???

Dave

 

[Paul_C]

Thanks for the compliments Jim. The hull is a 36" Dumas "Shelly Foss" Wood tug boat hull originally designed as a twin screw electric now converted to single screw with the PM Research twin oscillator engine. My father built the boat and designed the mechanicals. I just built the boiler, burner and a few other plates and brackets.

My first thought was to make a simple crankshaft coupled to a jackshaft driven from the engine. The hand feed pump is perpendicular right behind the engine and would be simple to do but thoughts were we would need to counteract the suction stroke with a spring to counteract the varying load of a single action pump, and things got complicated from there. Also the the prop/engine/hull drag combination seems to be perfect so we don't want to put an additional load on the engine. So the next idea is to build a separate steam condensate pump. Additional advantage would be to fill the boiler while the boat is stationary and also have control, there are a few unused channels on the transmitter. "And then maybe we can build an infrared TRX to monitor the level through the sight glass to automatically fill the boiler." OK, one thing at a time, dad. Our other interest/hobby is electronics.

Anyway, got the book and will probably start construction on the #2 twin double acting but convert it to a single cylinder double acting.

Paul

 

[ChooChooMike]

gbritnell, I looked at Live Steam publications online. Does the article titled "Steam Pump Project - But not for Amateurs" by Donald Haskins sound about right. It's listed as Vol 31, No 1, Jan/Feb 97. Unfortunately Live Steam only has back issues to 2007.

I just looked at that article (I have the Live Steam issue) and it's really about (re)building a Stuart model steam pump. So not sure it'd be of any use to you.

Mike

 

[Florian]

Hi Paul

The second Movie shows my pump..
Here you can read more about it:
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=2558.0

But it did never work properly up to now... (and some weeks ago I tried again to get it working but then decided to stop because it seemed to be impossible)

Now, i am building a new version...

By the way: Was that you asking for the size of it on Youtube?

Florian

 

[Paul_C]

Hi Florian,

Nice pump. Now that I see the link I remember seeing it here from a search but didn't realize the youtube was the same. It wasn't me asking the size. Certainly looks like it works well. I like how you brazed the valve chest to the cylinder. My father decided to design his own taking some inspiration from the akrailways book and have me machine it. He came up with a unique valve design but I'm sure someone thought of it before. It's a fun collaboration because during machining and brainstorming he's trying to design a pump that's simple to build but doesn't realize there are other ways of machining things that just seem more complex.