Boiler water

[bogstandard]

Derek,

Just to answer your last comment first, it is a nice contrast if you don't want to paint something, brass and ali also has the same sort of contrast effect. The was a quickie knockup hence all the scratches and such, just to explain a principle.

With ref to your other queries, the exhaust is larger than the inlet. This is attempting to make the steam expand in the chamber, so dropping the low exhaust pressure even further, forcing the steam into releasing condensation, at the same time the 'bent' pipe is directing the steam downwards and onto the cooling outside face of the chamber and swirling the steam about, again forcing it to drop more water, laden with oil.
If you are getting high pressures at the exhaust, to me, either the engine is grossly inefficient or your are running with too much pressure in the first place.

The cap is a fairly tight fit, but not all that heavy.

I have been making them this way for many years and never had a cap lift off. In fact I have made them with loose caps with the same operating results. They just rattle about a bit, usually due to vibration from the engine.

Here is mine next to a very expensive commercial unit that I bought about 20 years ago, and is an absolute crap design, because you can't easily empty it at the end of a run.



John

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's & thanks Bogstandard for the  comments .........I too found the standard "de-oiler"...offered as common between all suppliers....but lacking somewhat as you describe

A quick e-mail to ACS confirmed the option screwed port with screwed plug etc...so as to remove/evacuate the left over oil

PS......we are still waiting for another EXPERIENCED model steamer....for a listing or protocol prior to >>>>>>> steaming or bench testing???

[malcolmbeak]

John

Looking at that commercial oil trap, I wonder what it's like inside. I assume that the inlet is the pipe almost tangenrial to the side, one of the others should be the steam outlet right at the top of the container, and the other should go to the bottom so the contents could be sucked or blown out. I have made a few like that and have had no trouble. The picture shows (amongst other things) the oil trap on the plant I built for a 24 hour endurance run. Thats the red container. Steam enters at the top and blows down onto the top of a 90 degree cone that finishes a short way from the bottom of the trap. The idea being that as the steam expands and slows down, the oil is deposited onto the surface of the cone and collects in the bottom of the container. At the left hand side there are two exits, you can see the top one, but the bottom one is hidden by the by-pass valve. Each exit has a valve which is operated by the vertical shaft seen passing through the top one. This switches the exhaust between the top and bottom.
The container should really be lagged as we don't want it to fill with condensate - only the oil. On start up, the bottom valve is open so that condensate from the whole system heating up are expelled. Once steam is coming out, the valves are switched and exhaust goes into the flue and up the funnel. At the end of the run, the valves are switched again to expel any oil etc. This has worked very well even on extended runs of an hour or so.
Oh, and the top of the container can be unscrewed if I want to give it a good clean out.
Malcolm

[bogstandard]

Malcom,

I know the ins and outs of the commercial ones and why you designed yours as you did.
Mine is designed so that a rank amateur can knock one up with basically what is at hand, and get a working oil trap.
For the sort of people mine is aimed at, it is perfect, and they don't mind emptying it every hour when it fills up with condensate.
I am a firm believer in keeping things very simple. Less to go wrong, and usually easier to operate.
I have had people yanking out their complicated engines and popping in one of my oscillators, purely because they were fed up with fiddling rather than sailing.

John

[derekwarner_decoy]

OK PD's.... we have certainly progressed a little from the humble filling of the boiler with water 

...............but still await the "song & verse of the steam set-up" by an experinced PD member 

HOW much MOORE caan,,,,,,,,,it be ?...or should I ask Bandit & Vinnie...to respond?

[bogstandard]

Derek,

There is no such thing as a 'song and verse' for setting up a steam plant, only general notes, as each installation is usually custom fitted with doodahs and dongles that the owner deems is necessary to fit to his/her engine.

I do have one thing that I do class as important. That is the fitting of two steam control on/off valves in the line to the engine.
The first one is fitted to the top of the boiler, to allow the raising of steam to be carried out without feeding condensate laden steam to the engine while pressure builds up. Then the engine feed pipe is heavily lagged until it reaches the second control valve, that is usually fitted just before the luber.
This second valve is adjusted until the engine is running at its most efficient, then tightened in that position. There is nothing worse than seeing steam coming from all the joints on an engine because it is being over pressurized. Just enough, and no more is the order of the day. You will also find that the run times also extend dramatically when you are not wasting steam. To service the luber it is just a matter of turning off the valve on top of the boiler.

Another thing to be wary of is steam being fed up the funnel. Two reasons, one for safety and the other to protect your investment.

Even if you are feeding steam from a separator, be careful of the run lines to the funnel. Keep them as shallow an angle as possible. Condensate will gather in tight bends and be fired out of the pipework when pressure overcomes the weight. A face full of hot condensate tends to spoil your day. A spit trap on top of the pipe would be a good idea.
The other reason is to protect your investment. If firing up the chimney, get the pipe as near the top of the funnel as possible, or even up the outside. I found out the hard way, condensate formed onto the chimney inside wall and ran down onto the top of my vertical boiler, then found its way down the firetubes and dripped onto my ceramic gas burner, effectively ruining it and also setting up corrosion that removed the heatproof paint around the burner area.

These are just a few of my views, other people might have different suggestions.

John, Bandit the dog & Vinnie the mog.

[Bierjunge]

Here's an oil trap I just built because I couldn't find a suitable horizontal one. I got an old brass oil can on ebay (if you search for "eagle brass oil can 66" you might get the idea) of which I cut out the cylindrical middle section. Then I hand-hammered two bottoms out of brass sheet and soldered them to the tubular section.
The steam enters through the nozzle on the top. The exhaust pipe starts at the opposite (rear) end of the tank and runs long the apex of the tank, before it leaves the tank on the front end. Thus, the steam has to travel through the entire tank and make a 180 deg turn before entering the exhaust pipe, giving it the chance to dispose of oil and water drops.
The hex screw cap on top comes from the local hardware store (plumbing supply) and is large enough to drain the whole thing by means of a large syringe.
Regards, Moritz

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's...Moritz...please.... you should tell PD's more as you build....like

the engine?
the boiler?
the accessories?

The new ..your de...oiler?....many years ago we could purchase "Welsh Plugs" both in steel & brass for motor engines....not sure if the brass variant is still availble

From the current engine .jpg....are you intending for the engine to be a model on the base plate?

Many PD's would await your steam comments....... regards

[Bierjunge]

Hi Derek,

Hi PD's...Mortiz...please.... you should tell PD's more as you build....like

the engine?
the boiler?
the accessories?

Sooner or later, I will present this project in a seperate thread, therefore just a few comments:
The engine is a Graham TVR1A (real fun to assemble!), the boiler is the double flue Regner boiler. It may be bit oversized for the engine, but I hope to get some operation time reserves at low power, and some speed reserves on the other hand.

From the current engine .jpg....are you intending for the engine to be a model on the base plate?

No. It is meant to propel a 1:10 scale spar torpedo launch (hull still to be built...).
The wooden base plate is just a temporary rig to do the packaging of the components and the tubing job.

Regards, Moritz

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's..... ...you & ENGINEMAN could have Thornycraft PT boat races - regards