Building a steam engine

[Paddlemex]

I am opening a new thread here in the steam section because I decided I will build a steam engine for the Morangie Castle after all.
The engine is very much based on Geoff's engines he described very detailed in the Duke of Devonshire thread.

The first parts I made are the cylinders. Still need to finish the interior and make the pistons and rods.
As can be seen in the pictures I made a template for the holes of the fastening bolts. With that template I drilled the cylinders and the covers. All parts are interchangeable.
Then the cylinders were flattened with my home made flycutter and the base silversoldered.

Some necessary corrections already are necessary. I wanted to use 1/8" x 5/8" stock for the bases but had none. So I decided to use 1/8" x 1/2" stock. Just checked the drawings and I am short 0.7mm of overlap when the cylinder tilts. 
Will try to softsolder some "ears" to the base to cover this. Hope I don't mess up the whole thing.

Jurgen

P.S. Yes, I know … I should finish the ship first and then begin something else.

[Hankwilliams]

Very good decision, Jurgen. A functional steamboat model always is not only tecnical, but also magical. Nevertheless - in most cases the passion wth steam is like a  virus - once you have it, you will keep it.

Thomas

[Paddlemex]

I have decided to call this engine the Corona engine. For obvious reasons.

I think I saved the problem regarding the too small base of the cylinders. Soft soldered a 3 x 3 mm strip and re-faced the bottom with the flycutter. Looks acceptable to me. Soldering 2 strips was easier than soldering 4 "ears".

Then I "honed" the interior. I have seen this method in a forum of RC construction equipment. Those guys make their hydraulic cylinders that way. The process is very messy because I lubricated the sandpaper with oil. Luckily I shot the picture before applying the oil.
The pistons were pre-machined, then fixed on the rods with heat resistant Loctite and final machined with the rod in the lathe. That should be concentric.

When it came to make the chassis I noted I had no brass in the the required dimensions. Metal stores closed, since considered "non-esencial". Who says that?
So I decided to use aluminum and put some 2mm brass cladding on the sides. Applied a thin coat of high temp silicone for a seal. Don't know if that will work, so let's see.
Hope Keith Appleton doesn't read here because I have seen what he thinks of people using silicone.

For the steam ports I made a small jig to get the holes aligned correctly. Saw that somewhere here in the forum.

Jurgen

[DamienG]

Great job well done.

[Paddlemex]

Now I have drilled the steam passages and made the reversing valve.
For the reversing valve I used my Dremel fixed in a home made support and rotated the chuck by hand.
I soft soldered the connecting pipes to the valve body because I was concerned about distorting the part when using more heat to silver solder. I guess it will hold.

Still have to make the valve lever.
I made a mistake when cutting the threads on the piston rods. Now they are 4mm too long. Doesn't seem to be a big problem, but my M4 die has a hard time to cut into the silver steel.
It slips in the lathe chuck. I cut the original threads fixing the rod in the drill chuck which seems to clamp harder. But I can't do that now that the piston is loctited to the rod. So either I try to loosen the rod from the piston (and probably ruin the piston) or go through the pain of cutting the thread on the lathe which means changing oily gears. Messy matter.

Anyway, with some good luck and no more unforeseen complication she should run on compressed air this weekend.

Jurgen

[DamienG]

 

[Paddlemex]

Hello Everybody

I have not disappeared, but I have massive problems to connect to Paddleducks.
I can only connect via my cell phone having the Wifi disconnected. With any Wifi (at home, at the office, at friends, ...) I get the “Page can not be shown” error message.
I don’t why and I don’t know what to do about it. Can only hope  it fixes by itself.

The engine ran fine on compressed air last weekend and I am making the displacement lubricator now.
Pictures when I can connect from my PC again.

Jurgen

[Paddlemex]

OK, just after having typed the above message on my cell phone I tried again and was able to open the page.
Since I don´t know if it just luck or if it will be permanent here two pictures of the finished engine.

I have to confess that I never liked the bracket Geoff uses on his engines to hold the cylinders together (I mentioned that I used Geoff's as an inspiration, for mine, well, I shamelessly copied it  ). When looking at a Krick Victor engine I found the solution: springs!
I had to cut a little recess in engine body to make place for the springs.
The rubber bands shall be replaced by springs once I find appropriate ones, but for the test run they worked fine.

I will upload the video of the test run in a moment.

Jurgen

[Paddlemex]

Here the video of last weekend's test run.
https://youtu.be/cWI7vQr6J_4

[rendrag]

I have not disappeared, but I have massive problems to connect to Paddleducks.
I can only connect via my cell phone having the Wifi disconnected. With any Wifi (at home, at the office, at friends, ...) I get the “Page can not be shown” error message.
I don’t why and I don’t know what to do about it. Can only hope  it fixes by itself.

Jurgen

Hey Jurgen,

Do me a favour - next time it plays up, do two things for me:

1) go and visit http://myip.mysau.com.au/ and copy the IP address it says you are currently on
2) also go to http://ping.pe/www.paddleducks.co.uk and let it run for a minute or two, then click the link towards the bottom of the page that says 'save as image' - watch that area, and it'll give you a URL just after it within 10 seconds or so. 

Copy and paste both of those things, and and shoot me an email at rendrag at rendrag.net and that should help me track down why you're not able to visit the site

Thanks!

Damien Jnr

[Paddlemex]

Thanks Damián,
I will, but after several montes of not being able to connect  from home and a week from the office it now works from both.
Murphy seems to be involved.

Jurgen

[Paddlemex]

The connection problem seems to have been solved just after notifying it here. May I should have complained earlier 
I don´t know if Damien Jr. did something about it, but thanks anyway Damien.

I have finished the displacement lubricator and will solder the oil separator today.
Then I should continue with the boiler, but I don't have the material and due to the restrictions I can not go and purchase it. So the boiler will have to wait and I am going back to finish the Morangie Castle.

Jurgen

[DamienG]

 

[Paddlemex]

Thanks for the applause Damien.

Soldered the oil separator.

Then I remembered that somewhere we have one of those hand held steam cleaning units which my wife never uses. Since I am unable to build the boiler at this time I thought  … what if I connected this thing to the engine?
So after some searching I found the unit and hijacked it. 
What would you say? It works!! The unit produces quite some steam and moves the engine. I will make a video.
I also learned something important. If an engine runs on live steam it gets very hot. Don't touch it!

Jurgen

[Hankwilliams]

It seems really Mercedes Benz quality, Jurgen!