Author Topic: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil  (Read 36666 times)

Offline K.B.C

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Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« on: November 20, 2013, 12:06:47 PM »
Having recently signed up and asked by Jo to show some pics of my flash steam plant efforts and as it's not a machining build I hope this is the correct place to post.

In 2001 I read in one of the M.E. mags of a video showing the exploits of a Mr R. Kirtley and his flash steam hydro I bought the Video and was hooked.
I wanted to put this in a boat but not to race it around the pole, it had to be R/Controlled here is my efforts on the engine and coil.

The first pic is a Cross Section of R.Kirtley's engine PICESS 11 and from this I made my own drawings in order to build the engine.
2nd pic is the finished engine but never dreamed that it would be so successful, so if I may now continue with some pics as I progressed.

3rd pic is of the cylinder which is 1.125" bore x 3/4" stroke and is made from Mehanite grade cast iron  with the exhaust slots shown at the bottom of the piston stroke,these were all drilled and filed by hand as at the time I didn't have a Mill.
4Th pic is the cast iron piston made from Mehanite grade cast iron and It is machined to take a cast iron Dyked ring, which if you look at the cross section it has an " L " shaped cross section so that the steam pressure acts on the inside of the ring pushing it against the cylinder wall.

Pic 5  Is of the Con rod which had to be High grade Dural but as I couldn't buy any of this material in small pieces I used a piece from the crank shaft of my light weight cycle ( not the one in use I may add ) it Has a 3/8" bore needle roller bearing pushed into the big end and a Cast Gunmetal bush in the small end. 

Pic 6  Is of the piston and the con rod assembly with the hollow bored gudgeon pin ready to be pushed in and held with a pin from the underside skirt of the piston.

I hope that this is of interest and I shall continue with the engine before going on to the Coil.

George.
Your never too old to learn.

Online steamer

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2013, 12:33:18 PM »
Cool!    I'm going to get into this one a bit tonight!

Dave
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit!

fcheslop

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2013, 10:43:40 PM »
Eagerly waiting for the next post :ThumbsUp:
Is this the one that set fire to you're lasses flowers
I will take cover
cheers

Online steamer

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2013, 01:00:46 AM »
Nice read George!....I'm going to be adding more economizer to my boat....I am very interested in your sizing calculations for heating surface.


 :ThumbsUp:


Dave
 
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit!

Offline Florian Eberhard

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2013, 09:49:45 AM »
Hi George

Please continue with more details! It is a rare occasion to read something about flash steam engines and also flash steam boilers which makes it even more interesting!!  :cheers:

Florian

Offline K.B.C

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2013, 11:27:06 AM »
Eagerly waiting for the next post :ThumbsUp:
Is this the one that set fire to you're lasses flowers
I will take cover
cheers

Guys ,
This is a bit of a private joke but I will explain it later when I get to the fire up stage, after I have beaten Mr Heslops head in with a large cudgel, after all what are friends for,  it's as well that he is about 200 mls from me .
George.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2013, 11:34:12 AM by K.B.C »
Your never too old to learn.

Offline ths

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #6 on: November 21, 2013, 11:42:09 AM »
I'm much further that 200 miles, and I don't care if it works or not, but I love the look of that engine. What colour cudgel do you prefer?

Cheers, Hugh.

Offline Stilldrillin

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #7 on: November 21, 2013, 01:10:22 PM »
after all what are friends for,  it's as well that he is about 200 mls from me .
George.

George.

I'm going to enjoy this. :ThumbsUp:

All I know about flash steam, came from Frazer. He's around 125mls from me. Just far enough, at times.......  ;)

David D
David.
Still modifying bits of metal... Occasionally, making an improvement!
Still drilling holes... Sometimes, in the right place!

fcheslop

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #8 on: November 21, 2013, 02:51:13 PM »
Thanks gentlemen its nice to know I'm so popular and I thought they were friends
On a serious note thanks for posting George as you know the interest is rekindling and I have burning desire to build a plant.
I will go quietly

Offline K.B.C

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #9 on: November 21, 2013, 08:36:51 PM »
Continuing with the Flash steam engine pictures.

No 1
The crank case was made from a piece of 2" square Ali, a simple 4- jaw procedure.
The cast iron cylinder is bolted on a machined ring and the Ali ring shown is the exhaust ring before the exhaust stub was welded in.

No2

The main shaft which has 3/8" bore ball race at the front end and a 5/16" bore ball race at the rear, the main shaft is machined from a 1/2" dia high tensile bolt and the "V' pully flywheel has a pull cord to start the engine.
Fitted on to the main shaft is a cam with 1/32" lift to operate the poppet valve and is driven by a dog clutch on the boss behind the balanced flywheel at the front.
Unfortunately at the time I never had any pics of the main shaft and the fittings but no doubt you get the drift.
When inserted in the Ali housing the whole lot is pulled together by the large hex nut on the main shaft which also has a drive dog for the prop shaft.

No3-4

Is of the drive assemble inserted into the Ali crank case and at this point the cylinder head and steam chest are bolted on,the cylinder head is made from a billet of mild steel, by this time I had purchased a mill/drill which was far too light but I managed to get the cylinder head made using only about 30 fuses, this mill drill is now replaced with a very much heavier one.
The steam chest has 4- bolts holding it on to the cylinder and inside this is a cast iron valve guide  to take the poppet valve which sits in a seat of the same metal.
The pic shows a 5/32" dia rod placed in on top of the cam guide just to show the position.
The cylinder head has the steam inlet and the other at 90deg is for the lubricator ( more later )

No 5

Is the poppet valve which fits inside the cast iron guide in the cylinder head, I tried various type of metal for this, High tensile steel for the valve and the seat but the heat wa such that it burned the edges of the valve,
next I tried silver steel hardened but the heat just softened the valve and the seat  to eventually after talking to R Kirtley I machine the valve and the seat from the exhaust valve of a Cummins diesel engine which cured the problem and it's still in after 2- years.

The poppet valve is held in place with collets at the base just like the old petrol engines and held in tension with a strong spring which I wind myself , at the top of the spring there has to be a heat sink other wise the spring would be annealed every time the engine ran and the tension would be gone requiring a new spring, the heat sink material is SANDNYO a very hard ceramic material which can be machined.

No 6,

Bit out of position but this shows main shaft assembly bolted to the crank case with the exhaust ring fitted before stub is welded in.

NO7.
Poppet valve fitted and held in place with spring, heat sink shown at top of spring.
Wrong size of pic and don't know how to delete a pic once posted .
New pic posted.

Next post I can get on to the fuel and water pumps.

George.


« Last Edit: November 21, 2013, 09:03:38 PM by K.B.C »
Your never too old to learn.

Offline K.B.C

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #10 on: November 23, 2013, 04:07:35 PM »
Continuing to put the engine together I needed to make a drive for the water and fuel pump.
this consisted of an extension of the main shaft and then a 90 deg cross shaft .

No 1
I started with a block of Ali and machined the shape on my new mill which allowed much heavier cuts, once the bracket shape was done the black marked piece had to come out.

No 2

Shows the mounting plate for the bracket , it had to be lined up to be straight thro' from the main shaft and sat on the machined register for alignment.

No 3.

The final shape of the pump drive bracket with the 3/16" ball races fitted and shaft lined up

No 4

The pump bracket and the adapter plate to line the bracket up with the main shaft and the drive disc to take up on the crank pin of the main shaft.
This disc is mounted on a shaft with 2- ball races fitted and the worm and wheel to drive the pump shaft.
This is a 4- start worm to give a 6/1 reduction from the main shaft.
On final bench test the engine was doing 15,000 rpm so the pumps are driving at quite a speed.

No5.

The drive disc to with holes to pic up from the engine crank pin, only one is used the other hole is for balancing the shaft.

No6

The final assembly with the cross shaft and the main shaft mounted on ball races and lined up with the main engine shaft.

No 7,

The exhaust jacket with the exhaust stub welded in, it's now beginning to look like an engine, I shall start soon on the water and fuel pumps.

George.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2013, 04:10:56 PM by K.B.C »
Your never too old to learn.

Offline K.B.C

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #11 on: November 24, 2013, 09:01:44 PM »
WATER AND FUEL PUMPS.

No 1  The fuel and water pump were made from the same block of Ali, water pump is 1/4" dia ram and fuel pump is 3/16" dia.
The fuel pump is made side by side of the water pump to keep the fuel cool and stops vaporization.
Fuel mix is 4/1 ( 4 Paraffin to 1 petrol ) the little bit of petrol aids start up.

No 2.

The bracket bolted to the side of the crank case, this at a later date had to be made a little bit longer as it kept slackening off.

No 3

Water and fuel pump.
The 3/16" dia fuel pump has a latch on it which connects to the water pump to allow me to get the burners working before the engine takes over on start up , just before starting the latch is connected back to the fuel pump.

Pumps are driven from a disc on the cross shaft and the stroke is adjustable by tapped holes in the disc to shorten or lengthen the stroke, by experiment 3/8" stroke is about right.
Connecting rod is made from the same bicycle Dural crank and has a needle race fitted.

No 4

Ball valves are fitted to both pumps and are set at .015" lift

No5.

The hand pump like the fuel pump is required to pump water into the coil after the burners have heated the coil, so after firing up the burners water is pumped into the coil until pressure is felt and with the fuel pump latch in place the engine can be fired by the pull cord on the "V" notch in the fly wheel.
The water pump bore is in direct line with the engine driven water pump and the latch on the water pump hold it in place while the engine pump takes over.

No 6.

The completed engine.

Burners and coil next.

George.



Your never too old to learn.

Offline tvoght

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #12 on: November 25, 2013, 12:42:40 AM »
This is very interesting, George.

--Tim

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #13 on: November 25, 2013, 12:45:51 AM »
Very Interesting!


Keep it coming George!

Dave
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit!

Offline K.B.C

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Re: Flash Steam Engine and Steam Coil
« Reply #14 on: November 25, 2013, 12:20:32 PM »
FLASHSTEAM COIL.


As it's freezing fog outside today I decided to continue with the Flash steam pics in the warmth of the house.

The coil is 32 ft long and is made from 316 stainless 1/4" dia O.D. tube, as the tube only comes in 6 m lengths i has to have a welded sleeve joint to get the 32 ft.

No 1

This is what I had to achieve so a tapered former had to be made to wind the tube on to.

No2

The former was made from a piece of red hard wood found at the local timber yard and of no use to the yard.
The finished taper was 3" at one end down to 1.5" at the other, nothing very technical, all done by eye.

No 3

The tube was wound on to the front 3" dia part by using a spanner on the 3- jaw, barring it round and trying to keep the tension on the tube at the same time , so you can imagine the carry on with 6 m of tube wafting behind you

No 4

The rear part of the coil is wound on the smaller dia  by the same method.

No5 

When both parts were wound I made a stainless sleeve and a friend Tig welded the joint, this is the only way to with stand the intense heat on the joint, at this point I could arrange the coil to have 1/4" gap between each coil and turn the last few at 90 deg to the main coil.

No 6.

 The short pipe at the 3" dia end is the steam pipe to the engine and the long pipe to the smaller end is the water feed to the coil

Now having the coil made the next thing was the casing and the burners.

George.

 
Your never too old to learn.

 

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