Author Topic: 3 inch boiler build  (Read 53194 times)

Offline gary.a.ayres

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1297
  • Isle of Skye & sometimes France
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #300 on: August 26, 2019, 09:53:32 PM »
Following on from the post immediately above, this is fairly self-explanatory:



And below it is assembled and mounted on its stand, just waiting for all the attachments to be refitted and made steamtight. The alignment of the holes with the bushes still isn't perfect, and the banding could be tidier (it will be next time), but overall I think it's not too bad. It will be interesting to see how much the insulation affects its performance. I couldn't decide which of the two pictures I liked best so I posted both of them:





Cheers,

gary

Offline gary.a.ayres

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1297
  • Isle of Skye & sometimes France
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #301 on: September 01, 2019, 05:12:59 PM »


Sorry about the rubbish photo quality, but you get the idea. I will replace this photo with a decent one next time I run the boiler.

The boiler in its final, insulated form running on the pressurized kerosene burner. I also ran it on gas and on the pressurized alcohol burner. Very happy on all counts, particularly the alcohol which didn't work very well the only other time I tried it because I had the pressurizing bottle standing on its end, which is wrong. Today the bottle was on its side as it should be and it ran the boiler well with decent fuel economy. Sorry no pictures of that as I was photographically challenged today. Another time...

With this engine the boiler seems to sit quite comfortably at 25 psi and the setup will run with power to spare for long enough that I shut it down due to worrying that the cylinder will be dry of oil.

So, my fuel experiments with this boiler are at an end. I'm going to forget about running it on coal as I think it's really too small (Peter, you were right!). I'll save the coal for a bigger boiler in the future  :)

Only support pillars for the gas and alcohol burners to make now and this stage of the project will be complete.

Offline gary.a.ayres

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1297
  • Isle of Skye & sometimes France
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #302 on: September 04, 2019, 02:14:31 AM »
Up and running, and steaming nicely. Almost finished now...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg0CyX73uXo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg0CyX73uXo</a>

Offline MJM460

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1647
  • Melbourne, Australia
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #303 on: September 04, 2019, 06:35:30 AM »
Well done Gary, a very pleasing result after quite a long and interesting journey of exploration.  Nice to see it result in a working plant.  Your artistic input is also evident particularly in the engine, but also the boiler, particularly in the support structure.

Now some insulation for that steam pipe and a separator for the exhaust so it makes less mess on the bench.

MJM460

The more I learn, the more I find that I still have to learn!

Offline gary.a.ayres

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1297
  • Isle of Skye & sometimes France
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #304 on: September 04, 2019, 11:22:52 AM »
Hi MJM460.

As always, many thanks for your kind and encouraging words.

The next step will be to make support pillars for the other two burners that I plan to use interchangeably with the boiler (meths under pressure, and gas). The burners will be attached to these and the pillars will sit neatly in the circular ring on the base plate of the stand which will centre the flame under the boiler. Once that is done, I will consider the boiler itself to be finished.

After that, I plan to incorporate it all into a finished steam plant mounted on a proper base with tidier pipework, etc. A separator for the exhaust is already part of the plan, and I guess that it would make sense to follow your suggestion about insulating the steam pipe, even though I prefer the look of bare copper piping to white string-based insulation!

If you or any other forum members know of any other ways to insulate the pipes I'd be interested to know, so that I could consider the options.

 :ThumbsUp:

Offline MJM460

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1647
  • Melbourne, Australia
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #305 on: September 05, 2019, 10:05:57 AM »
Hi Gary, I use a few wraps of a self amalgamating silicon tape to insulate the piping.  The stuff I buy is grey, but I suspect other colours are available.  I probably don’t use enough thickness to be really effective, though it’s enough that an accidental light touch is less dangerous.  Not game to push the experiment in that direction to far.

It would probably be worth using the string first then covering that with a layer of silicone tape.

Alternatively you could follow full size practice and cover the insulation with sheet metal.  Full size use pre formed sheet, with little rolled edges to keep water out, and held in place with self tapping screws and stainless steel bands.  More practical for a model might be strips of aluminium foil spiral wound over the string.  It could be fixed with wire ties at intervals that “look right”.  An adhesive might even work better, as temperature should not be a problem as it is on the outside of the insulation.

Full size practice commonly is to leave fittings such as valves and flanges uninsulated, so you can follow this lead to avoid trying to insulate complex irregular shapes.

MJM460



The more I learn, the more I find that I still have to learn!

Offline gary.a.ayres

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1297
  • Isle of Skye & sometimes France
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #306 on: September 05, 2019, 03:04:36 PM »
Great ideas there, MJM 460. You have got me thinking...  :)

Thanks.

Offline gary.a.ayres

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1297
  • Isle of Skye & sometimes France
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #307 on: September 05, 2019, 11:23:24 PM »
Just ordered 2 rolls of self-amalgamating tape - one grey, one green.

Offline gary.a.ayres

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1297
  • Isle of Skye & sometimes France
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #308 on: September 08, 2019, 04:47:58 PM »
The three interchangeable burners are now complete:



They are all modified cooking stoves. On the left is 'The Punjabi Pressureblaster', a kerosene-fuelled pressurising stove of the Primus type, from India. Centre stage we have a pressurised alcohol burner which was hacked from a more modern style of kerosene camping stove and the nozzle drilled out to 1 mm, making it suitable for alcohol, and at right we have a gas burner.

They all do the job, so mix and match according to whim.

There is a locating ring fixed to the base of the burner stand, screwed on from underneath:



With the Punjabi Pressureblaster the ring is surplus to requirements as the burner is supported by the feed tube:



However, the other two burners drop neatly into the ring, which keeps them centred under the boiler and prevents them from being pulled out of position or capsized due to drag from the supply pipe:





And this brings the boiler to completion. Heartfelt thanks to the many of you who helped me with good advice along the way. It has been quite a learning curve, and I would have been stuffed without you.  :LittleAngel:

In the foreseeable future I'll embed a video about the burners here once I have edited it and posted it on youtube, after which I'll move on to a new thread in which I'll scoop up everything I have done so far and put it together into a properly finished steam plant.

Cheers Guys   :ThumbsUp:

gary

Offline Admiral_dk

  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3752
  • Søften - Denmark
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #309 on: September 08, 2019, 09:04:13 PM »
The finished boiler with accessories almost looks like a piece of art  :ThumbsUp:

Offline gary.a.ayres

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1297
  • Isle of Skye & sometimes France
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #310 on: September 08, 2019, 09:23:06 PM »
Per -

Thanks for this very kind comment!

As in art, so in life...   ;)

gary

Offline gary.a.ayres

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1297
  • Isle of Skye & sometimes France
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #311 on: September 09, 2019, 12:49:06 AM »
A video on the burners which more or less wraps up this long thread:

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8PZPjStQQ4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8PZPjStQQ4</a>

Cheers, and once again - thanks for all your help.

gary

Offline Gas_mantle

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1365
  • North Yorks - UK.
    • My Youtube channel
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #312 on: September 09, 2019, 03:19:12 PM »
Looks great Gary  :)

It's functional and attractive too, the base and the modular burner set up is a great idea.

How do the different burners compare in performance?

Offline gary.a.ayres

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1297
  • Isle of Skye & sometimes France
Re: 3 inch boiler build
« Reply #313 on: September 09, 2019, 03:35:18 PM »
Hi Peter   :)

Thanks for the feedback.

I'd say gas is the fiercest, but there is always the issue of the container getting cold and the output dropping. It always seems a bit self-defeating to me to have to run hot water out of the tap to warm the gas to heat the boiler to achieve consistent performance. I find it more pleasing to operate a pressurising pump by hand using liquid fuel.

Next most powerful is the Punjabi Pressureblaster.

 And last, the alcohol stove. But even it does the job quite satisfactorily, and for some reason I find using meths/denatured alcohol sort of satisfying.

 :ThumbsUp:

 

SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal