Author Topic: New Mills Pumping Station  (Read 55455 times)

Offline steam guy willy

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New Mills Pumping Station
« on: April 16, 2021, 02:09:27 AM »
Hi All ,I am now starting on a new build which is the machinery inside the New Mills Pumping station that is here in Norwich about 500 yards from my house. This pumping station used the river water turbine to pump air into the sewerage system to activate  the " Shone Pnewmatic ejectors "to move the sewerage around the city to the sewerage works situated further down the river. Here are photos old and new of the buildings and the equipment installed from 1898 to the present day.

Willy

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2021, 02:13:27 AM »
here are more pics and thanks to Crewby for supplying me with the info from the US about the turbines

Willy

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2021, 02:35:02 AM »
A model of this was started by someone else about 20 years ago and this is how far they got . However this would be a very large model so I am starting again to make it half size !! The turbine parts are quite involved and all the numerous curved parts need to be the same so I will have tomato a press tool or some thing ...on the previous model there was a fibreglass attempt and also a hand beaten aluminium attempt ?!!  a few more pics

Willy

Offline crueby

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2021, 02:41:20 AM »
Looks like a wonderful project!  Off to get more popcorn now...    :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #4 on: April 16, 2021, 02:47:12 AM »
Hi Chris , yes and I am going to find this quite challenging  but I am sure it will all come together ...I will have to find a  Flypress though !!!  and thanks for all that info about Stilwell and Pierce Fascinating !! 

Willy

Offline cnr6400

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2021, 12:22:16 PM »
 :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Is the brown dome shaped item in the caliper / mitre box pic a former for the turbine buckets?

Re the flypress, not sure about availability of those, local to you. Very hard to find where I am. However, arbour presses from China are plentiful, and so are car jack-based hydraulic presses, from car repair tool suppliers. Good luck finding a suitable press!
"I've cut that stock three times, and it's still too short!"

Online gbritnell

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2021, 06:12:37 PM »
Great looking and unique project!
gbritnell
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Offline steam guy willy

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2021, 03:27:02 AM »
Hi CNR, yes this is the bucket former for the previous attempt by someone else some time ago ,..however my model will be half the size of his/her's so I have used it to make a smaller former half size and have sawn all the slots to creat paper templates... these will be photocopied half size and will be glued to steel plate and sawn out to make a solid former to use for a press tool. Yes a unique project and it would be good to make it as a working model using buckets of water to activate it !!! this was builtin 1898 but converted with some steam engines when the water level in the river was low ...these are no longer there and over the years there have been electric motors installed etc etc . The last time this pumping station was used was in 1972 so has been in a derelict state ever since !!

Willy

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2021, 01:32:50 AM »
More work on the engine .. I have made a few more drawings  and also have managed to get to the Photocopiers at last ?!!  As I will be making this engine half the size of the parts that I have retrieved I have been making the mould for the turbine blades . I finished sawing the slots to make the paper templates and took them to the shop to photocopy half size...however as an A4 piece of paper is half the size of an A3 I just got the drawings reduced from A3 to A4. when I got back home something didn't look right and on  further examination discovered the new drawings were 70% Rather than 50% ??!!!!   so I won't do that again :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm:  I will now transfer the 29 shapes to thin metal and using the base outline build up the press tool...

Willy

Offline MJM460

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2021, 05:06:49 AM »
Ah, Willy, the joys of mathematical scaling.

A4 is indeed half the size of A3, but half the area.  The linear dimensions are square root of half, or 0.7071.  You actually need the linear dimensions to be half those of the original, which means the area will be 25%.

The answer is actually to do exactly that again.  Put two of your new A4 sheets on the machine to make A3 size again, and reduce to A4.  0.7071 x 0.7071 = 0.5, so the linear dimensions will now be half the original as required.

I have found if you really want exactly some scale, you have to measure the first attempt and do a final adjustment of a few percent, as the machines are not perfectly accurate, but probably more than accurate enough for what you are doing.  (The original may not have been that precise!)

By the way, I like your approach to a very interesting build.  It has many unusual features to model.  I am looking forward to following along and eventually seeing it lift water like the original, but don’t get too realistic on that point!  And just to please Avtur, it will be round, at least that part of it, though there seems to be interesting reciprocating machines in the plant as well.  Something for everyone.

MJM460


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Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #10 on: April 26, 2021, 11:34:29 AM »
Historically the Printers use to start with an A0, they then folded over the middle of the longest length. This gave them two A1's, folding again over the longest gives two (four) A2's, etc. - down to A6. This has to do with Newspapers, magazines and books - so this is were the to halve comes from ....

MJM460 is right about this equals to halve the square root (.707) for each dimention.

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #11 on: April 27, 2021, 01:21:01 AM »
Hi MJM and DK thanks for the info and also .707.  is half of 1.414 which is the length fro corner to corner of a square piece of paper ..so is there correlation going on here ?? 
So I have cut out the 1/4" thick base plate and the numbered pieces of paper will be glued to thin brass sheet , and cut out to fill the former and than glued, soldered, stuck or bolted ,riveted all together, then filed to shape ....this is the most difficult part I think so will see what happens ....

More views of the engine and the compressor parts that has the screw in parts missing  ??
Willy

Offline MJM460

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #12 on: April 27, 2021, 02:46:16 AM »
Hi Willy,

The 0.707 is the square root of a half, rounded to 3 decimal places.

1.414 is the reciprocal of 0.707 similarly rounded.  That it is also double is irrelevant, the wrong sum.

Because the paper sizes are each half the area of the previous larger one, the square root of half is the ratio of the lengths of the sides of the respective sizes.

I hope that clarifies things a little.

I am a little confused by the two blocks on the machine.  I am unable to read the print on the drawings, and have assumed that the one closer to the crankshaft is the steam cylinder, but perhaps it is the air cylinder?  In which case, those screwed sockets might be valve pockets?

On another subject, do you plan to beat copper or brass sheet over the former?  Could those templates be made of wood for easier cutting and sanding to shape?  It’s certainly a fascinating feature to model. 

I will be following all the way.

MJM460

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

Offline Zephyrin

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #13 on: April 27, 2021, 08:56:40 AM »
Hi Willy, it looks as a great model, with lot of various machinery, very nice project !

The base could have been slotted with the mill to help to hold firmly in place all these formers.

why not attack directly the shape and follow the progress using the gauges as hollow profiles, sort of bread and butter method; to much hard metal to remove at first ?

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: New Mills Pumping Station
« Reply #14 on: April 28, 2021, 12:06:12 AM »
Hi MJM  , thanks for more info ... so the pumping station is used to pump air primarily to activate the Shone ejectors to move the sewerage around the city to the main pumping station (steam) to the sewerage works at Whitlingham a few miles down stream of the Wensum/Yare out to the North sea at Gt Yarmouth . Originally the turbines used were more than adequate to supply enough compressed air for the ejectors and this was a very cheap option as it relied on the 6' 6" drop in the water level at the New Mills site
  however they also installed the compound steam engines for use in the times of drought. There isthmus photo that shows the 1898 set up with the white steam supply pipes visible . When the site was converted to electricity the steam engines were removed. All this info is available but not at the moment as the local records office is closed due to lockdown !! I do have a few documents but they are not very clear .There are a couple of pics of the Trowse pumping station that will on the list in the future !!

Hi Z, thanks for your comments and I will be making the formers extra thick so there all hold each other in place.  also when I was cutting the slots in the Fibreglass former I found it to have a foam rubber middle part !! presumably to use less fibreglass in its construction!!
« Last Edit: April 28, 2021, 12:10:20 AM by steam guy willy »

 

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