New Mills Pumping Station

[steam guy willy]

The flywheel is now complete with the counterweight in place. I have used another piece of cast iron from a fireplace. this is to keep it in place when the temperature changes . it is carefully filed and when the fitting begins where the part is tight leaves a shiny witness mark ...this is then filed away until the part is really snug..it is the filed to thickness and lactated in place...

Willy

[crueby]

Flywheel looks good!
On the real machine, is that a row of identical individual pump engines all on one shaft, or did they operate individually? Is there a single turbine connected to all of them, or does each have a turbine wheel?
EDIT: Just looked back at the first coupl eposts and think I have answered my own question - it mentions two turbines each driving a pair of pumps, with steam engines as backup power. That adds a new question - will you be modeling both the turbine and the steam sides of things? Quite a neat pump house, you are fortunate to have it so close to home!

[steam guy willy]

Hi Chris ..there are two turbines and there are two air pumps on each turbine  with two flywheels ,  so 4 pumps in all , The pumps are out of phase and the counter weights are in a different place ..As there are 6 spokes on the flywheels the weights are not 90 degrees apart so I am going to have to investigate this  ?? I am not able to get in the place at the moment and the cranks are covered up so I can't quite see how the orientations are  ??!!

Thanks for asking and have just looked at you Utube video .....looking great. hi The steam engines are no longer there but the photo shows them in the building . However I cannot see how the  eccentrics would fit on the crank shaft and the valve rods would be really long to reach the cylinders ??!!


Willy

[Admiral_dk]

Hi Willy

It could be down to making the flywheels the same and having the 'slots' in the crank 90 degrees apart .... though I'm not sure looking at the pictures.

Per

[steam guy willy]

Hi Per, Yes the 2 weights are 90 degrees apart and the 6 spokes are offset by 30 degrees .! ,, as shown in the photo ...so not quite symmetrical ?!!  so like locomotive driving wheels they will have to be quartered...
thanks for looking in

Willy

[steam guy willy]

Ok So the flywheels are finished with the counter weights  and the next job will be the crank assembly.......

Willy

[steam guy willy]

I have been testing the turbine with air through the sluice opening with all the joints sealed but it still did not rotate , so i put the air hose just next to the inlet flumes and I really just took off !!  here is the video ....

Willy.
Not a valid vimeo URL

[Don1966]

Awesome results Willy and the flywheels look great. Still following you mate!


 
Don

[steamer]

That's cool!!!    coming right along there!   

Now that was just testing on air?    Was that originally a pelton wheel?

Dave

[steam guy willy]

Hi Thanks don and Dave .. yes just working on compressed air and pointed directly in the turbine .  It did not work with the compressed air actually just connected to the sealed sluice  so I may take it to the carwash and use the high pressure water jet to see if that will work.   As this is a scale model ,...some things need scaling up as well as down  ???!!! I am not sure of the exact name for this type of turbine and it was made about 130 years ago  ??   




Willy

[crueby]

Hi Willy,
I'd be very careful with the pressure washer - those things can put out a heck of a lot of force at very high speed when up close. I'd take a different approach - run it with water as usual through the main sluice, but supplement it with a clear piece of tubing run up close to the turbine like you did with the air, and have that pushing water at a higher speed, more like a garden hose nozzle flow than a pressure washer. That should give it the extra push needed for the scaled down blades without going crazy like a pressure washer does, and let you scale up the speed/flow to just enough. The clear hose could be pretty well hidden down the bottom of the sluice way.
Just my two pence worth!

Chris

[steam guy willy]

Hi Chris ok thanks for that   and yes water has so much more energy in it than air  ..so will take your advice and proceed gingerly

Willy

[steam guy willy]

I am now starting with the compressor parts and am making the base to mount the parts on using perspex rather than Meccano. I do have lots of perspex to play with and it is rather easier to work. I have been drilling the holes then sawing the waste away with the Abrafile ,held in the saw with its special clips.I have now got to work out all the missing dimensions !!The nights are now drawing in so am getting more time in the workshop. The Norwich Model Engineers are appearing at the forum for the Science week festival in a few weeks so will preparing things for that ..I will be taking my small lathe for youngsters to try out so they may get get bitten by the bug !!
Willy

[steam guy willy]

Ok So.. I have been busy preparing for the Norwich Science Festival appearance with the local NDSME group displaying our locos and other engines and tools etc etc I have made the build plate for the New mills engine  and also repairing the small IC engine that is owned by the local club ...I have had to mend the inlet port as it was leaking and also trying to get the engine to run for more than a few seconds . I put a balloon on the exhaust to catch the fumes and noticed that whilst doing so if I closed up the exhaust pipe the engine increased in revs and kept running ??!!  so I found the a good way to increase the speed was to adjust the bore in the pipe thereby creating some back pressure ??...,,, also it was quite difficult to get the nuts in place to tighten them so I made this nifty tool ...there is a small piece of studying silver soldered onto a thin piece of brass.. the nut is then screwed onto it and held in place and a spanner is then used to unwind the nut onto the studding...it works really well ...some pics and we are at the Forum in Nch on Tuesday  26th so in 4 days time ... I will take some video to show our exhibits .....

willy

[MJM460]

Hi Willy, good progress on that compressor.  I like your approach to real 3-D modelling, rather like the way we used to design oil refineries with scale plastic models.

Interesting observations on that little engine.  I think I will leave that to someone else to explain what is going on.  I think I must have missed something in the explanation.

All the best for the show.  Looking forward to the pictures.

MJM460