Chris's Diesbar Engine Build

[crueby]

Cylinder blanks and drilling look great Chris.

I'm glad you mentioned the release paper on the plexiglass disk - it wasn't clear....     sorry worst pun this week...

Don't be surprised if the shop elves start building a conveyor belt for the millions of cubic micrometres of swarf and chips from the cylinders. Brass swarf outbound on it is OK but Elfensteiner stubbies inbound could be an issue!

You are right about the elve's beer bottles, they keep getting stuck in the machinery and jamming things up!   

[Kim]

Ah!  I'm seeing it now!  The cylinders will fit inside the rings with the trunions.  I was thinking that the rings WERE the cylinders and it seemed like really big pistions with a very short travel! Now it's becomming more clear to me.  Nothing slow about me, eh?   

Looking good, Chris! 

Kim

[crueby]

Ah!  I'm seeing it now!  The cylinders will fit inside the rings with the trunions.  I was thinking that the rings WERE the cylinders and it seemed like really big pistions with a very short travel! Now it's becomming more clear to me.  Nothing slow about me, eh?   

Looking good, Chris! 

Kim

Yes!  You've got it correct!  You need to stop going out drinking with your shop elves...  You'll start seeing dancing pink elephants next... 
   
I should have posted the diagram of how they come together - sorry!  Here is a picture showing the parts I am making - the ring in gray, cylinder in green, and steam chest base in blue:

[Kim]

Makes perfect sense!  And it's a great way to fabricate those pieces. 

Don't mind me. I'll just keep running along, trying to keep up with you! 

Kim

PS    Is that where those pink elephants are coming from?   

[crueby]

Makes perfect sense!  And it's a great way to fabricate those pieces. 

Don't mind me. I'll just keep running along, trying to keep up with you! 

Kim

PS    Is that where those pink elephants are coming from? 

What pink elephants? I don't see any...   

[crueby]

This morning I started turning down the outside of the cylinders. An inch or so in from the left end in the picture you can see a small step - that is the stop for the trunnion ring assembly. To the right of that it is turned down to be a close sliding fit inside the trunnion ring.

Test fit of the ring:

and rotated around to show the recess/hole for the counterbalance that will hang off the back of the cylinder, to balance the steam chest weight:

I have the one cylinder turned down, and the second one partway along. The motor on the lathe was getting a bit warm so I took a break - turning these large diameters at a slower speed puts a bigger load on it than normal, and its easier to take a break than to swap the belt to the other pulley so the motor can turn at a higher speed. I'll finish up the second one after lunch.

Next time I'll be able to start boring out the center of the cylinders. In the meantime, as the shop elves are off at the Indy 500 races this weekeng, the apprenticelf is doing the cleanup of the swarf. I'm SURE that he'll share them all with the other elves... yeah, right...   

[Michael S.]

It looks like he isn't having much fun sweeping up all those brass shavings...

The cylinders are making rapid progress!


Michael   

[cnr6400]

  Looks like about $2500 Canadian dollars worth of swarf that List Elf is pretending to sweep up. ($1.75 in US dollars)   

Cylinder OD turning and step look great! Ring 1 definitely fits. It's only fair to get the lawn chair or recliner warmed up while the lathe motor cools off. 

[Michael S.]

A Little History:


The paddle steamer *Diesbar*—
built in 1884—is the only paddle steamer in the fleet to be coal-fired. Its steam engine—originally dating back to 1841 and hailing from the paddle steamer *Bohemia*—is today considered the oldest operational steam engine in the world.
The paddle steamer *Diesbar* was built in 1884 at the Blasewitz shipyard. She was laid down under the name *Pillnitz*—the second vessel to bear this name—with yard number 18. The ship entered service on May 15, 1884. In 1927, she was renamed *Diesbar*—again, the second vessel to carry this name. Since 1993—following extensive repairs and a complete overhaul—the *Diesbar* has once again been plying the waters of the Upper Elbe. Today, she is the only vessel in the fleet of Sächsische Dampfschiffahrts GmbH & Co. Conti Elbschiffahrts KG that is fired by coal. The steam engine is an oscillating, low-pressure, two-cylinder twin steam engine featuring jet condensation. It was built by the firm John Penn and Sons in Greenwich for the *Bohemia*, a vessel constructed in 1841 at the Ruston & Co. Ship and Machine Works in Prague. Its original output was 90 horsepower. The crankshaft—which was replaced in 1853—bears the inscription: "Krupp bei Essen, Cast Steel, 10 Year Guarantee, 1853." In 1857, the engine was installed in the new paddle steamer *Pillnitz*. The two steam cylinders were replaced in 1859–60. In 1884, the engine was installed in the vessel that is today known as the *Diesbar*. It is recognized as the oldest operational paddle steamer engine in the world. In 2008, the engine was designated a "Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark" by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), thereby recognizing it as a technical monument of international significance. With this steam engine, the ship reaches a maximum speed of approximately 12 km/h upstream and approximately 14 km/h downstream.

[crueby]

Thanks  for the history Michael! That always adds a lot.   




After lunch I  got the second cylinder  turned down and its ring fitted like the first one. I will need to be careful when fixing the rings in place to ensure they are facing the correct direction, since the steam passages need to face to the outer ends of the engine, exhaust passages towards  the center. I've  put the steady rest back on the lathe and adjusted the arms to the ends of the cylinder, will start boring tomorrow.  The temperature is  comfortable  outside, heading out to enjoy it.


 

[mklotz]

Michael's mention of "Dampfschiffahrts"

"Today, *Diesbar* is the only vessel in the fleet of Sächsische Dampfschiffahrts GmbH & Co. Conti Elbschiffahrts KG that is fired by coal"

reminded me of the fact than Dampfschiff (steam ship) figures importantly in the contest to determine the longest word in German, a language famous for its concatenation to produce formidable tongue twisters.

A brief extract from my notes when I was studying the language...

Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
(one word, no hyphen) (79 letters, 80 with the new German spelling that adds one more 'f' in ...dampfschifffahrts...)

Even the definition is a mouthful: "association of subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services" (the name of a pre-war club in Vienna). This word is not really useful; it's more of a desperate attempt to lengthen the word below.

Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän
(42 letters)

In classic German this is considered the longest word. Its meaning of "Danube steamship company captain" makes it unusable for the majority of us, though.

Perhaps Michael can tell us if the steam ship was named for Diesbar-Seußlitz, an area in the wine growing region of Saxony...

https://www.winesofgermany.com/our-regions/winesight/211/the-bend-in-the-elbe-river-at-diesbar-seu%C3%9Flitz

[crueby]

Wow, I  can't  hardly read that, let alone attempt to pronounce it!   




I was also wondering  what 'Diesbar' is, a region name, city name, person?

[Michael S.]

Oh my God, I’ve never heard that word before either—but it’s true; we really do love compound nouns (or words). I was already familiar with *Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitän*, though! 😁 What Chris is currently building—and the lathe he’s using—is a *Dampfmaschinenzylinderlaufbuchsendrehmaschine* (steam engine cylinder liner lathe)! 😂

All the paddle steamers bear the names of places located in the Free State of Saxony—some of which, incidentally, are situated right along the Elbe River. They are place names.

Michael

[crueby]

I have to print out that word and hang it above my lathe. In a year or two I might be able to pronounce it from memory. So far its coming out something like "DampLatheInTheBackYardPoodlePuddle"...      I know enough German to barely follow along with technical topics in some of the old machinery books, beyond that I need to break out the online translators.   

Good to know about how the ships were named!   

[crueby]

Later this afternoon the clouds moved in and it got cool out, so I came back inside and wandered back to the shop again and finished up the second cylinder, to fit its trunnion ring:

The rings are not attached yet, so I took one off and set it up with the steady rest, and drilled a starter hole through the length of it and started with the largest boring bar that would fit that hole:

With that much overhang (the cylinders are 3.4" long) the bar chatters and rings a bit, so once the hole was large enough I moved up to the next size bar, and then the third one:

The third one needs a starter hole of about 0.9" ID, the largest one I have requires a 1.2" or 1.25" hole to start it - probably will switch to that one to finish the bores. This second-largest one is way too large to fit in the quick-change holders, so I had made an adapter for it back when I got those two bars (I think it was during the Ohio engine build? Or was it the Holley? Have to look that up).

That one has been started, need to take out a lot more to get to use the largest one (which is larger than most parts I turn on this lathe!)

For the largest one, I think I had to clamp a vise to the cross slide to hold it, need to look back through the build logs to see what I did.  Going to be a couple days to get the cylinders bored out all the way. This will be good practice for when/if I start on the engines for the Great Eastern - the paddlewheel engine for that will be another large diameter/long cylinder setup, and it has four cylinders. The propellor engine on that ship is also large bore, but much shorter length to the four cylinders. Those early ships used lower pressure boilers, so the bores were much larger than later engines.
At least the steady rest was well worth making - thats working out quite well.