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Going Back 100 years

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ruddycrazy:
G'day Guy's,
                    Well it has been a long time since I posted any of my projects on this forum and after having a private word with a mod I will now explain what I'm going to do.

First my reasons for going back 100 years as people back then made power by using steam. Now also before I was married I was leathersmith and made a good income from it.

Last month my boss at work asked how wood pellets were used to make power so that got me thinking OK pellets can only make heat so a steam would be the go and after a search I found one can turn an old 4 stroke motor into a 2 stroke so it can used as a steam engine. So I decided to use a 5hp B&S motor as the donor and ripped out the cam shaft to weld some new lobes on.

Now in order to do this a new lode needed to be 180 degrees opposed to the original lobe. I took the cam to work and used 300 amps on the mig to weld the new lobes on then used my bridgeport mill to machine the new lobes. First I tried using a dial gauge then thought I have a set of gauge blocks so set the height and used them to get the lobes done.



Now after getting the motor back together and decided get a youtube account going. The link is my explanation of the change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejOeLEstCfo

I had to make a new adaptor plate so I couls use compressed air to test the motor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rHrl2UXxHw

OK now the change I have done does show YES it can be used for steam, On the backshed forum it was mentioned about spring pressure so I may need to make a new spring to hold the steam pressure on the inlet.

Before I go too far I want to say SAFETY HAS TO BE the main goal here and I havent made a boiler as yet as I'm still learning to design a simple one that is safe to use and can be made from common parts.

I'M GOING TO ADD HERE STEAM IS DEADLY SO ALL CAUTIONS DO NEED TO BE ADHERED TO

First off my goal is to test that 4kw motor conversion I made and hopefully that 5hp motor will power it as my 2hp old lathe had no hope even in back gear.

I do think a flash boiler and that BIG air compressor I have here get inverted and used as the condensor. I do have a heap of 1/4,3/8 and 1/2 copper pipe here to make the flash boiler. As far as the outer sheid I can crudely roll a SS old hot water panel into the case.

For steam valves I will look thru that 54 years of model engineer magazines I have here.

Anyway what I want to point out is any info you guys have on boilers post it here so this build can have all the safety and build aspects.

Regards Bryan

electrondady1:
in your ling go, i think it's, "good on ya"
around here, we say "way to go"
did you use any kind of special welding rod  or hardening technique ?

Bruce S:
Ruddy!
Great to see you posting here again!
I watched the vid a few times and I think it might be the camera angle, but it looked like there was a point where both were open.
I'm no steam person (too much math!!) but wouldn't an overlap point with steam be a bad thing?
IF it just the camera angle then my bad !!
Cheers
Bruce S

ruddycrazy:
G'day Guy's,
                    As far as welding the new lobes I haven't bothered hardening them as yet as I do want to see how it goes in a few trials, if all proves good I do have some 'hardite' here so I can case harden the lobes.

                 I had another look at the manual run vid and I can't see anytime where both valves are open and with that quick air run test the motor did seem to chug along nicely. I do have to make a pattern and get 2 fly wheels cast up so the extra weight on the output shafts (both sides) will assist.

                I decided for a bit of fun to coil up that length of 3/8" copper pipe I had here and got 63 turns installed in a 1 metre length of 4" copper pipe. Also I had that crude 4-2" reducer I made so that has been pop riveted on to provide an exhaust. I do need to score some 2" copper to make the chimney too. I put 400ml of water in the tube and used an old burner and within a couple of minutes I was getting steam out of the output pipe. I then shut down the gas and will get the rest installed before running it again. I do need to setup running water in my shed which will be no small task as I will use 20mm conduit and mount it at roof height to ensure I have enough head pressure for when the flash boiler is running. It may prove too small for running the 5hp engine under load but I do have other uses for the steam. Like making charcoal filters for water purification and I'm on designing a setup for forming chrome tan leather using steam like it is done in industry.

           All good fun in the shed and those 24 volt 735AH deep cycle traction batteries I scored are supplying plenty of power in my shed.

          I also got a 24 volt 600AH bank which was near new on the house array and after a full charge we can now get 3 days before the batteries need a charge. I will be getting a 48 volt 735AH pack next month which I will split and for now have 3 24 volt arrays and a simple switch over setup so when charging the batteries they can be offline and thus get the full charge to 28.8 volts. That old 15KVA 3 phase genset is going to get a new life as the old onan motor is stuffed. I can use the gas system off it to convert a car motor then have a 3 phase 32 amp output for a 3 phase traction charger where I can easily pump 100 amps or more into charging the batteries.

Regards Bryan

Bruce S:
Must be my getting older eyes  :o.
Thanks for the update!!
Cheers

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