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[MONAHAN STEAM MODELS]

Great! How much water does it hold?
About the pump: would it be possible to see those channels in a pic or drawing?

P.S: How come your cigarettes don't have a big sign saying they cause cancer or any other terrible disease, like those found around here do? Did you happen to find a healthy variety? 

I'll post more info on the mini boiler later today maybe. I'm already running late getting down to the shop this morning.

In regards to the pump: Sorry but I'm not willing to let out drawings for it. I can't even begin to tell you or to expect you to understand how long it took to figure out how to make it that compact. Perhaps you should just buy one?

Ian,

Thanks mate. I wish I had a cnc blow torch! It's taken years and hundreds of projects to hone my silver soldering techniques and I still manage to muck things up though on occasion. We have what we call "The box of Shame" hidden upstairs in a dark corner of our shop. All the silver soldering jobs that went south end up in there.     One of these days I'm going to have to dig a deep hole and throw the box in. 

[boatmadman]

We have what we call "The box of Shame" hidden upstairs in a dark corner of our shop. All the silver soldering jobs that went south end up in there.     One of these days I'm going to have to dig a deep hole and throw the box in. 

I think you should put them on show just to give us mere mortals confidence that we can get better if we try hard enough and long enough!

[MONAHAN STEAM MODELS]

I think you should put them on show just to give us mere mortals confidence that we can get better if we try hard enough and long enough!

I'm afraid the photos would be fairly graphic. I'd hate to give you all nightmares for weeks.

Quick Build Update:

So I got the new little brat boiler finished today! The total finished weight is 17 ounces dry. I filled up the boiler with water leaving about 5/8" clearance from the inside top of the boiler shell to leave room for steam. The water capacity for the boiler filled to this level is 200ml exactly.

This boiler will be part of the new Compact series of Cirrus steam plants. There will also be a Compact Vertical boiler exactly like the Vertical already shown in these posts, however the only difference will be the Compact version will be slightly shorter.

There will also be another horizontal boiler that will look like the Compact only longer. This boiler will be the equivalent to the standard sized Vertical boiler for the Cirrus plants. So to re-cap there will be four small boiler total for the Cirrus engines. Two Compact boilers and two standard sized boilers. The Compact series of boilers are referred to as the Cloverdale boilers and the standard sized series of boilers are referred to as the Hadley's.

I'm really excited about the new Compact horizontal boilers because I have a 24" tugboat that I built about 18 years ago that has been itching for a mini steam plant to be installed in it.

[MONAHAN STEAM MODELS]

 The total finished weight is 17 ounces dry.

I just noticed the typographical error I made earlier. The finished boiler weight is not 17 ounces it is 27 ounces.

[steamboatmodel]

I think I am going to have to buy a waterproof keyboard.
The little brat boiler looks fantastic.
Regards,
Gerald.

[Circlip]

If you're not careful, you could have a market for them there boilers Nick.

[MONAHAN STEAM MODELS]

Thanks guys!

If you're not careful, you could have a market for them there boilers Nick.

Oh man that would be nice! Maybe even then I could afford to stop eating Top Ramen Noodles for dinner and be able step up to buying hot dogs!     

So now I'm curious as to what will I have to produce and sell to be able to afford a nice steak every once and awhile?!    That sounds so good right now I'm open to hear suggestions! 

[Bunkerbarge]

1) How about a water level control device that works on something really simple like a mechanical linkage on a float.  This could incorporate a flange with a float and a magnet on the inside and on the outside another magnet that follows the internal one and operates a linkage connected to the water by pass valve.

2) A proper positive displacement engine driven lubricator of the type the railway lads use.

3) A gas tank heater that is controlled by the tank discharge gas pressure thus ensuring consistent outlet gas pressure before going to a gas regulator valve that controls the burner according to the boiler pressure.  A bit of a gas attenuator valve - heater control valve combo!!

4) A device that cuts off the burner when the boiler runs dry.

5) A seperator that guarrantees no condensate is discharged so the exhaust doesn't spit on the model before it gets up to temperature.

6) A brass controllable pitch propeller with a range of interchangeable blades all using the same foot so you can select the diameter you want for your model.


Just a few off the wall ideas, all a bit tongue in cheek, but which may generate some train of thought that might lead to something a bit more viable.

[MONAHAN STEAM MODELS]

I'm not religious but, Oh my dear lord, Bunkerbarge! Congratulations!

You just managed to name almost every single new product we have been working on. Are you some sort of spy? Do I need to be looking over my shoulder every so often now?

However to be fair you missed a few and I'm keeping those under wraps for now. 

[MONAHAN STEAM MODELS]

BTW, I should add a few things:

1.) The mechanical magnetic float idea we already have tried two months ago and due to how large the float needs to be in relation to properly and accurately operating even the lightest strongest magnet we could source, the whole set up would have to be way out of scale. So we managed to come up with other similar interesting designs.

2.) The new Cirrus engine was actually slated to originally have a mechanical lubricator but the price of the engine would have increased so much that it would've not made sense to buy it. However the next engine you'll be seeing roliing out of our shop very soon will have one.

3.) Gas attenuators scheduled to arrive shortly which is why there's a section for them on our website now, but in respects to the gas tank chilling issue, for the last year we've been switching our focus over to using the liquid elements of the butane/propane and the results are amazing so far.

4.) The gas cut off device is finished and ready for production. Coming soon.

5.) I emailed you some photo's the other day of a 3 drum new water tube boiler which happens to incorporate a design feature that guaranties non spitting of the condensate tank and the no longer need of draining the condensate only used steam oil. However I didn't mention that to you in the email.

6.) Developed the brass variable pitch propeller with removable blades almost 3 years ago but never put it into production due to the lack of interest shown for it by local steam enthusiasts.

[MONAHAN STEAM MODELS]

Okay one last thing (I promise) I want to add to this post since we got on the topic of gently heating a butane/propane tank to steady the output pressure of the gas.

I've found that while gently heating the gas tanks works very well (and I don't think I need to add the bit about safety here) one thing anyone who is considering attempting this may want to add to the system is a simple gas pressure output regulator. I don't mean a gas attenuator. I've found that while gas tank chilling can affect output pressure dropping and cause serious burner performance losses the same is true with heating tanks. I'll explain. The warmer the tank gets, the higher the gas output pressure becomes. In my own personal experiments, even while only gently warming the tank some times the gas pressure would increase so much so that it can make the flame stand off of the burner element causing the burner to either extinguish at times or at least become very unstable with the threat of extinguishing. By installing properly designed gas pressure regulator in-between the gas tank's output valve and the burner, the regulator will only allow a certain continuous pressure to be feed to the burner despite what the pressure may be in the tank itself.  

P.S. I've really tried hard over the years to keep how many posts I make on the steam sections on this forum down to a minimum because I do not want to hog these sections of the forum. I also try to keep my posts down to info I think may be helpful others.    

[Bernhard]

Hi.............i  use  a gas Attenuator from Anton,,,and a gas regulator to...i was told that i only neat it, if the gas tank get pressure  over 45 psi,,,my steamplant sit on copper,,so it get hot ,,bot i have some very thin wood under the gastank ,so ,it stay on 30-40 psi now.......here is one from Germany

Regards Bernhard
                                                                                 http://www.dampfmodellbau-keifler.de/

[kiwimodeller]

Nick, it is time people were led by the hand and shown the benefits of variable pitch props, then you will have created a new market. I have always liked the principle and of course you will be aware that it is quite common in full size practise. Although I have only played around with a couple of them they do work extremely well. I have not tried it out yet but I am sure that it would be possible to do away with the throttle control and just use the pitch to control speed. My only concern with that is that the engine might rev too hard when the prop is in the neutral position. The concept of one hub with alternative blades is a good one so  best you take the plunge and put them on the market. I would certainly be happy to test one and then offer them to my customers. The noodles are probably good for you so put all the turnover back in to R & D and marketing, think what the steak would do for your figure! Cheers, Ian.

[Bunkerbarge]

We must certainly be thinking in the same way Nick.

As for gas supplies the arrangement below incorporates a gas tank with a copper heat shunt giving some heat from the seperator tank.  This is nothing more than a copper saddle with foam insulation around it which sits across the two tanks.  You can just see the edge of the insulation.

To control and stabilise the output from the gas tank the first valve in line is a pressure regulating valve which does nothing more than stabilise the outlet pressure to the next valve, which is the control valve for the burner, which operates from pilot flame to full flame dependent on the input signal from the boiler.  I've always thought it would be an interesting excercise to combine these two functions by possibly controlling the heat input into the gas tank.

I can't believe that you have already been playing around with so many of the ideas!! 

[Bunkerbarge]

As for Controllable pitch propellers I consider myself to be very lucky in managing to obtain one a few years ago from a guy I bought a model from. It's brass and needed the bearing changeing but it's a beautifully made little unit.  I've always thought how easy it would be to have varying sized blades to be able to offer a range of prop sizes.

As for speed control the easiest way is to use what you find on real ships, which are generally known as a combinator.  You would have to design an appropriate linkage but basically the servo which controls the prop also controls the speed of the engine so when at zero pitch the engine is at idle and when at full pitch the engine is at full revs.  The linkage would have to allow zero to full control of the engine for two different directions of prop movement but I have seen it done.

[Bunkerbarge]

I suspect that the lack or success originally is as a result of there being so mnay fully controllable engines on the market making the Controllable prop redundant.  If however you were to design a much simpler engine, that could be manufactured a lot cheaper than a reversing one, i.e. a Heron without the reversing gear, then you could offset the costs of the CPP and make it a much more attractive proposition.

Just think, a Heron with reversing gear or a Heron with a CPP as two alternative packages.