Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Steam => Topic started by: vk2dj on January 28, 2021, 07:48:14 am
-
G'day all during finishing off the paddle steamer Adelaide i thought it would be interesting to have a go at building a scale steam
engine for it so i have made a start as there no working drawings available i used the Float A Boat GA plans to get the basic layout & with the
aid of detailed pic of the original which is located a Echuca on the Murray River i was able to get enough pic to start drawing up a GA on AutoCad
The cylinders are fabricated the following pic are progress to date
-
Hi ,
A very impressive project and your machining and build up of the various parts look great.
I take it that the exhausts goes into the jackets around the cylinders and exhaust below.
Also is the flanged pipe above the valve spindle the steam entry into the steam chest.
Keep up the good work and pics when possible, I for one will be looking on.
George.
-
G'day George yes the exhaust exit's under the cylinder & as you figured it enters around the valve shaft i machined a grove in the outer
ring & also the cylinder wall to create the passage i then pressed them onto the cylinders then silver soldered then i machined the slot on the top for the port faces i did not take an photos at that time .
A rather interesting way of doing it there are only 2 examples of these engines in existence 1 is the Paddle steamer Adelaide the other is the fully rebuilt Hero both are at Echuca Victoria
Gary
-
Hi Gary,
Yes I thought that was the case for the exhaust and the steam inlet.
On closer inspection of Pic No 5 I can see that you have left a space between the steam chest and the valve spindle so there is a small barrier between the packing and the steam space, good idea.
Must say that's good to see how the early engineers overcame problems, my next question is .
Why on the cross head slides , the taper steel wedges on the top bar has a hole in it ? is it for lubrication ? usually the slide bars are plain.
George.
-
tis an interesting beasty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX5at4NfKNo
-
Hello, your fabricated cylinders are really beautiful, as is the rest of the engine. I'll be following your build.
-
Really nice work :-))
-
G'day George yes the holes in the top of the slide bars will have bosses made soldered in for the oil caps attached pic.
-
Hi Gary,
Just as I thought, my question was answered by the video ling fro T.G., I had no idea that there was so many steam boats in Oz, probably by my ignorance of the country Geography.
I think I must have spent a 2 hour stint on all of the action on the Murray river, I noticed that the other boat that had a race with NERO, the engine and boiler looked like it came from a traction engine.
I look forward to further progress on your engine, thanks for sharing
George.
-
Yes George there quite a few still on the Murray a lot of them have been rebuilt & yes most of them had stationary engines
fitted i suppose because they were readily available
got a some time in the work shop to day fitted the bosses & made the oil pots next on the agenda is the mountings on the slide
bars for the horizontal shaft which drives the valve rods
Gary
-
the "notch" in the boiler that allows the wheel shaft to pass is inventive to say the least..
-
T.G.
Must say that I never noticed the notch in the boiler.
Wonder if that was an 'OOPS' moment, forgot that the boiler was too high.
George.
-
Hello!
Fantastic project ! :-))
My eyes stick on it!
Regards.
-
G’day All a little further progress on the build valve support shaft brackets made & temporarily fitted
Crankshaft bearing blocks made ,next to be made is the bronze bearings then the crankshaft
-
What is the wide ring going around the cylinders for (under the steam chest)?
-
Hi KN03 the external ring is the exhaust port to a flange underneath the cylinder
Gary
-
Hi Gary,
Still a way to go with many duplicated parts to make , you are doing a great job, the quality of your workmanship is excellent.
Thanks for posting.
George.
-
Thanks George been away on a brake for the last week spent today in the workshop finished of the crankshaft had to make up a simple jig to hold the crank webs at 90 deg. Worked out ok after a lot of fiddling around with shims to compensate for the smaller connecting rod pins ,[size=78%]trial fitted ,connecting rods next[/size]
-
Hi Gary,
I see on the 3rd pic that one of the crank webs has a pin thro' it, do you pin the 4- crank webs and do you glue them ( Loctite 603 ) in position before drilling and taper reaming the holes for the pins,
Another question, in the first pic I see that you have the crank web on a mandrel, how do you stop the job from rotating when milling the web round.
I have a rotary table, think it's an Elliot, but I have to have a 3- jaw chuck to hold crank webs when rounding, the chuck has a mandrel machined into the back of the chuck and the other end is machined to a push fit in the rotary table and small clamps to hold the table secure.
Does your mandrel have a bolt coming up thro' the mandrel with a split taper at the bottom into the plain hole in the table and that holds the job from rotating when you pull up the bolt to hold the web, if not how do you hold the job.? to prevent rotation.
Thanks for posting, I'm still with you.
George.
-
G'day George to answer your first question the web hole is a reamed fit i just use super glue to hold the web from moving ,i drill a series of stepped holes starting at the smallest diameter then enlarging the drill size on each successive step up, on that small shaft size 7mm i used 4 steps then hand reamed the hole to suite the pin ,it may be obvious the reason for this is so i can fit the eccentrics
when the eccentrics are fitted & proven correct i will Loctite them
The rotary table has a No2 taper i have over the years made several mandrels with different sized mounting shafts ,the shaft is held with an Allen bolt which does not
rotate
I mill the bulk of the material of on the mill which makes rounding easer .
OK on your chuck with the taper mounting ,the chuck i use for larger jobs is bolted into the T slots which i have an adapter plate to keep it central
-
Hi Gary,
That's the way that I make my crank shafts although they are much smaller than yours, as an experiment a made a crank for a single cylinder 10V, Loctite the webs to the 9/32" dia shaft, left overnight to cure and then tried to break the glued webs to no avail, I actually twisted the shaft but still the joints held, I still taper pin crank shafts as well as 603.
I checked the central hole in my rotary table and it's a parallel 3/4" hole, with your comments on how you held the job made me think on how to do similar, in my experiments with high speed flash steam engines with bench revs of 15,000 r.p.m.I made a taper sleeve on the flywheel and pulled the flywheel onto the taper and it never moved, even with a cord start.
when I finish my current project I will make a jig very similar to your idea with a taper. sleeve and a central bolt up thro" the jig with various sleeves to hold various diameters. a bit like the central bolt on the head set of a bicycle,
Thanks for the reply
George.
-
G’day all finished the connecting rods & bearings trial fit up
-
G’day all decided to make the base plate for the engine & mount it as I was having problems setting up the clearances the Murray river red gum I was using for the bearers was to flexible causing binding problems now solved
-
Working on the valve gear eccentrics rods & expansion links done before i fit them to the engine
i will make a test setup to verify the valve drive lengths are correct
Gary
-
lost the pic in cyber space
-
Some how the previous post lost the pic, progress today the eccentrics & rods fitted started on the valve links
-
Really nice work
-
Hi Gary,
The engine sure is looking good, are you going to make a frame to carry the weigh shaft and drop down straps to operate the Stevenson reverse quadrants , ( painted red ) like the full size as shown on the earlier video.
How long has it taken to get the engine to this stage , including the site measure and the C.A.D drawings.
It'd really turning out to be a master class, may I ask are you going to make the boat to carry it, if not what ?
George
-
G’day George to answer your first question yes I hope to build the necessary super structure to support it I am hoping to be able to hide the reverse servo above inside the upper deck
I have been working on it about 3 months I started the Cad drawings about 12 months ago but got involved with another project I had given away working on my 5” gauge live steam loco due the the situation with Covid
All the train event I had planned to go to including the Doncaster Model Engineering Exhibition had been canceled
As soon as the Adelaides engine is finished I will get back to it 9 years to date
I have already built the Adelaide just some detailing to finish I have a couple of posts under Working vessels just search my call sign VK2DJ also if you are interested look me up on Facebook to see build pic of my loco build
-
Off topic but does that device in some of your pics that seems to be a wire cutter with lots of different sized holes have a name?
-
The wire cutter you are referring to are actually BA & Metric bolt cutters the are made in Australia they save a lot of time when cutting small screws
Gary
-
Can you please provide the name and model number on the bolt cutters?
Maybe info on where you can buy them down under?
I would like to see if I can find a way to order a set.
Not finding it at my local DIY store here in the USA.
Great engine by-the-way.
Thanks,
Jim Pope
Denver,CO USA