Steam engine

Dang911 · Post by **Dang911** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:08 pm

I don't think its going to be a problem. Although derlin is not the best plastic for high temperature applications, there is a thick wall on my cylinders, and I don't expect them to be getting very hot anyway. I was also considering annealed UHMW (great thermal characteristics), but that stuff is a mess to machine...

Nothing beats the machinability of derlin though, great stuff!!

Jim Berquist · Post by **Jim Berquist** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:42 pm

Yep! cuts clean and I can tap it...We drill holes in it down to 1/64 and it holds the inserts we put in it.....

Jim

Dang911 · Post by **Dang911** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:40 pm

Wait you tap the stuff? I have been very skeptical about tapping it. Did you use fine or coarse threads?. In my case I would like to tap it using #8-32, what do you think? I would "think" since it machines so nicely, it will also strip nicely, regardless of how hard the material is...

Jim Berquist · Post by **Jim Berquist** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:14 am

Dang911:

We tap them at 1/4 x 20.......I don't know if you would get away with 8x32 may be getting close to the edge.....We us oil when we set the Tap and it cuts better!. Think really soft metal.......You could try some scrap and see what happens...

Jim

Dang911 · Post by **Dang911** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:55 am

Well for the hell of me I cannot bend this 203 brass 0.25" OD thin walled pipe. I have even tried annealing it several times (which did soften a good bit) but the stuff still kinks like crazy. Any and All suggestions are welcome!!! I am shooting for a maxium bend radius of 0.5".

heada · Post by **heada** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:31 am

Please keep in mind, I have not done this myself but I have seen it done.

Get a heavy pipe(steel, iron, etc) that has an OD the smaller than the radius you need. Mount it to something strong (it was mounted into a flange that was bolted to a table in the one I saw) Heat the tubing like you did before. Insert a real rope (hemp or the like, not nylon or any of the poly-type ropes that will melt with heat) that is near the ID of the pipe(smaller OK, bigger than the ID would be hard). Pull on either end of the rope using the mounted pipe to form the bend (this is why the pipe had to be very sturdy). GO SLOW. It may take several heat-bend-heat-bend(etc) to bend it without kinking. This should keep the pressure on the inside of the brass pipe and keep it from kinking. I saw it done with 0.5" and 1.0" brass and copper. It had the tendency to produce a flat on the inside of the bend, but it wasn't too pronounced.

Good luck.

-Aaron

Dang911 · Post by **Dang911** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 12:24 pm

Sounds good in practice...

El-Kablooey · Post by **El-Kablooey** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:36 pm

If you can find a tightly wound coil spring with an I.D. slightly larger than the tubes O.D., slide the tubing inside the spring and try bending it around a pipe. I've used this method before and it helps alot, the spring tries to make the tube keep its round cross section.

Dang911 · Post by **Dang911** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:24 pm

WOW.... I got so wrapped up in finishing the engine that I had forgotten about this corner of the forum where I had somewhat detailed my build. Anyway I apologize as the engine has been up and running for a few months now.

Because I was able to carefully design and test/prove the design in Autodesk Inventor using stress analysis and dynamic simulation, to no surprise the engine started up and ran perfectly the very fist time. This was a first for me as most of my contraptions do require at least a little tweaking, but not in this case. I was shocked, I added some compressed air and it just ran perfectly on all 4 cylinders. The engine will putter at a mire 12 PSI, and I have revved 'ed it all the way up to 100 PSI. It created a nice amount of torque, but what surprised me was how loud it was. I was expecting some CHOO CHOO but not loud PUT PUT.... HAHA...

Other good news I was accepted and am now going off to Georgia Tech to study Mechanical Engineering.

Dang911 · Post by **Dang911** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:46 pm

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... m+engine+4

Al Belli · Post by **Al Belli** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:55 pm

Hi,

Fill the tube with molten lead or a lead alloy.

When the lead freezes and is at room temperature, bend the " rod " to the required bend, and then melt the lead out.

This will work with very thin tubes.

Al Belli

Johansson · Post by **Johansson** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:38 am

Nice engine! When will it be steam powered?

//Anders

larry cottrill · Post by **larry cottrill** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 1:49 pm

Dang911 wrote:Because I was able to carefully design and test/prove the design in Autodesk Inventor using stress analysis and dynamic simulation, to no surprise the engine started up and ran perfectly the very fist time. This was a first for me as most of my contraptions do require at least a little tweaking, but not in this case. I was shocked, I added some compressed air and it just ran perfectly on all 4 cylinders. The engine will putter at a mire 12 PSI, and I have revved 'ed it all the way up to 100 PSI. It created a nice amount of torque, but what surprised me was how loud it was. I was expecting some CHOO CHOO but not loud PUT PUT.... HAHA...

Excellent work, sir! Very nice to see this in action.

Other good news I was accepted and am now going off to Georgia Tech to study Mechanical Engineering.

Greg, congratulations! All the best to you in the days ahead. I hope you'll fire up your Sveldt Lady once in a while in remembrance of me, and amaze your friends!

Best of luck, sir! Keep us posted on how you're doing.

L Cottrill

Jim Berquist · Post by **Jim Berquist** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:33 pm

Good stuff from you, Sir.

Congrats on the school. You have been working in the wright places and heading in the wright directions. When you make it big, Don't forget us little people.

You being my fist contact on this forum headed me on the learning curve, thank you!

Thank you for your help

Try a 5 quart pressure cooker with a 5 lb weight. Your Engine should hummmmmmm!

You can up the weights if you need to! don't go past 15 lb or you may end up with a mess!

Thank You Dang911,,,,Jim

Dang911 · Post by **Dang911** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 4:42 pm

Thanks for all of your kind words.... I am very excited to finally be able to pursue my degree (like I haven't been pursuing it already). I will be sure to bring my pulse-jets up to Ga-tech and fire them off, especially during hell week (finals).

Anyway I have put some thought into a boiler over the past month or so, and its been bitter sweet. I would love to be able to bring my engine anywhere, add water and light my propane burner and watcher her go, BUT I am slightly concerned about designing the boiler properly.

At this point I still haven't even calculated my steam requirements in terms of volume @ Pressure, then they finally the amount of BTU's needed to perform the required heat of vaporization. That's the fancy way of going about it, BUT I still need a design, and I've NEVER worked with boilers in my life.... I do not even own a pressure cooker.

That being said, I'm thinking of a water tube boiler, unless "you" think I could safely build a fire tube. I would like to keep this simple. I will not need to refill the water whiles at pressure, so all I will really need is a steam outlet, a blow off safety valve and fill tube. Materials?? SS with brass/copper tubing? I am shooting for 80-120 PSI.

What are your thoughts?

www.pulse-jets.com

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