Small Boiler

[editor@glue-it.com]

this has allowed me to cutout the brass blanks quite accurately


I then bolted them together in sets of 8 and machined them, they were then bent at each end 20 degrees and bolted into the rim - more details on glue-it.com


The pound coin gives a rough size.... to those in the UK. For everyone else these are 97mm diameter (just under 4 inches)

[thehomeengineer]

Coming along very nicely

[Altair]

Thanks editor at glue-it.com! We've added your Bandsaw Brass Cutting Setup to our Bandsaws category,
as well as to your builder page: editor at glue-it.com's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Bandsaw Brass Cutting Setup by editor at glue-it.com

tags: jig

[editor@glue-it.com]

Thanks, this simple modification to the bandsaw has worked really well, Nigel

[editor@glue-it.com]

Been making some simple calculations around fuel and steam consumption so that I can do some more sizing:

1.38g water per minute => 0.26g fuel / minute

This is assuming methylated spirit burner, an engine that is 12mm bore and 12mm stroke running at 300rpm and 1.5 atmospheres at the end of the stroke. Lots of assumptions and so would really like to hear from you all with some real measurements.

[editor@glue-it.com]

I now have an input power of 128.7 Watts and an engine output power of 3.3 Watts, the Steam Engine and Boiler Efficiency is a ratio of the output and input:

Steam Engine and Boiler Efficiency = Output Power / Input Power

Miniature Traction Engine Efficiency = 3.3 / 128.7 = 0.0256 = 2.56%

So, my calculated efficiency is 2.56% that feels very high for this small system and I expect a lot more losses when I put this into practice.

[editor@glue-it.com]

Just machined the front rims, roughed out and laying on the plan


and then machined in detail



gradually getting there with this project, a piece at a time

[editor@glue-it.com]

Finally got round to making the front wheel hubs, this time I made them from brass. I had a few mishaps along the way, the first of which was cutting 5 slots rather than 6, a complete nightmare of a saturday afternoon:


Just to put them into perspective the following photo shows a hub on a matchbox:


In the end I managed to align, jig and make a pair of hubs


a few more picture of the making process are available.

[thehomeengineer]

Looks really good. Thank you for sharing.
The Home Engineer

[editor@glue-it.com]

Just had to share some images of the wheel assembly process, after hours of making parts this is the best part



Just offering up parts to check it all fits. I made a simple jig to align the centres.



I riveted the spokes to the rim with 1/16th inch steel rivets. I then soldered the spokes to the hub whilst on the jig



The final machining of the hub was done on the lathe, but I hand-cranked the hobbymat to take extra care.

Finally an image of all 4 wheels:



A lot of hours have gone into the wheels, a process of research, drawing, machining, re-machining and finally assembly.