Lempi, a steam powered half open launch built in 1877 in Warkaus, Finland

Excellent building of boast hull and of steam engine. I am greatly facinated with steam engines. I built a single-cylinder, single acting engine when I was in high school (.50 years ago). I am partly done building a twin cylinder, dual acting engine, but it isn't getting much attention now while I am building my lobster boat model.Thumbs-Up:)
 
Excellent building of boast hull and of steam engine. I am greatly facinated with steam engines. I built a single-cylinder, single acting engine when I was in high school (.50 years ago). I am partly done building a twin cylinder, dual acting engine, but it isn't getting much attention now while I am building my lobster boat model.Thumbs-Up:)
Would love to see your lobster boat in progress!
Ted
 
Hallo @Moxis ,

we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Enjoy your day


Birthday-Cake

BTW: After the Lempi we did not see your next project - are you working on a new boat? Would be very interesting to see .....
 
Thank you Uwek!

Considering new projects I have been busy building a stereo amplifier based on electron tubes. It will be soon finished so that I can consentrate myself to more interesting projects.

I have thought to build next a model of Ilmarinen, the first steam powered ship in Finland. It was a side wheeler built at Puhos in 1830, and was equipped with a side beam steam engine made in St. Petersburg, Russia (Finland was part of Russia those days). Because it was an open hull vessel, the steam boiler and engine were completely visible, and my intention is to build the engine together with side wheels working. Not with steam but with electric drive. We will see how it goes. There are not many documents of her available, only some paintings like this:

408818775-m.jpg
 
Hi Moxis,

I have thoroughly enjoyed both of you build posts and I am astonished at the speed with which you have built them, are there any more?

Fantastic work on the steam engine and the rest of your beautiful Lempi.

With the limited experience I have with steam, might I suggest running your steam plant a number of times to become familiar with running it, better to work these things out before getting to the pond, you will also get a bit of an idea how long it will run before requiring water to be added to the boiler, clearly it won't be to same as when running on the water but it will give you an idea.

Maybe adding links for your builds to your signature would help people like me find your wonderful work easier.

From what I can see your workshop looks very well equipped, I think it is always great to have the equipment to make your own parts and fittings.

Keep up the fantastic work.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Thank you Stephen for your kind words and suggestions!

To be honest I have not run the steam engine of Lempi very many times. For some reason it does not perform as well as I would like. It is not starting very reliably when opening the steam control valve, and when opening the valve more it suddenly bursts into max. speed. The same happens when I am closing the valve, from max. speed into complete standstill without any smooth speed reduction.
For this reason I have not tried her but only once at the pond. It may be that this is due to not enough long running-in time. But as I have written elsewhere, I like more the building of models than using them. So this is why I have kind of forgotten her on my workshop table and started to work with new projects.

About twenty years ago when Admiral and me were seeking a new house to buy, my first criterium was that there must be enough room at the basement where to equip a nice workshop. And immediately when we found this house, we made decision to buy it. At the basement there was not only one dry and warm room for a workshop but two of them, so that the Admiral got also a nice room for her dollhouse projects. And since then we both have built our hobby rooms according to our wishes. And today, after 20 or so years we still enjoy working there. In fact the Admiral uses quite happily many of my machines like bandsaw, table saw, scroll saw & other tools for her projects and vice versa, so it is quite easy for me to get allowance for a new tool if I seem to need one.

Very good suggestion of yours is to add links of my projects into my signature. I remember once trying to do so, but for some reason it didn't work, so I quitted for further trying. I think I must try again, because as you said it would be a nice way for other people to find my builds if interested.
 
Thank you Stephen for your kind words and suggestions!

To be honest I have not run the steam engine of Lempi very many times. For some reason it does not perform as well as I would like. It is not starting very reliably when opening the steam control valve, and when opening the valve more it suddenly bursts into max. speed. The same happens when I am closing the valve, from max. speed into complete standstill without any smooth speed reduction.
For this reason I have not tried her but only once at the pond. It may be that this is due to not enough long running-in time. But as I have written elsewhere, I like more the building of models than using them. So this is why I have kind of forgotten her on my workshop table and started to work with new projects.

About twenty years ago when Admiral and me were seeking a new house to buy, my first criterium was that there must be enough room at the basement where to equip a nice workshop. And immediately when we found this house, we made decision to buy it. At the basement there was not only one dry and warm room for a workshop but two of them, so that the Admiral got also a nice room for her dollhouse projects. And since then we both have built our hobby rooms according to our wishes. And today, after 20 or so years we still enjoy working there. In fact the Admiral uses quite happily many of my machines like bandsaw, table saw, scroll saw & other tools for her projects and vice versa, so it is quite easy for me to get allowance for a new tool if I seem to need one.

Very good suggestion of yours is to add links of my projects into my signature. I remember once trying to do so, but for some reason it didn't work, so I quitted for further trying. I think I must try again, because as you said it would be a nice way for other people to find my builds if interested.

Thank you for posting your fabulous work Moxis,

Welcome to live steam, one question does your engine have the same problem when running on compressed air?

You are blessed Moxis to have an Admiral that has a hobby that is compatible with your hobby is just fantastic, I guess the only down side is keeping your workshop very clean.

Looks like you have succeeded this time, I will have a look at le-cerf.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Thank you Stephen. Yes, when running with compressed air the engine behaves almost the same. It seems that it has only two modes: Complete stillstand and full speed.
This is why I don't like very much about playing with steam, my ongoing project is an open launch with one cylinder steam engine which is powered by an electric gearmotor located hidden under the floor panels. Much easier to control the speed and behaves like a real steam engine with low speed so that you can really see the moving parts.
The engine, an early Stuart was donated to me by one of my friends who didn't have much to do with it. So I promised to build a boat for it. There will be a fake boiler installed on the gearmotor with all electronics inside:

20201223_083355.jpg20201223_083040.jpg
 
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