marine steam engines and boilers

great video!

I was actually thinking about 3D printing this engine in a clear resin then running it on compressed air and pumping smoke through the engine to simulate steam and show how the engine would actually work.

The Mississippi had two of these engines side by side so then I thought of a X section of the engine room under construction with one engine almost complete and the other being built my a team of little people with parts scattered all around the diorama.
I love that idea, but wouldn't you need to be concerned with heat from friction distorting the resin parts?
 
I love that idea, but wouldn't you need to be concerned with heat from friction distorting the resin parts?

there are resins used for machine parts and high heat materials such as Delrin also wear resistant materials

so yes this project can be taken to the level of "engineering" and using bearings made from Nylon 3D printed metal high impact resins, high heat resins and so forth.

at this stage there are a few guys working as a team on this project.
there is research, cad drawings, 3D modeling, casting experts and resin printing experts. steam engineers, historians.

this engine was a one off one of a kind built for the first naval steam frigate in 1839. The navy decided to go with horizonal engines and this style was never built again. so this is a pieces of steam engine history. There is still a ways to go the boilers have to be modeled as well as all the piping and rods and shafts.

so if you want to join the topic over at the steam engine forum please do so.
 
I love that idea, but wouldn't you need to be concerned with heat from friction distorting the resin parts?

there are resins used for machine parts and high heat materials such as Delrin also wear resistant materials

so yes this project can be taken to the level of "engineering" and using bearings made from Nylon 3D printed metal high impact resins, high heat resins and so forth.

at this stage there are a few guys working as a team on this project.
there is research, cad drawings, 3D modeling, casting experts and resin printing experts. steam engineers, historians.

this engine was a one off one of a kind built for the first naval steam frigate in 1839. The navy decided to go with horizonal engines and this style was never built again. so this is a pieces of steam engine history. There is still a ways to go the boilers have to be modeled as well as all the piping and rods and shafts.

so if you want to join the topic over at the steam engine forum please do so.
I'll do so. I have a twin-cylinder marine steam engine that runs beautifully, but I have no boiler for it. The boilers I've seen for sale that are the correct size are over $600USD, and so I plan to build my own.


95313
 
for anyone interested in the CAD design stages before 3D modeling there is a connection between the t column on the valve box and in inlet on the side of the condenser. you can see on the 3D model the 2 open ends. On the condenser the connection is called a gland and stuffing box. The elbow pipe is not bolted to this connection because when the pipes get hot they expand and contract. if everything were bolted together this would rip the engine apart. so connections are made so the pipes and connections slide into one another.

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so as I do the CAD design work I have to line everything up and make sure everything will fit, I have to be thinking X,Y,Z

vtoc1.JPG

then I have to consider how it all fits into the engine and make sure pipes clear any moving parts like the lever arm

vtoc2.JPG
 
one of these days I just might start to actually build the model every timber every nut and every bolt.

first I have to 3D model the hull, assemble the engines and boilers and all the piping.
it would make one heck of a X section model of the engine room.
right now I can't afford the cost to print the engine parts.
 
the boiler setup the real boilers were built of copper plates all riveted together. The assembly on the top is called the steam chamber below is the fire box and water. When the water turns to steam in rises into the chamber and out the pipes to the engine. A safety valve sits in the top and rises up through the decks and out along the stack just incase to much pressure builds up. that has not been modeled yet

boilers1.JPGboilers8.JPGboilers9.JPGboilers10.JPGboilers11.JPGboilers12.JPGboilers13.JPGboilers14.JPGboilersa1.JPG
 
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