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Twin Cylinder Steam Engine
sbwhart:
Hi Chaps
I'm thinking of making one of those little Bogstandard engines, but first I want to do some more on my loco, I'm setting myself the objective of getting it running on air, but who knows I may change my mind :proj:
Stew
bogstandard:
Darren,
Never having had much call for slate based engines, I can only give maybe a rough guesstimate as to the problems you would encounter.
I wouldn't ever run it on steam, compressed air only.
You could sleeve the cylinder with something like K&S brass tube epoxied into position. That would save you a boring operation.
I suspect slate has a fairly good carbon content, so should have good bearing properties, including face to face, maybe as a bore as well??
Fairly small screws are usually used in model engines, that might cause problems, I have no idea how strong a small thread would be in slate. Maybe threaded inserts or helicoils would overcome the problem.
Maybe the way to proceed is to do a few trials and see what it throws up.
I will be going thru the same sort of trials a little later on, I am going to see how I get on with perspex. I also have mountains of the stuff.
John
sbwhart:
Slate engine now that interesting :smart: slates very brittle more so than cast iron, but its good in compression it certainly posses an interesting set of chalenges :scratch: :scratch: :scratch:
They sell figurenes down your way in the gift shops, made from powdered slate bonded in epoxy that would be another option, if you could get a big enough figure you may be able to machine a block out of it to make the cylinder.
For fixing the small screws how about drilling a parrallel hole into the slate, filling it with epoxy or something symilar and drilling and tapping into it.
Her's a question for John:- with the rotating valve engine how would you reverse it ?. change direction of air flow or can you change the valve linkage ?
Stew
bogstandard:
Stew,
Never having built one, but a quick look at the plan, the engine as is, can only rotate in one direction.
I suppose you could play about with the valve linkage by swinging it into a different position might enable it to run in reverse, but I suspect it would be doubtful, as the porting is cut to match the direction of engine running, and just might not run in reverse.
I have made a crankshaft rotary ported engine and that worked OK by swapping the inlet and exhaust over. I don't think it would work with this engine because of the direction specific porting.
Maybe a combination of the two could be used to get it to run.
John
sbwhart:
Thanks for that John I was looking at the drawings last night trying to work out :scratch: if it could be reversed, came to the conclusion it would be dificult following the as drawn plans.
Cheers
Stew
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