The Contraption 2.0

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 3:41 pm

Okâ€¦ back to the contraptioneering at hand...

Hereâ€™s an issue that I thought about when I was enjoying watching the engine chug along. This compressor, as Mozy figured out, used the crankcase as a pressure vessel (this has since been altered via pipe plugs). Well, the body was also cast to act as such, meaning that there are hollow chambers just before the inlet and outlet of the cylinders.

As you all probably well know, I try to use as much of the design of things as I find them in order to make the finished application of the reapropriated part look like it had been that way the whole time. So of course I thought I should use these passages already cast into the compressor block as passages for steam.

Then it hit me when I was watching it putt-putt away that these passages will likely act as expansion chambers and allow some of the steam to condense back into water and collect in them. That could be a problemâ€¦ especially when the engine is cold.

First Iâ€™ve got to determine if this will happen or not. If it is thought that it will, then its easy to fix, but much less aesthetically appropriate. Iâ€™ll just have to pipe steam directly in the top of the brass A plate of each head and exhaust out the side of the B plate. This will basically only mean moving a couple of plugs around to bypass the interior passages, but will result in having some exterior plumbing draped around the top and sides of each head. Maybe good, maybe badâ€¦

If itâ€™s a problem, but only a mild one, it could well be that I only put a small drain valve in and let the water out now and again.

Or perhaps this could be used to some good effect that Iâ€™m not noticing yet?

Will this pressurized intake chamber in fact act as a cushion? Sort of a mini steam bank to buffer sudden increases in demand for steam? Eh... maybe but I'm doubtng it.

Iâ€™ll try and give a few more details later tonight, but for now I want to know what you all might think about this.

bigbluedoggy · Post by **bigbluedoggy** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:48 pm

WOW! It's one thing to see a bunch of beautiful parts all milled and sitting on a bench; it's another entirely to see them chugging along in perfect harmony!! Congratulations!!! More More!!!!!

MozyBonz · Post by **MozyBonz** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:43 pm

LeChatNoir wrote:Okâ€¦ back to the contraptioneering at hand...

Hereâ€™s an issue that I thought about when I was enjoying watching the engine chug along. This compressor, as Mozy figured out, used the crankcase as a pressure vessel (this has since been altered via pipe plugs). Well, the body was also cast to act as such, meaning that there are hollow chambers just before the inlet and outlet of the cylinders.

As you all probably well know, I try to use as much of the design of things as I find them in order to make the finished application of the reapropriated part look like it had been that way the whole time. So of course I thought I should use these passages already cast into the compressor block as passages for steam.

Then it hit me when I was watching it putt-putt away that these passages will likely act as expansion chambers and allow some of the steam to condense back into water and collect in them. That could be a problemâ€¦ especially when the engine is cold.

First Iâ€™ve got to determine if this will happen or not. If it is thought that it will, then its easy to fix, but much less aesthetically appropriate. Iâ€™ll just have to pipe steam directly in the top of the brass A plate of each head and exhaust out the side of the B plate. This will basically only mean moving a couple of plugs around to bypass the interior passages, but will result in having some exterior plumbing draped around the top and sides of each head. Maybe good, maybe badâ€¦

If itâ€™s a problem, but only a mild one, it could well be that I only put a small drain valve in and let the water out now and again.

Or perhaps this could be used to some good effect that Iâ€™m not noticing yet?

Will this pressurized intake chamber in fact act as a cushion? Sort of a mini steam bank to buffer sudden increases in demand for steam? Eh... maybe but I'm doubtng it.

Iâ€™ll try and give a few more details later tonight, but for now I want to know what you all might think about this.

I don't think it will be a problem. run it on steam first. do you know some one with a steam cleaner? take it for a test run with steam.

MozyBonz · Post by **MozyBonz** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:52 pm

Elliot wrote:
Here we are:

Elliot Naess photo

This was the first time he fired the engine. I drove the push truck. The jetting was off and the blower popped. For some reason, I had my camera with me. Yes, it's hanging by the fuel lines. Or... standing by the fuel lines.

He rebuilt it on a Donovan block and got it running properly, but I did not have the good sense to hang around. This was in the late 1970s.

Somebody did a story on him later, with photos of the whole engine: http://nitrogeezers.com/tom_dicktakes_innovator.htm

Is this the same car?

thirt33n · Post by **thirt33n** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:01 pm

a Budweiser with a Mountain Dew float? anyone else see an early inventor of what is now called 'Sparks'. Had he only known.

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:15 pm

MozyBonz wrote:I don't think it will be a problem. run it on steam first. do you know some one with a steam cleaner? take it for a test run with steam.

Yeah... before I go freakin' out and doing more machine work, I should just give it a try somehow and see what bcomes of it. I don't know anybody with a steam cleaner, so I guess its time to start on a boiler, eh?

karine · Post by **karine** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:04 pm

Sparks = Mt Dew and Bud ?

Can we run the contraption on it ?!

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:18 pm

If it won't, I've got some hooch that my boat will run on. 190 proof!

motskyroonmatick · Post by **motskyroonmatick** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 11:08 pm

I'm thinking an agricultural "Steam Up" would be a perfect place to get your hands on some steam and a willing fellow contraptioneer. Around these parts they happen in June or so but I think they are more common and spread throughout the year in the mid west.
Good luck in your search for steam. It would be very fitting to run it off of a boiler built just for it for the first run.
I really admire the quality and innovative work you produce. It blows my socks off.

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:49 am

Thanks!!

But I have to say that it wouldnâ€™t be anything like what it is without all you guys who chime in on these threads giving advice and opinions. I really do view this thing as a big collaboration on many levels.

And as far as steam goesâ€¦

Heh Heh

Great idea, but there's no way I could wait until the early summer steamups start happening. Iâ€™m chomping at the bit right now. In fact, Iâ€™ve already started amassing parts and will probably begin work this coming Sunday (if not sooner).

pinemom · Post by **pinemom** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:01 am

WEEEEEEEEE!
Can hardly wait Le' kitty cat!

This is a wonderous thread, btw, it does take me back to simpler times of hanging out at my grt. grandma, grt. uncle Hermanand aunt sybil's old farm.
Growing up as a kid visiting out there frequently enough is where I beleive the first brain cells of my soon to be mechanicle brain were born.
I would want to be right in the middle of things...kinda drove my uncle batty I think, as I was a "GIRL". and thats just not what girls did back then.
I remember him telling me to "run off now, shell, go help yer grammie with supper fixins"...I'd mope off like a dog whipped, tail tucked.
Then grammie would ask me what was eating me, I'd tell her bout Unk' shueing me off, she'd go out there and holler at all them boys to let me come watch. That I was a'learnin.

hahahaa
yes....good times.
Miss that ol' Cherokee Arkansas woman!
good times good times!

motskyroonmatick · Post by **motskyroonmatick** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:17 am

Fire tube or water tube? I'm looking forward to seeing it.

karine · Post by **karine** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:18 pm

Ah! The good ol days on the farm!
(Here's me at 4, my brother is showing my sister and I how to fix something or the other on the plow truck).

I sure miss running around barefoot all day fixin' things and playing the mud. I think Ill go do that again soon -

Teo del Fuego · Post by **Teo del Fuego** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:45 pm

where did you grow up Karine?

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:13 pm

motskyroonmatick wrote:Fire tube or water tube? I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Monotube, actually. Here's the website for the boiler plansthat I got and am building from (bottom of page). I'm adding a few inches in height on advice from the fellow who made/ the plans. The thing is pretty compact, actually for the steam it *puts out. Like 8" in diameter and about 20" tall.

And this is something MozyBonz should know... I've got plans for this boiler's skin. I scored some copper. Wait 'til you see what I'm thinking of.

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:18 pm

karine wrote:

Ah! The good ol days on the farm!
(Here's me at 4, my brother is showing my sister and I how to fix something or the other on the plow truck).

I sure miss running around barefoot all day fixin' things and playing the mud. I think Ill go do that again soon -

Ever since I first saw it, I've LOVED that photograph. The good old days...

Memories are really sacred things.

Post by **mdmf007** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:35 pm

if it runs on steam, it will run on compressed air.

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Thu May 01, 2008 1:25 am

This thread has re-motivated me to make stuff, something I'd gotten tired of. It became "work", but it's starting to feel like "play" again, almost bordering on "art".
Small example: At work I drive (between fixing stuff) a mild-custom Peterbilt. In the big-truck world, a COOL Pete has a clean roof (no horns) and a solid row of amber clearance lights, not just three center and two end ones. To be really cool, they should be extra-bright. So today I got some 1156 bulbs, 26 watt, to replace the small, low-power stock ones. I'd already gotten glass lenses to replace the plastic originals, to take the extra heat.

But the 1156 bulbs are too big, wouldn't fit beneath the lenses.

Here's where The Contraption 2.0 entered my mind...

The bulb sockets in those lights are mounted on a round piece of flat metal under the lens... so I cut out the middle of that piece, about a one-inch circle containing the bulb socket, and welded it to the end of a piece of one-inch pipe that I'd cut to about 3/4 inch long, and welded that back on where I'd cut it out. Now the bulbs are recessed 3/4 inch and fit fine... and I'm stylin', for no real benefit but the art of doing it!

Not rocket science, but I used to do ridiculous extra effort things like that all the time, stuff that 99% of people will never notice, and had gotten tired of it. Lately I've been more inspired to rearrange metal into cool stuff... largely because you're MAKING a steam engine!

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Thu May 01, 2008 5:58 am

[big grin] That's awesome, Captain!!! [/big grin]

Heh Heh

Stuff like that is what helps me get through the day sometimes. Little things I can look at, chuckle about, and know that I went through some effort for something most people won't ever know about.

We're immersed into this world... it'd seem a shame to not poke about and do cool stuff while we're here.

pinemom · Post by **pinemom** » Thu May 01, 2008 8:10 am

Le Chat...Thats the best statement Ive heard in a very long time!

Immearse oneself and Fiddle about! Fiddle about!
Yee Haw!

thank you!

Im sure we've said it a million....x's 10

But Your gift is bigger then that beautiful Contraption your evolving!

Your gift is the Key to unlock our souls and memories from a time less hurried!

karine · Post by **karine** » Fri May 02, 2008 9:59 pm

For the first time, I think we've left him speechless !

fciron · Post by **fciron** » Sat May 03, 2008 10:23 pm

LeChat, I bought a sheet of roofing copper this week for a project. There will be lots of leftovers. Let me know if you need some.

I'll be back from my art car tour right after Memorial Day.

As for the condensation issue, I bet that draining it at the end of each run will be sufficient to keep the Contraption rolling.

karine · Post by **karine** » Mon May 05, 2008 10:24 pm

oh - and H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y, LCN !

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Tue May 06, 2008 4:08 am

Happy Birthday LeChat!

Let see you were born in 18?? What?

Box Burner · Post by **Box Burner** » Tue May 06, 2008 12:13 pm

Happy Birthday LeChat!

Box Burner · Post by **Box Burner** » Tue May 06, 2008 12:17 pm

Our Contraptionist is a real artist. Look at this...

Underflow

...but we knew that.

Thanks LeChat!

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Tue May 06, 2008 2:52 pm

"Good steam men have no eyebrows."

Jay Leno,
trying to set the hexane pilot on his 1907 White steamer.

Dusza Beben · Post by **Dusza Beben** » Tue May 06, 2008 6:50 pm

gyre wrote:"Good steam men have no eyebrows."

Jay Leno,
trying to set the hexane pilot on his 1907 White steamer.

I always thought eyebrows were merely an early warning system for your eyes.
"Close NOW! Fires a comin'!"

Happy B-Day Le Chat!

DB

karine · Post by **karine** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:08 pm

Hey - Box.. I think Le Chat was thinking about re-naming that "underflow" piece...

karine · Post by **karine** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:16 pm

in the meantime.. you wanna help us finish this cake?!