New Guy Here

[newguy2010]

Hello Model folks:
New guy here.
Trying to get into the hobby and learn how to build stationary model steam engines.
This looks like the place to be.

Cheers,

New Guy

[jgb7573]

Hi New Guy, and welcome.
The Stationary Engine section has been a bit quiet of late, but come along and dig in. I've only built one engine (Perseus, pictures further down in the board), but am slowly (VERY slowly) working on a second one.
Where are you up to? Have you cut metal or are you still at the ruminating stage?
Best wishes,

John

[newguy2010]

John-

I made a crude steam engine for a high school science project, but have only recently begun to get interested again in steam modeling.

My dad passed a few years ago, and I have a number of his engines, but not much knowledge of machining. I am learning though, and have a few designs I would like to build, such as an open column twin marine 2" bore, and an ericsson style ironclad engine.
I willl see if I can attach a few photos.

Attachments:

[newguy2010]

This is the rough drawing for the twin 2" bore open column marine. I considered making it compound, but I think I will just use two 2" cylinders.

Attachments:

[alanstepney]

Of course, there is nothing to stop you designing your own engine.
However, actually building it might throw up some unforseen problems.

Also, why?

There is well over 100 years of Model Engineer magazine, some 4,000+ issues, plus many others, all of which have contained innumerable designs.
You could pick one of those and save a lot of time and effort in the designing, and also be fairly sure that it would work.

But, if you enjoy the planning as much, or more, than the building, then an own design is worthwhile.

[newguy2010]

Alan-
I think you hit the nail on the head.
I have not given it much thought, but yes, I think I do enjoy the design as much or more than the construction.

There is a great deal of drama in anticipating whether or not the design will function as you thought it would.

And there is the enjoyment of discovering how the designers from the 1,800's did it.

I would liken it to archeology.
You can go to the store and purchase some impressive fossils, but it is not quite the same as digging around and finding something unique yourself, and then trying to figure out exactly what you found, and how it worked.

[jgb7573]

Hi there newguy, those look intriguing, particularly one wit the opposed cylinders. I know that 19th century steam engineers built all sorts of unusual looking engines designed to fit in the bottom of a hull. Is this based on one of those? Driving outboard rocker 'vees' to a central crankshaft below the cylinders is certainly unusual. Have you given much thought as to valve gear as yet?

[newguy2010]

John-

I have been using this engraving as a guide, plus the model constructed by Rich Carlstedt, and a video and photo of one in a museum in the US. Rich build the "Monitor" engine, and this is the engine for the ironclad "Monadnock". Found the engraving in a public domain book.

It was "I have to have one of those" moments.

Rich uses an double valve with over-riding cutoff, but this will be a single valve per cylinder.

This is a simplified version of the Ericcson ironclad variety of steam engines, and is designed more for the newer guys, than the veterans.

It is an interesting configuration to say the least.
I could not find CAD drawings, so I created some, and then created an animation to verify the geometry.
I will try and attach the animation of the CAD file.

Attachments:

[newguy2010]

Here is a photo of the one in the US Museum (not sure of Museum name).

Attachments:

[newguy2010]

Here is a link where you can click on the GIF file and see an animation of the Monadnock engine.
You have to wait until all 16 frames are loaded for it to run.
May be better to right-click and save the GIF file to your computer, and then run it with Internet Explorer or a similar browser.

sites.google.com/site/jorgensensteamsite2/steam-engine-animations

[jgb7573]

Interesting! Thanks for the link to Bob Jorgenson's site. It's going to take a while for me to get through that!