Steam engine valve help please?
Steam engine valve help please?
(OP)
I built a small steam engine from hardware store parts.
Problem: Flywheel doesn't haven enough mass to push piston back into cylinder.
My solution: Attach some sort of valve between cylinder and boiler that regulates the steam. Example: open>close>open>close>open>close
Such that will open one second and then close long enough for the piston to come back down, then open again, thus allowing the steam to renter and push the piston.
Anyone know a valve like this or have any suggestions???
Here is a sample picture I drew on what I have now.
http://fi les.engine ering.com/ getfile.as px?folder= 1da7b77a-2 8e7-42b8-9 36e-896b60 43b8ec& ;file=stea m_engine_o utline.jpg
Problem: Flywheel doesn't haven enough mass to push piston back into cylinder.
My solution: Attach some sort of valve between cylinder and boiler that regulates the steam. Example: open>close>open>close>open>close
Such that will open one second and then close long enough for the piston to come back down, then open again, thus allowing the steam to renter and push the piston.
Anyone know a valve like this or have any suggestions???
Here is a sample picture I drew on what I have now.
http://fi





RE: Steam engine valve help please?
You do indeed need a valve. It has to admit steam to each face of the piston in turn, and release steam and condensate from the other face.
You can get incredibly detailed design instructions in any of several reprint books available from Lindsay Publications.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
Your 'single acting' steam engine will work, given the correct valve and a large flywheel and not too large a load. It won't be able to start itself from every crank position.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
http://www.john-tom.com/html/SteamPlans.html
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
Look at this animation:
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RE: Steam engine valve help please?
Please read and study at least some of the tons of historical material that's available on steam engines.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
Without to much thought being put into it, what you need is a slide valve connected to the crankshaft, timed to open to live steam for the power stroke which then closes as the exhaust port opens to atmosphere for the return stroke.
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
But since you are determined to learn everything the hard way, go ahead and build what you have proposed, instead of seeking affirmation here.
Try to do it with minimal investment, keep detailed notes, and you might learn something. We might learn something, too.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
First engine I ever ran myself was 1968 or 69. It was in the ME Lab and had been placed there after being retired from the University's power plant quite a few years previously.
The head of the ME Dean had passed the word to ME students to go to the lab on Engineers day and demonstrate some piece of equipment, so I started up this engine. At the time I worked in the campus power house and the replacement engines to this engine were still there, so I knew a little about how to heat up the steam line, etc. I didn't know exactly how to time it to start it, but grabbing the flywheel and hanging on it to start it rolling did the trick. It rolled right off and ran up to the (flyball) governor. (I didn't synchronize it, however.)
I'll never forget the look on the Dean's face when he rounded the corner all proud of his 'boys' in the Lab showing off stuff and found me running this engine. He tried to act pleased, but I knew he wasn't. Large flywheel running open with civilian visitors in the lab...
That old engine was scrapped about 4 weeks later. And these engines weren't made of hardware store parts either.
rmw
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
http://www.shf.org.au/LdyHpt/LdyHpt.html
The "Power House" museum in Sydney runs a number of old steam engines on live steam, the highlight for anyone with the least interest in engineering is the Boulton and Watt steam engine built in 1785.
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Nothing like the smell of steam and lub oil and the quietness of a steam engines in operation.
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
RE: Steam engine valve help please?
http://www.mrsr.com/