For our steam boats, rule of thumb is that a pillow block bearing will handle any thrust loads from a prop that fits on that diameter shaft.

Engines w/ journal bearings w/o integral thrust bearings (or pillow blocks ) should have a pillow or flange bearing to handle the thrust.

- Bart

Otter has the same problems w/ her 2.5" x 2.5" single as the counterweights are too small; the old 2" x 2.5" single acting twin was much smoother at speed, of course. I went to a 16"x20" prop from her old 13" x 17" because the new engine ran away w/ the small prop, but at full throttle (180 psi) th...

It has been "Shake, Rattle and Roll" in my old hull above around 350 r.p.m. but the motor mounts were pretty much a trampoline. We'll see on the new hull. Otter has the same problems w/ her 2.5" x 2.5" single as the counterweights are too small; the old 2" x 2.5" single acting twin was much smoothe...

I wouldn't become too preoccupied with a high pitch prop. My opinion to go along with the good ones above, but I think its better to let the engine spin with shorter cutoff with nearly the same steam consumption. Trying to get a lot of torque out of a slow turning engine looks nice but results in v...

The Beach Boys - Steamboat from their Holland album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HPHuhAIPuU

If I was to do it I would look carefully at a toothed belt. Mostly for the silence. And corrosion resistance. For smaller engines this would work really well. For bigger ones, the size belt + pulleys needed becomes problematic With V-belts it is sometimes necessary to use more than one belt to hand...

Well, first order concern is lining up the prop shaft and other things (pumps) driven by the engine, so that usually takes precedence. Otherwise, there's a side-to-side vibration caused by the crankshaft counterweights (unless you have a counter-rotating balance set up ), so keeping the center-line ...

The primary reason to keep the hotwell temperatures high in larger plants is to reduce dissolved oxygen, which is bad for boilers. Subcooling the condensate is inevitable with our small plants running at varying power levels, and given the fact that we're going to shut down soon anyway makes the dis...

Assuming you're using normal hobby steam pressures and temperatures: For reasonably flat surfaces, hi temp RTV works like a charm, esp. if you have a small groove in one of the mating surfaces. You can also use gasket material for automotive purposes - it seems to work fine in my experience. If you ...

As you might expect, there is lots of detail about this in boat design books. One handy method is shaft diameter for Aqualoy or Monel should be 1/17.5 3 bladed prop diameter... so if you're using a 14" diameter prop, a 3/4" shaft would be a bit marginal. If you have a Tobin bronze shaft, the divisor...