Gas-fired LaMont boiler

A special section just for steam engines and boilers, as without these you may as well fit a sail.
Steam Captain
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Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2015 2:32 pm
Boat Name: No Boat Yet

The tube end cranks

Post by Steam Captain » Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:58 pm

Attempting to sort some posts by subject, I show you here how I made the tube ends.

I'll show you some photos of the building in more detail:

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There you can see a wooden block I ground the same radius on as the edges of the water wall - 22mm. The block is held in place to bend the tube up for the cranking to the tube end.

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Above you can see the second wooden block with the same bending radius for the last bend, finished on the photo below. And as you can see, the copper tubes just bend easily. There isn't really a big deal about bending them, but if I get the feeling the tube might collapse, I just grab the tube and push it into the bend. This seems to work pretty well.

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The last picture shows the finished tube end. Having passed this tube bundle, the water will reach this end, which will be connected to the entry of the near-identical 2nd part of the water wall. Brake pipe fittings will connect all 4 parts, forming one single water wall. The reason to crank out the tube is not just due to space considerations (they are thicker than the tube of course), but mainly to keep the fittings away from the heat. I am thinking of a clip-on sheet metal or something simple to shield the fittings from the radiation.
the arduino version steam engine indicator: https://app.box.com/s/b2i0z3gw6ny3rcfdet5xjg8ubrfu799i - app version coming soon
Excuse my occasional long response time. It's caused by the side effects from ptsd.
Steam Captain
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 150
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2015 2:32 pm
Boat Name: No Boat Yet

The cranked-out gas passageway

Post by Steam Captain » Wed Jul 03, 2019 3:35 am

Here is a detail photo of the exit area of the combustion gasses.

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I supported the higher tubes with a thin piece of wood, as you gotta do with every bend if one doesn't use a pipe bender of any sort.
Last edited by Steam Captain on Wed Jul 03, 2019 6:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
the arduino version steam engine indicator: https://app.box.com/s/b2i0z3gw6ny3rcfdet5xjg8ubrfu799i - app version coming soon
Excuse my occasional long response time. It's caused by the side effects from ptsd.
Steam Captain
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 150
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2015 2:32 pm
Boat Name: No Boat Yet

The cranked burner opening

Post by Steam Captain » Wed Jul 03, 2019 6:57 am

The opening for the burner doesn't really look so nice, but it'll do the trick. I just used a cylindrical piece of wood (actually two stacked and glued together) and bent the tubes around.

It seems to be an easy work, but there is one thing making it more conplicated than one would expect. One side is easy, as you stack the tube upwards on the side of the burner place holder. But on the other side, you need to go down until reaching the wooden main body again. But since there are no tubes yet to fit the tube over, one needs to carefully bend it and look at what height the tubes on the first side are sitting. Here is the ugly solution:

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Maybe I could use a tighter bending radius and follow the shapes more closely. But I don't know if that's so important to me. It would highly overcomplicate things and still have only a cosmetic effect.

Now, I need 3 more of these. I hope it doesn't take up one week each like the first one.

Update: 2 done.
the arduino version steam engine indicator: https://app.box.com/s/b2i0z3gw6ny3rcfdet5xjg8ubrfu799i - app version coming soon
Excuse my occasional long response time. It's caused by the side effects from ptsd.
Steam Captain
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 150
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2015 2:32 pm
Boat Name: No Boat Yet

Re: Gas-fired LaMont boiler

Post by Steam Captain » Wed May 20, 2020 3:47 pm

As a major challenge in life has made me lose almost al my belongings a couple of months ago, including my workshop, I have shelved this specific boiler.
I now have a garage I am equipping with new tools and everything to continue with my hobby. The good thing is, that I now can have a real workshop with ground-level accessibility (It WAS tricky having a workshop in a 8m² tenement building cellar.

Since the steam virus knows no cure, I'm still planning on building the opposed-piston steam engine project, the digital steam indicator and a gasoline-fueled monotube boiler.

I really love the boiler concept I was using, but since I need to start from scratch again, I want to make it more conservative:
  • A gasoline blow lamp as the heat source
  • An overall cylindrical tube coil design as you might have seen in scale model hydroplane boats
  • Maybe a second cylindrical tube coil placed around the first one - The annular gap in between is the passage of the flue gasses.
It just needs to be simple, cheap and easy. Nothing spectacular. Everything more complex can be done later, when everything works.
the arduino version steam engine indicator: https://app.box.com/s/b2i0z3gw6ny3rcfdet5xjg8ubrfu799i - app version coming soon
Excuse my occasional long response time. It's caused by the side effects from ptsd.
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