Uniflow Engines

[Lopez Mike]

A motorcycle would work just fine. Great riding here.

The ferry system is all screwed up with a reservation system but bikes go to the head of the line so no reservation needed.

Be sure and confirm well in advance with me as we come and go unpredictably.

mike at southlopezdotnet

[Lopez Mike]

A motorcycle would work just fine. Great riding here. I was zorching around on my VT500FT this afternoon.

The ferry system is all screwed up with a reservation system but bikes go to the head of the line so no reservation needed.

Be sure and confirm well in advance with me as we come and go unpredictably.

mike at southlopezdotnet

[Lopez Mike]

Dunno how that double post happened. Just mud wrestling with the edit function and lost I guess.

[Cyruscosmo]

BMW R1200CE here... But it will be a few weeks yet as she is traped in the living room. I am finishing the last part of my shop which is the storage area. Then I can get the pallets of misc stuff out of the back yard and clear the door so I can get the bike out of the living room. Since the shop has been under construction I kept her in a safe place.

Cyruscosmo

[fredrosse]

"How big can the Tube be before it is considered a Boiler? The Lamont has a small tube for a water tank/steam dryer. Would that part have to be made by a boiler maker?"

If you are following ASME Code Rules, There are two sections relevant. ASME Section I, Power Boilers, is applicable to all parts of a fired boiler. For a Lamont or monotube, this jurisdiction applies to allparts exposed to fire/flue gasses, regardless of tubing size.

The small separator tank, which is not exposed to hot flue gas in some designs, could be built according to ASME rules for Section VIII, Unfired Pressure Vessels. However, in a boiler, up to the main steam outlet isolation valve all falls under ASME Section I, Power Boilers, so compliance with all these Section I rules is also required unless the separator tank is external to the boiler code boundaries. Normally the safety valve is mounted on the separator tank, and main steam isolation valve is downstream, so this tank would fall into Section I, Power Boilers.

[wsmcycle]

Cyruscosmo

You said "The 3D printer is ready to go for some weekend lost PLA casting". I wish to find a place that would cast parts from a "3d printer " sample. Would you please provide the name of a foundry that would do this? Also, What does PLA stand for?

Thanks

[Cyruscosmo]

Hey Wsmcycle

The 3D Printer I have access to actually belongs to a company that a good friend of mine works for. As a result it usually is a weekend thing and the prints can not be over an hour or so long which is actually very small, like 2x2x2. It works for our tests but is not much use for big parts like transmission housings which is what I will be setting up for. Those will take the better part of a whole weekend to print.

So PLA, ABS, Wax, Nylon, UV hardening liquids, formulations of concrete grouts and even spray dedosition metal are all materials used in 3D printing. PLA and ABS are the most comman extruded 3D printer processes you will see in the hobbie arena. PLA stands for... Polylactic acid or polylactide and is a biodegradable thermoplastic aliphatic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn, tapioca roots, chips, starch, or sugarcane.

The reason I chose PLA is that it burns much cleaner than ABS. ABS plastic is used for making Legos and millions of other decently high impact plastic items. When it burns it leaves thick black soot behind that messes up casting. So here is what I plan to do when my 3D printer has been built, which if all goes well I will be late this summer, I hope as Life has a funny habbit of messing up my play time.

First step is design the pattern in some CAD program.

Second is print the part and check for accuracy. The pattern will be a curtain percentage bigger than the finished casting as the metal shrinks when it cools. Different metals have specific shrinkage numbers so make sure your 3D printed part reflects that percentage.

Third step is casing. The pattern is dipped in ceramic slurry and then is coated with 000 fine silica sand. Then when dry about two hours later the process is repeted a couple times with the 000 fine silica sand to make sure all the details are covered. Then a further four or so coats of regular silica sand are applied to strengthen the mould.

Fouth step is burnout. The casing is put into a kiln and heated slowly to set the ceramic and burn out the PLA.

Fifth step is casting. While still hot from burnout the metal is poured into the mould and then covered in dry sand and left to cool slowly. Slowly is very important for cast iron parts otherwise you end up with iron that is difficult to machine.

The equipment to cast with bronze, aluminum, iron or steele will be made and used right here by me.

This link is for the you tube channel of a gentlman who goes by the name of Myfordboy. He has one of the best step by step tutorials of home foundry building, casting, machining and pattern making I have ever run across. https://www.youtube.com/user/myfordboy

As for a foundry that will cast 3D patterns? I have never gone looking for one because I always intended to do it myself when my shop was finished. And that will be here in the next few weeks. Goddess willing and the creek don't rise!

Cyruscosmo

[Cyruscosmo]

Hey Fred... Thank you for the input.

Do you have any experience with actual bearings "Inside" the steam system? Like a shaft of a pump that is always in the hot water? What material is used and how are they lubed? I found some bearings that will handle 752F with something called MoS2 solid lubricant.

I am toying with different ideas for moving water through the LaMont system without having seals to the outside world or being electric.

Cyruscosmo

[fredrosse]

"Do you have any experience with actual bearings "Inside" the steam system? Like a shaft of a pump that is always in the hot water? "

The short answer, No. Finding a pump plunger or shaft seal that can handle water at saturated steam conditions is one of the main difficulties of finding a circulating pump for a Lamont Boiler. Some of the modern supermaterials may work, but I think not. In the larger installations that use boiler circulating pumps of several hundred horsepower, the motors run submerged in boiler water, and this water is externally cooled so the water lubricated bearings can hold up reasonably well. But that technology is far beyond what would work for hobby steamboating.

[fredrosse]

Grundfus pumps for domestic heating systems are hermetically sealed, and run with ceramic bearings that are lubricated only with the hot water they are pumping. The electric drive motor is also hermetically sealed inside the water circuit. That type of pump would possibly be a canadate for Lamont service.

For a Lamont boiler, the circulating pump would have additional serious issues:

1. Pumping water that is at saturation temperature will experience serious flashing to steam whenever the local pressure drops below the saturation pressure. At the pump impeller entrance this will always lower the pressure, and one solution is to put the pump 10 or 20 feet below the steam collector tank.

2. If the saturated water entering the circulating pump has its temperature lowered somewhat by mixing in cold feedwater, then the flashing issue might be conquered.

3. Bearings running in a saturated steam/water environment will also experience flashing when any friction energy increases the water temperature. The solutions are the same as above, add elevation, or send the cool feedwater thru the pump bearings before entering the main circulation circuit.

4 If you want no electric drive for the circulator, then a magnetic drive coupling could be used, many centriugal pumps use this setup across the industries.

But then, why a Lamont boiler when you can accomplish the same advantages (running with constantly flooded coils so the coils will not burnout) with a monotube boiler that has no circulating pump?