The Steamboating Forum

Lopez Mike wrote: I believe fairly strongly in the concept of "Form Follows Function." ....

What the heck does that hunk of junk with an aircraft engine accomplish besides making noise and offending everyone within earshot?

It's the right tool for the job.

Ken

There's no difference between the guy riding that silly bike down the street and a punk with a boom box on his shoulder with foul language spewing out of it. And yes, it's the right tool for the job if the job is being antisocial. Just another permanent adolescent looking for attention.

So lest we forget, the original question was about Steam Actuated Inlet Valves. Was there a consensus that it wouldn't work because of condensation? Or that it wasn't worth the trouble? It does seem that the losses would be significant compared to lower friction alternatives like mechanically operated poppet valves or a piston valve.

Lopez Mike wrote:But I think most of us are in this hobby for more esthetic considerations.

So would this be why you don't share pictures of your steam launch because you believe that she is not pretty enough and you think the real point of the hobby is a beauty pagent?

-CB

That whole custom bike "American chopper" fad died out and is not relevant now. They took the styling too far and it became boring. And of course, then it was serialized on TV each week with various shows with staged mishaps and competitions to see who could out-hackney who. In the US here, most people grew tired of it. A good friend of mine, made a killing building custom bikes that were showcased by Jay Leno and others. He said it was like a switch, when the last economic crunch hit around 2007, it just died and it hasn't came back. One of the things too, was once people seen how the sausage was made so to speak, they realized there wasn't a whole lot of "custom" going on, these bikes were assembled from off the shelf custom parts from a catalog.

The consensus on the solenoid activated, steam actuated valves? After being around the experimental steam car crowd, something similar has been tried several times and abandoned. But, don't let us discourage you, if you have a way to do it and you think it will work, have at it.

-Ron

Back to the original questions from Tom: "Would it be possible to actuate the opening and closing of valves directly by using steam?"

ANS: Yes,is possible, some USA automobile manufacturers (and others) have dabbled in it.

"Essentially, I'm thinking of a situation where a small amount of steam could be admitted to a small cylinder via a small solenoid. This steam would then force itself against the piston, which is attached to the main valvegear (presumably poppet), thereby opening the valve against the pressure of the steam and admitting steam into the much larger main engine cylinder. It seems like this would be a good way to electronically control an engine while at the same time allowing very fast valve actuation, without the issues inherent in using much larger solenoids to control the admission directly."

ANS: That is a common application for many "Pilot operated" control valves, using fluid power, controlled from some small energy source, to produce bigger motion in a larger valve, nothing new there. High speed response, long life are solvable problems, but low cost and low complexity would suffer in the realms you are considering.

fredrosse wrote:
ANS: That is a common application for many "Pilot operated" control valves, using fluid power, controlled from some small energy source, to produce bigger motion in a larger valve, nothing new there. High speed response, long life are solvable problems, but low cost and low complexity would suffer in the realms you are considering.

I work with quite a few of these (mostly made by hansen). A 12v sel. pulling less than an amp opening 3" valves , but that equates to pretty slow response. There are two types however, vent pressure in to open a larger valve, or the less commonly used ones have a small spring holding the main valve shut, a small orrifice to a balance chamber, and the sel. Vents the balance chamber. The second on is the direction I would look.

DetroiTug wrote:That whole custom bike "American chopper" fad died out and is not relevant now.

According to whom???

Why is important what is popular?

-CB

Quote: DetroiTug wrote:
That whole custom bike "American chopper" fad died out and is not relevant now.

Quote: "According to whom???"

Oh all these people have been saying it for ten years or more:

https://thekneeslider.com/the-chopper-i ... sse-james/

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/general- ... dying.html

https://www.bikebandit.com/blog/post/la ... ng-fastest

http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/i ... et.607584/

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/harle ... 2018-01-30

That whole custom bike "American chopper" fad died out and is not relevant now.

So did the steam boat industry, yet here we are building steam boats, we must all be as crazy as the guy who built that bike.

Why not just put a nice practical outboard on your boat rather than being an eccentric steam boat owner? Perhaps you just like people to look at your steam boat because you like to be looked at? Give me a break.

It is a real pity that so many people have nothing better to do than throw cold water on anybody that thinks differently to them.

Lionel

Back on topic, here is a sketch of a very simply set up. Leak by around the main valve pressurizes the spring side helping it seal. When pilot valve opens the pressure on back side of the main valve decreases, spring is compressed, main valve opens. Pilot valve closes, pressure equalizes and spring closes main valve. Very fast acting, requires very little in the way of pilot valve, simple