The Steamboating Forum

I got some goodies for xmas presenets that arrived a few days after christmas from across the pond.

I appologize for the ugly beared faced individual in the attached images.

Some of his garb and his burgee look smart.



-CB

Fly the colours, brother!

Nice threads!

Originally accidentally posted this post on S. Weaver's thread instead of here because I'm an idiot!.
...

I received my new ASME code boiler a little over a month ago. Today I hydro statically tested it successfully! It was a little chilly here in Ohio Today: 40F/4.4C. So we had to preheat the boiler and water with a kerosene torpedo heater to be within the 70F/21C - 120F/49C ASME says as a safe temperature range for hydro testing: My MAWP is 200PSI/13.8bar, and we successfully hydro-ed to 300PSI/20.7bar as per the ASME certified boiler manufacturer recommended.

Next I plan to clean the inside with a little TSP(Tri Sodium Phosphate) in the water and a small fire - to remove any oil or gunk it got during fabrication. After that first steam up and run one of my engines stationary!

She's a big heavy gal, but I am happy with with the end result and what I paid, and I had input into the design so it's custom to my specs. I don't think she will have any problems not being able to provide enough steam.

-cyberbadger

Hello,

Just getting back to your injectors, I think you would find 1/2 size Penberthy or others would be far too big for your job!
meaning you will raise the water and kill the pressure far too quickly to be practical.
In the UK there is a "gap" in new injectors between the model type and the "full size". I have a high pressure (200PSI) model type on Grayling made for 4-6" scale traction engines, works fine but will not lift at all, I had to fit it below the boat water line.
Its a pity nobody make lifting injectors in this mid size (as far as I know).
Regards
Jack

A 3/8 Penberthy would be more like the size needed. I use a 3/8 on Zeltic and it works beautifully. Kapanui and Puke have bigger boilers, and both use a 1/2 inch injector, again a good match, although continuous use would overfill the boiler and kill the steam fairly quickly. Fortunately the engine driven feed pumps don't have such issues.
Daniel

I successfully did a washout of the new boiler with trisodium phosphate and soda ash to clean any residue and to prep the interior steel surfaces for the water treatment I use. Then this friday a lot was accomplished in the first steam of this new boiler, my steam buddy helped me a lot.

All land based, stationary steam at this point. It's about getting the boiler plumbed and working the way I want before I really think about putting it in eventual hull.

We made steam up to 200PSI, we ran a steam engine to make electricity, we installed and tested an untried steam injector, we installed and tested the new ASME Safety Relief Valve, we installed and observed the two Pressure Gauges for the boiler, we installed and observed an analog water temperature gauge, we tested and observed the water level using the three trycocks and sight glass, we installed and tested a steam siren, and probably more I am forgetting... -CB

Cyber,

My two cents on injectors. It seems counterintuitive, but my experience has been that the larger sizes of injector are preferable. They seem to move more water with less steam, the gauge level goes up faster and the steam gauge goes down slower. They also tend, as a group, to be much less finicky about starting and running. I have been using 1/2" injectors for years on boilers smaller than your beauty and would never want to go back to 3/8".

The other injector related item is a recap of something I said a while ago somewhere else in the forum that doesen't come to hand readily. I refer to the "trick starting valve". Tee a globe valve into the injector delivery line and let it drain into the bilge in a way that you can see the end of it. Open said valve wide and prime the injector. Open the steam wide to get the injector to run with a dry overflow while discharging through the open globe valve on the delivery line. Now, gradually close the globe valve and force the water into the boiler. This trick can be useful at both the high and low extremes of your boiler pressure range. This valve combined with another globe valve in the water supply line will make it possible to get results many thought impossible.

Great looking boiler, hope to see boat progress pics soon.

Best regards, Steamboat Mike.

Tonight I have become a convert from the church of penberthy injectors to the church of chicago injectors. I have had lots difficulties with Penberthys.

Tonight I fitted the Chicago Injector(which I had never tried) to my new boiler.....

It worked on the first try!!!

Very easy to operate. It also worked at up to at least 180PSI with no troubles (My mawp is 200). Based on the best literature I could find it was only supposed to run up to 165 PSI.

-CB

Got the penberthy working on steam last night. So I have 2 feedwater solutions working. I still like the chicago better.

-CB