BOILER PRIMING

[DetroiTug]

Burned coal on the tug one time and that was the last time. Gave everything a nice industrial patina

-Ron

[cyberbadger]

industrial patina

I like to call this an steam engine/vehicle "in its working clothes".

-CB

[Mike Rometer]

I'll have to try that one on 'herself', "These are not my working clothes dear, it is just my Industrial Patina."

[dhic001]

There are much easier and safer ways to clean boiler tubes on a VFT boiler than using a lance. Zeltic, Puke, Eliza Hobson and Kapanui are all set up with a soot blower in the smokebox. basically it is just a very large blower, in Zeltic's case a 1/2 inch pipe pointing straight up the middle of the funnel. The blower is on a ball valve, so it can be thrown open in quick bursts. Procedure for use is this:
1-Position the boat so the wind is on the beam, and not upwind of anything fancy and white
2-Open firebox door fully
3-Open blower in two or three short blasts, only 5 seconds or so
4-Close firebox door
5-Resume normal course

Soot blowing is done every half hour to an hour, although it can be longer periods if using a lot of forced draft.

The result is that normally I would only clean the tubes with the tube brush once a year, or if I'd been burning very bad coal. If I don't soot blow regularly, performance will drop noticeably.

Kapanui has a very efficient squat VFT boiler (121 inch tubes, only 25 inches long), and has gone 12 years without the tubes being cleaned! We've known they've needed cleaning for awhile, and soot blows have had to be every half hour to maintain performance, but it has managed it.

Puke at one stage had a lance fitted instead of the soot blower, it was a dangerous thing, couldn't be used with passengers onboard, and burnt us numerous times. it was replaced with the proper soot blower, and the lance is somewhere on the bottom of the harbour....

I wouldn't have a VFT boiler on solid fuel firing without a soot blower in the smokebox, to do so would be a recipe for bad steaming.

Daniel

[johngriffiths]

Another off topic anecdote but relevant to Daniel's post. A few years ago a certain boilermaker purchased cheaply a large quantity of 5/8" tube so this is what he fitted to his boilers. At one Windermere rally the coal was somewhat bituminous and we were bemused to see the owners of these boilers remove the smoke box cowls and using a piece of reinforcing bar someone had found, proceed to hammer it down the tubes in an attempt to dislodge the accretions. These boilers had large numbers of tubes and it was quite late in the morning before the last of the three people effected was able to fire up. Bituminous coals need a big combustion space so the heavy volatiles can have space to burn without hitting relatively cold metal. My boiler has a small space over the grate so I stick to anthracite.

JohnG

[wsmcycle]

Johng>>>"so I stick to anthracite"

Please tell your method for burning Anthracite? What size grade do you use? What brand? I really like the way the anthracite is hard and not so dirty.
Thanks

[cyberbadger]

I am going to have a stack blower (above the top tubesheet), if that's the same as a sootnlower. But you aren’t tearing my 1/2" multipurpose steam hose from me.

I wouldn't have a VFT boiler on solid fuel firing without a soot blower in the smokebox, to do so would be a recipe for bad steaming.

Huh? There were VFT's in various uses historically without sootblowers in steam donkey's and shop boilers. This one I have trouble swallowing...

-CB

[TahoeSteam]

I think the necessity of lances or soot blowers can be application specific, pertaining to boiler type, obstructions (baffles or tubulators) fuel type, etc.

I.E.... In my launch with the monotube boiler there is a bar that sits at the top of the tube nest with many holes drilled in the bottom of it, and one large hole on the top pointed up the funnel. The bar has a bevel gear on it and is spun, steam issuing out of the bottom holes cleaning the tubes, steam issuing out of the top hole providing sufficient draft to send it aloft. Now I burn kerosene in my launch and needs direct impingement of the steam on the tubes to dislodge the soot. No amount of induced draft would be capable of dislodging it alone due to the nature of this particular soot.

In my father's launch "George H. Sandin" we burn wood and oil in a Semple VFT 40 with tubulators fitted. We operate a steam lance approximately once per 8 hours steaming, which in years past would mean a few times a week. Safely and without mishap for over 30 years I might add. Even with the lancing the tubes still need to be brushed at the end of the season. This boiler is also fitted with induced draft from a steam blower, and an exhaustive driven turbocharger. The boiler prior to this was a Roberts style watertube built by my father that had an extremely powerful blower aimed up the funnel, but it was still necessary to use the lance if one wanted to clean the tubes. Furthermore the boiler prior to even that was a VFT out of a vulcanizing plant for which my father originally built the lance that survives to this day.

My father's bost "Persistence" has a 100sqft Worthington style watertube boiler built by John York with 50sqft of economizer on top of the tube nest. We've Ben burning wood and oil in "Drydock trials". An extremely large and effective blower is aimed up the funnel and does nothing but to dislodge soot in the funnel itself. We've fitted soot blowers in the middle of the tube nest on both sides made from tubes with many holes drilled in them supplied by steam rated hose so they can be rotated up and down and moved in and out. They've proved to be somewhat effective, but the absolute most effective in this application is once again the steam lance.

I've been on another boat with an wood and oil fired B&W style watertube and due to the nature and arrangement of the baffle plates no amount of lancing or induced draft would ever dislodge all the soot, making it necessary to remove the casing and brush by hand the areas between the baffles... if there were blowers mounted in these areas that would not have been necessary.

I have used the lance since my dad entrusted me with it at the age of 10, and in 20 years I have not been burnt, scalded, or otherwise maimed. I have found it to be hands down the most effective method by which to dislodge soot while under way from the tubes for multiple different types of boilers firing the gamut of conventional fuels (save for natural gas, propane, hydrogen, and uranium ).

I have also operated our friend's launch "Goodspeed" which is now in my possession. It has a Semple VFT 40 and no tubulators. Burning strictly walnut and oak chunks the size of two large fists she would burn very hot and clean, making only a yearly brushing necessary.

These are my direct experiences. Not all fuels, nor boilers, are the same.

[DetroiTug]

Burning only well-seasoned wood and there is no issue with soot in the flues. Cleaned them once in four years. Exhaust up the stack is like a stack blower running all the time. I think the draft is pulling fire up the flues and it burns everything out.

Agree with Wes, it's a case by case issue.

-Ron

[johngriffiths]

Johng>>>"so I stick to anthracite"

Please tell your method for burning Anthracite?

Engine driven fan blowing into the ash space beneath the grate driven by a plastic belt in the form of a tube jointed with Al connectors. Use charcoal to get it burning, takes 40 mins from cold to underway. There always seems plenty to do during the 40 mins. The fire banks well when we go for a meal ashore.
I'm in elevated company using this method, the Simpson Strickland launch "Birdie" built 1899 has one. The leather drive belt broke when I was steaming her up the Liverpool (Albert) Dock so the return was slow but the fire stayed in without using the blower.

JohnG