Author Topic: Well you have to start somewhere !  (Read 12553 times)

Offline John-Som

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Well you have to start somewhere !
« on: January 01, 2009, 10:04:27 AM »

Well Bernd, when I first got the urge to make something on my new mini lathe two years ago, I bought a little book 'How to make Simple Steam Engines' and this was the result. It ran for all of 30 seconds before self destructing. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Had the soft solder on the boiler succumbed to the pressure it could have been the end of a very brief foray into the world of model engineering.

JohnS
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bogstandard

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2009, 06:36:50 PM »
You never showed me that one John.

Lucky it did stop, otherwise that could have been mounted on your headstone.

But at least you had a damned good go at it, and I also bet, you were well proud of it when it was finished (before running that is).

Bogs

Offline Bernd

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2009, 10:30:10 AM »
Nice little engine there John.

Soft solder on a boiler, wow.  :bugeye: Glad you didn't get hurt.

But it looks like there is a saftey valve on it near the top or is that something else? I talking about that cap with the O-ring under it.

Bernd
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Offline cedge

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2009, 05:21:41 PM »
Guys
A lot of the early toy engines had soft soldered boilers, many of which still run. As long as the pressures are set for below 1 bar or 15 psi operation it doesn't usually create a problems, unless the soldering is badly done  or has cracked with age, damage or has improper repairs. Jensen was the only company using silver solder for many years and they used it only after about 1935, when it became more publicly available. 

John
I've seen much worse.... trust me. Nice go at the thing.

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Offline Bernd

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2009, 06:39:05 PM »
I was just thinking of the boiler running out of water and melting the solder joints to the point of the boiler falling apart.  :bugeye:

My dad had steam engines like that back in Germany in the mid-1930's. He often mentions playing with them. He said they used to hook saws and drills and such up to the steam engine. Said he would play for hours. Can you imagine a kid of preteen years plaing with something like that today, and unsupervised, he said. He's still got his eyes and fingers. :)

Bernd
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Offline cedge

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2009, 07:45:25 PM »
Brend
Happily, I get to meet those sorts of precocious little beggars on a regular basis. the nanny state hasn't captured all of them quite yet. Jensen engines still wind up in their hands and they all still have all their fingers and toes. A scorched finger at 10 or 11 is as educational as all hell.

I did have an "interesting" situation last Christmas. I got a call from a mother who was hell bent on buying her little angel a steam engine. She called about a dozen times over the course of a week, asking all sorts of questions about which model she should buy, along with questions that indicated she was clueless, but determined.

The day after Christmas, my phone rang about 9:00 am and it's the same woman.... sort of. Now she's ranting like a lunatic and cursing better than I do.... A LOT BETTER. She's  going on and I'm trying to determine the problem, while she's hysterically accusing me of trying to intentionally kill her little darling. I'm beginning to think the kid is in some intensive care unit or burn center, but I kept my wits about me.

I finally got her "calmed down" enough to get the story from her. It seems her parents were there to see the kid open his gifts. She held her special surprise until the very last and then with great fanfare handed it her little guy to open. He unwrapped it and that was when Grand dad freaked out and began to tell stories of steam engines exploding and maiming or killing small children. He'd supposedly read about these events from several sources.

The weird part came when she accused me of not telling her that the thing got hot or that it used steam.  I sat there, stunned, as I told here Jensen would be very happy to refund her money if she would just repack the engine and send it back to us.  I did resist asking how she thought a steam engine would run without getting hot enough to make ...you guessed it.......STEAM!!!

I think about that poor kid sometimes and I wonder if he'll survive being raised by his own family. Needless to say, the poor chap never got to play with his new steam engine.

Steve


Offline sbwhart

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2009, 03:34:36 AM »
Hi Chaps

My introduction to steam was through a symilar engine the make was Bernac my Dad had it given him, it had the water site gauge missing but dad was not to be beaten I can remember watching him solder a patch on it, this was my introduction to soldering, I can also rembering my Mum giving my Dad a good B****g  :hammer: when black sooty water dribled out of it over the sofa, ho I forgot to mention my Dad did the repair in the living room  (happy dayze).


Well he got it going, and did I have some fun with it, when the wick ran out I used an old sock as a wick, when the saftey valve got lost I replaced it with a screw, it a wonder I'm still here to tell the tail, well I am, and I've still got that little steam engine I made a new water gauge and fitted a new safety valve and it still runs.

Have
 :wave:
Fun

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Offline Bernd

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2009, 02:44:35 PM »
There is definatly a lack of education in our modern society. :(

 They don't want to know or could care less how that electricty gets to light up the bulb when they throw the switch.  :scratch:

I better stop here before I go into a full mode rant and it'll be  :offtopic:

Bernd
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bogstandard

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2009, 03:21:10 PM »
Just an add on to what Bernd has said.

I display my engines once a year at a steam rally, and I try to explain why the engines were made that way in the past.

My single rotor turbine was made to show how a turbine generates power to give us electricity. Even older people didn't realise how electricity was generated.

I am sure they thought the wiggly amps were just poured into the ends of the cables and miraculously ended up at our houses. I even had one chap try to explain to me that you should always turn the wall switch off, because the electricity was pouring out of the socket if you didn't do it, and he wasn't joking either.

Bogs

Offline Darren

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2009, 03:24:39 PM »
I even had one chap try to explain to me that you should always turn the wall switch off, because the electricity was pouring out of the socket if you didn't do it, and he wasn't joking either.

Bogs

Eh?, I thought they dug em up out the ground  :lol:
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Online Brass_Machine

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2009, 03:26:08 PM »
....I even had one chap try to explain to me that you should always turn the wall switch off, because the electricity was pouring out of the socket if you didn't do it, and he wasn't joking either.

Bogs

 :lol:

I have a very small boiler here that was soft soldered. It was from a kit from, Midwest I believe. Small toy type. Runs maybe 10psi? But in the instructions on putting this thing together they state to not fire the boiler with anything other than Sterno.

I have run it probably about 20 times with no incident.

Eric
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Offline Bernd

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2009, 10:32:01 PM »
As funny as it may sound about those people it is really very sad. Reason being, they are the ones that help create all those wonderful laws on how to save us from hurting ourselves.

Oh well. I know better because I believe my curiousity is greater than a cat's. I just wish I had nine lives.  :)

Bernd
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Offline dsquire

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2009, 05:17:44 PM »

Oh well. I know better because I believe my curiousity is greater than a cat's. I just wish I had nine lives.  :)

Bernd

Bernd

You do have 9 lives. Just be careful that you don't take the 10th one first.

Cheers :D

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Offline NickG

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2009, 05:51:10 AM »
My introduction was at my Grandads house when I was about 8 or 9. It was a Mersey model single cylinder oscillator that he had saved up for at a similar age, the price is still on the box I think, there are some instructions or a sales leaflet too.

Nicely made but well used, before using I first had to help grandad carry out repairs by using a soldering iron heated in the coal fire and soft solder. It's still working now, another project is to dismantle it, resolder and polish up to restore some of it's original glory! It doesn't have a water gauge, or a plug, not even sure if it has a safety valve! There is no regulator though so the steam pipe is always open to the engine. I'm guessing the wick burner doesn't hold enough fuel to boil it dry.

Correct me If I'm wrong but I think even modern mamods are soft soldered, certainly the steam pipe on the one I had from new was.

Nick
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Offline old-biker-uk

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2009, 03:36:42 PM »
I made this many years ago when the kids were quite small, not being mechaninically minded at that age they were unimpressed with seeing it run until, trying to refil the meths tank, I set fire to the coffee table and both hands. Now THAT they did find impressive....


Mark
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Baldrocker

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #15 on: January 30, 2009, 09:09:33 PM »
Quote
I even had one chap try to explain to me that you should always turn the wall switch off, because the electricity was pouring out of the socket
Bogs and anyone else.
My Grandmother firmly believed that you had to leave appliance plugs in to stop electricity leaking out, otherwise why did they call them PLUGS.
Does anyone remeber the double adapters that fitted in the ceiling light sockets? My mum used to run irons, bar heaters, and water jugs of them :zap:
funny thing is we never set the house on fire.
BR

Offline Jadecy

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #16 on: January 30, 2009, 11:42:47 PM »
In a lot of ways we've moved away from the "do it yourself / handy man" days. It is amazing to me what the "educated" public doesn't know. I guess common sense isn't so common!

 :zap:

We always joke at work that if something happens to the network we better have a bucket ready to catch all the 1's and 0's that will be flooding the floor.  :D

bogstandard

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #17 on: January 31, 2009, 12:23:52 AM »
Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity!!

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #18 on: January 31, 2009, 01:27:04 AM »
 :lol:     :lol:     :lol:     :lol:     :lol:     :lol:

Nice one John

Stew
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Offline Bernd

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Re: Well you have to start somewhere !
« Reply #19 on: January 31, 2009, 09:22:22 AM »
But didn't natrual stupidity invent artificial intelligence?
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