Machsupport Forum
General CNC Chat => Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) => Topic started by: chrisjh on December 10, 2012, 03:16:30 AM
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Hi,
This is part of my latest home designed project. I hope the final assembly works as designed.
Machined from Aluminium in my Syil X3 Mill using Mach3, then faced off from the reverse side to final thickness in my manual mill.
Regards
Chrisjh
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Excellent. 8)
What is the project that you are building Chris ??
Tweakie.
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Top Secret ;D
Here is another clue.
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Below is the Solidworks Simulation Video.
I've described most of the details in the text associated with the video.
Today I made the bearing caps to go with the conrods.
I will have to make the eccentric bearing cap again because of a design flaw. I drilled 4mm holes through 5mm thick material. I have now changed the bearing cap design to use M3 instead of M4 fasteners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZz3DWLOitE
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More Progress.
Just completed the Cylinder Block.
Made in 2 halves, bolted together, bored to suit 50.8 (2") Stainless Steel Tube, unbolted, insert stainless steel liner, bolt back together and complete steam porting and cylinder head screw holes.
Next to make the Slide Valve and Valve Plate.
Regards
Chrisjh
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Starting to get there now.
Found a few errors in my design that need correcting.
1. The reciprocating crosshead bar fouls the rocker, someting I missed in the Solidworks model, during my design effort. The solution is to add a heavy 5 x 45 degree chamfer to one corner to give clearance.
2. I drilled and tapped the steam input port on the steam chest on the wrong side. I've added a plug to correct my error.
Yet to make is the aluminium piston, Ertalyte (PET) piston rings, Crankshaft Bearing housing, the PTFE stuffing glands, some stiffening plates and spreader bars for the base, and some bracing for the steam inlet and drain cock plumbing.
I found a temporary flywheel I need to add to the crankshaft to test all works before making the final designed flywheel.
Regards and happy Xmas.
Chrisjh
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More Progress.
Completed the chromate conversion of all the aluminium parts, made the piston and rings, fitted everything together in a mock up to make sure I haven't stuffed up.
I painted the base cottage green & the steel components Ford Satin Black. The brass and stainless components will remain natural.
Xmas is now taking priority so it will be some time before I can make more progress.
Below is some progress photos. Enjoy and have a Happy Xmas and a Great 2013!!
Regards
Chrisjh
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Finally got it functioning!!
Still some work to do but at least it works.
The parts that were CNC machined using Mach3 were:
Both Conrods
Lower Cylinder Head incorporating the Piston Rod Gland Stuffing Box.
All the other parts I machined manually.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo2soYAUao4&list=UUH2jXGbTHQPG5XGYQ9FYxDA&index=1
Regards
Chrisjh
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Nice work Chris 8)
I love steam engines.
Tweakie.
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Very slick, Chris, I always enjoy watching your projects-
Thanks for sharing-
Dave
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Can we run this with solar generated steam and make some electricity?
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Hi,
The design intent is to be able to generate DC power to charge a battery in remote areas I visit where my solar panels are shaded. I have a wood fired boiler design in mind, but won't build it until I am satisfied that the current engine will generate sufficient power using compressed air.
I learned a bit more.
It runs very smoothly now since I attached a machined 5Kg gym weight as a flywheel and re-timed the slide valve back to around 14° angle of advance. This is more in line with the Bilgram diagram I drew up. I had it set by eye to around 27°, far too advanced.
I can get it to run down to 60rpm smoothly and 50rpm with a bit of variation in speed as the flywheel effect takes over at the end of strokes.
I now know that I can generate approx 4A into a 12V system. I hooked up a car alternator to the 130mm drive pulley (I had to make a new 45mm pulley for the alternator to get enough speed). Problem was that all of the energy being generated was being used to excite the field windings in the alternator and not enough speed to get some output for the charging system.
The plan is now to make a permanent magnet alternator which will substitute for the flywheel. Solidworks tells me that the mass of the alternator flywheel is roughly the same as the current flywheel (4.5Kg). I am going to use an axial flux design approach. I have the design done in Solidworks but have had a devil of a time trying to find a steel supply place to cut me 2 pieces of 5mm plate 216mm square. After approaching no less than 4 suppliers I finally found someone who actually got back to me with the plates.
The intention is to make the 216mm square plates into 215mm round plates with mount holes for the magnets and hub. The hub will attach directly to the 12mm engine shaft by means of a 4° taperlock that I make myself, the same arrangement I currently use for the gym weight flywheel.
When I get the plates machined, I'll order the magnets from China.
I'll keep you posted with further progress.
Regards
Chrisjh
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Can we run this with solar generated steam and make some electricity?
I hope you can..Your project seems to be very effective to me so can you share some more information?
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Can we run this with solar panels (http://www.shinesolar.net) generated steam and make some electricity?
I hope you can..Your project seems to be very effective to me so can you share some more information?
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OK,
I’ve decided to publish my steam engine plans free of charge to anyone who want to download them from my website.
I considered selling them on EBay, but quickly realized that once the plans were sent to a single buyer, “the cat would be out of the bag”, so to speak.
Unscrupulous buyers would be in a position to pass on the files, cutting me out.
So to minimize the possibility of others making money from my efforts, I will give away the plans.
Of course, there will be those who try, but they will be up against copies, freely available.
I do like beer however, and would be willing to accept donations of beer, the international currency!!
All pages are A4 size.
So here they are:
Stationary Steam Engine Assembly Drawings (22 Drawings):
http://www.cjh.com.au/steam%20engine/top%20level%20assy.pdf
Stationary Steam Engine Parts List (3 Pages):
http://cjh.com.au/steam%20engine/steam%20engine%20parts%20list.pdf
Stationary Steam Engine Parts Drawings (70 Drawings):
http://cjh.com.au/Steam%20Engine/Steam%20Engine%20Parts%20Drawings.pdf
Stationary Steam Engine Notes (4 Pages):
http://cjh.com.au/Steam%20Engine/Steam%20Engine%20Notes.pdf
Regards
Chris Humphris
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Hi Chris,
Thanks for sharing this absolutely excellent set of plans, drawings & instructions. My complements on your work sir.
Tweakie.