DC generator

[eamarquardt]

what we really need is a Trident nuclear sub with wheels under to go camping in..yeah, thats the ticket.

Will it have wheels that retract so the hydrodynamic drag coefficient isn't increased we take it out on patrol (after all I'm sure the Navy will want to use their submarine occasionally).

Just askin.

Cheers,

Gus

[Dale M.]

Its a neat idea.. I have a small honda 2000 generator. I know those are expensive.. But it seems several companies are coming out with cheaper knock offs of them more and more. I would think a small 1000 watt inverter type generator could be found fairly cheap. Not as cheap as a trip to the local junk yard though. Still though everytime I come up with a "project" my cost estimate always is off a little lol

A semi small, semi simple steam powered generator would be awesome.. The idea of easily turning any burnable fuel into power is pretty cool.. Even more so for people like me who live in the country and have no shorage of scrap wood, used oil, ect, ect to burn..

Yeah.... Projects usually end costing as much or more then store bought and work half as well.... Its some kind of universal law OR something....

Dale

[Kody]

Some of you blokes have said some terrible things and have now made me all upset. You should never have said the words you did! I can't stand those words. My only comment comes from the film "Muriel's Wedding" when these famous (Australian) words were spoken -- "You're terrible Muriel!". Please fellas, never use this word again! The word is "STEAM".
Even now I'm getting over excited and looking for coal to burn and blend it with oil and water.
I am in the process (still) of building a 5" gauge live steam loco. However, when I was a teenager, I started to build a steam plant for a model boat. There are only two requirements for a steam plant. A boiler and an engine. The boiler I was making was a flash steam boiler made from 20 feet of 1/4" dia. copper tubing. This was wound around a tapered wooden mandrel and then slid off the mandrel. The boiler was now finished. The coil was housed in a 3" square sheet steel box and heated by an LPG burner. The very hot and dry steam then went to a small engine that also had a small pump fitted that pumped more water into the boiler. It also had an oil pump to lube the engine. The specs. were 1" bore and 3/4" stroke, the steam pressure was over 200 psi and it developed amazing revs. I never got the engine finished.
The same boiler and engine can be used to drive a generator. Watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVN8iHfQl3s and you will get an idea of the power of steam in a small hydroplane. This thing is cruising at just under 120 MPH. The sound is from the exhaust steam. An engine for a generator would not be working as hard as the one in the video and the exhaust can be made very quiet and hardly heard if at all.
The pro's of a power plant like this are:-
Extremely little noise, enormous amount of power for a small size generating plant, cheap to run, easy to use and very safe in operation. If the boiler should explode, there is no volume of steam to create a "bomb hit" on a city. The steam pipe may rupture and everything instantly stops with little noise as there is no huge volume of steam. For really super high pressure power, 1000 psi stuff, stainless steel is used for the boiler tube. Steam power has everything in its favor.
The con's are :-
There aren't any!
Well OK, there are a couple. The flash steam boiler is easy to make but you will need some machine equipment to construct the engine. At the very least, you need a lathe that is also capable of milling as well. I have a Myford Super 7 that can do all kinds of milling, drilling and of course turning. This is not exactly a project to bring over to your buddy's place (if he has a lathe ie.) 'cos this can take a lot of time to do. The engine can be as simple or as sophisticated as you would want it. This is not a project for a beginner to learn how to use a lathe, it is for someone who is skilled in the machining disciplines.
If you can do it, the results are definitely worth it. I had a book that showed how to make a small De-Laval (Sp?) turbine that developed over 5 hp and only 5" diameter. It was used to drive a generator. This could be made by someone with a "home workshop" but I would prefer the steam engine 'cos it has wonderful moving parts that you can watch. The turbine used the same flash steam coiled boiler. Alas, the book has now disappeared thanks to my daughter and her idiot husband/boy friends including all my gunsmithing tools and equipment but that another story I don't need.
Check out the video and also some of the other videos at the end. There is one that shows how to make a super powerful boiler for very high speed model boats. I saw somewhere that a speed of 175 MPH had been achieved but don't know where or when.
Oh, steam power! drool- drool- drool.

Kody

[Shadow Catcher]

One alternate is to use a Balmar regulator http://www.balmar.net/

[eamarquardt]

One alternate is to use a Balmar regulator http://www.balmar.net/

Nice but pricey at over $300 at a discount shop.

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?pat ... &id=711619

Cheers,

Gus

[pete42]

Here I am living life as a big dumb body taking up space here on earth sort of like a tree.
while I'm the main trunk all you other people are the limbs, I support you while you seek the knowledge
where do you people find all these great things Balmar regulators, heating stoves, trailers built from foam
all the while I just rumble along big dumb and happy and clueless.
so don't stop education this old man he really enjoys learning, now if I could just program my beta recorder.

pete

[Kody]

The problem is not what kind of generator to use or how big it needs to be. The problem is how to make the thing spin around without making lots of noise and to do it economically. This is why I love steam power and am so thankful that I am able to utilize it.

Kody

[droid_ca]

The problem is not what kind of generator to use or how big it needs to be. The problem is how to make the thing spin around without making lots of noise and to do it economically. This is why I love steam power and am so thankful that I am able to utilize it.

Kody

Kody are you implying that you know of a way to make steam quiet if so I may be interested

[Kody]

Hi Droid,
Yes there is a way to very quickly produce high pressure steam. It is by using a 1/4" dia copper tube or better, a Stainless Steel 1/4" tube wound onto a 2" dia mandrel. An LPG gas torch is positioned at the end and water is fed thru the tube. It will produce virtually instant steam that is very hot and also dry. Dry steam is much more powerful than "wet" steam. If you have the tools and equipment to build the boiler and engine, you can have a steam plant to produce the goods that you want. The entire steam plant is actually very small as there is no conventional big boiler and all its problems. Steam cars were developed that would have taken over the car world but the oil companies bought all the patents and locked them away. To start a steam car, the key was turned and you absolutely drove away in under 30 secs. You can spend a lot more than 30 secs. to start your car today.
If I were to build a steam plant, I would certainly do it and I hope to do it within a year or two. The info is there and I have all the expertise to build it. The flash steam boiler shown in the video is the beginning of a steam plant to drive a generator. There are many designs of engine readily available to select one that will meet your needs. I will be researching this for myself later on as I definitely want one. The "noise" factor of the exhaust steam can be fully controlled by expanding the steam to atmospheric pressure. This is not hard to do. Check out these videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPWuW8kB ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVN8iHfQl3s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F9nB69F ... =endscreen
http://www.flysteam.co.uk/steaming.htm info for flash steam boilers used for model planes and boats.

If you want more exact info, I can look thru my collection of Model Engineer magazines for technical drawing of engines for a stationary power plant. The size of the entire system is very small if designed correctly.

Kody

[eamarquardt]

....................Steam cars were developed that would have taken over the car world but the oil companies bought all the patents and locked them away..............
Kody

All patents are available to the public. Otherwise one wouldn't know that they were violating a patent until they got sued. Even then the patent would become public knowledge.

Patent have a limited lifespan. After that time period expires anyone had the right to make what is covered by the patent.

http://corporate.findlaw.com/intellectu ... ecret.html

Hope this clears things up.

Cheers,

Gus

[droid_ca]

I like the idea for a steam powered electric generator I had an idea a while back about filtering your waste water and boiling it off as steam to power stuff but was told it wouldn't work


Kody PM sent

[Shadow Catcher]

I have done boiler inspection and have been a steam fan for 50+ years.
There was a man killed about 20 miles from here when his steam tractor exploded, it threw shrapnel over a mile away. He was traveling on a road way and went up a slight rise, with not enough water in the boiler allowing the water to uncover some of the boiler tubes, when he started down the water flashed and the boiler exceeded the ability of the escape valve to vent and the boiler exploded.
The level of complexity required to build, fuel and operate this safely, and other than wow factor in my seldom humble opinion this idea is just not worth it.

[pete42]

we had a steam accident couple three years ago at our local fair grounds during an "old Fashion" day celebration
a steam thrasher blew up thankfully no one was hurt.
but there are more people electricuded than killed by steam everyyear.

pete

[Kody]

Such a disaster would never happen with a flash steam generator. The great safety of a flash steam generator is obtained by virtue of not having a conventional boiler and henceforth, no large volume of high pressure steam to explode out and kill people. The actual volume of a 1/4" tube, 20 feet long is less than 12 cubic inches. Should the tube split or explode, there would be very little damage and the steam can be easily controlled within the 126 cubic inch steel shroud that the flash tube is placed in. I certainly appreciate your thoughts and I fully understand the danger of a conventional boiler but a Flash Steam generator is vastly different and has very different safety issues. The steam is generated on demand and there is no reserve to create a dangerous situation that can seriously harm someone. At the worst, a serious burn may occur but an explosion with a flash steam coil is extremely rare. I have heard of boilers blowing up but I have not heard of a flash steam coil exploding. I know such a thing can and will happen as there is a very definite limit to the strength and stability of copper tube. Stainless Steel is banned for building boilers but is perfect for a flash steam coil. In all the years of building live steamers (5" gauge) and running them, I have yet to see a boiler explode. Safety in the steam loco club here is paramount and all engines and boilers of every type are inspected regularly for the problems that arrive. A flash steam generator when understood and built accordingly is very safe to operate.

Kody

[droid_ca]

Kody, I sent you a message