New to this Forum

Dear Steam Enthusiasts.

Im new to this Forum, have with interest followed your discussions, and learned more about Steam propulsion,
Was a member in SACA in the early 80´s, inspired by Doble Cars,,,I winded some coils to build a Flash boiler, but smaller (8mm) tubes intend to make a Steam motorcycle.. Tested the boiler, it steams lika crazy but after it clogged up in the tubes, cleand it, the same happened again.
Cancel the steam on the road ideas,, Played more with Gasoline Guzzling Mucle cars instead.
Get further experiences by Steam at our local Museum Steam Ry club, working and driving fullsize Steam engines,,
also built a Live steam 71/4"gauge Locomotive to run around my house, and sometimes take it then visiting other Countries in Europe tracks.
Its fun,, but far from from full High-Performnace use of Steam..as then employed in Automobiles.

Since the La Mont boiler discussion appears in your Forum I become interested if it can be developed further,, or is ok as is,,
will follow with interest and hopefully have something to say in the future..
Many thanks this fare.. PS. Hopes you can understand my "English"
Jan S

Dear Jan S., The English is fine, but we can use more information on the clogging up of the tubes. It is not clear if this is on the inside or outside. Usually when people burn wood the soot and creosote and tar and ash and all coats the outside of the tubes and clogs them up. That problem is solved by having a very well insulated fire box with lots of turbulence or swirling around with pre-heated secondary combustion air so that the wood smoke is burned cleanly before it hits any heat exchanger where the fire is quenched. If the insides of the tubes clog up then one needs to use rain water that has no lime in it or several of the standard water treatment chemicals. Steam is not easy. One needs to have good combustion and good water chemistry. Good luck. Tom Kimmel

Thanks Tom

Cut the tubes, find the inside of the tubes full of gray stuff like concrete, perhaps it was Lime, know today the importance to use distilled water or rain water, At our Steamlocomotives Lime is built up on the outside of the Firetubes, very difficult to remove,
afraid to use wrong chemicals that can corrode parts inside the boiler,,
Earlier used a brown liquid Named Nalco, coldnt find out if it gives any protection, to an used boiler..,,

Jan S

Hey Jan,

You may wish to look into the treatment that Porta developed for steam locos. Not only for private use, but also to keep those old locos steaming.

Here is a link to a paper on it:

[www.portatreatment.com]

Their main site:

[www.portatreatment.com]

I have no personal experience with it, but the reported results are difficult to find fault with.

Caleb Ramsby

Hello Caleb

Many thanks for the very Intersting Links,

Have the Book Red Devil by Dawid Wardale, he get many advises and lessons from Mr Porta,,
Our locomotives tubes somtimes looks like the ones in the Links,,

The Fireboxes are of Copper they collect very little Lime plack.
On some locomotives the Firebox staybolts are also of copper,,
The Scrapvalue of the Locomotives increases with the Copper prizes.

Jan



.

Jan,
I'm really curious where you are. With the price of copper scrap these days, I am amazed a loco with serious amounts of copper in it still exists. Some of the power metering wiring disappeared from our company substation. Either the thief was incredibly lucky or it was one of our electricians, because the circuit being measured is at 13,000 volts. You gotta REALLY want to get that scrap to take a risk like that!

Tom

Tom
Copper and its alloys have been stolen from many Steamlocomotives at Museums and Societies here in Sweden.
Earlier scrapping of Locomotives have also been performed by societies to cover losses of robbed parts from other
Locomotives,, believe this is the situation all over the world as long as the Coppers value continues.

Jan

Jan,
On my steam bicycle with a montube generator I don't use an oil pump so I have to mix oil in with the water. Although I did have a clog once. I managed to fix it by putting some vinegar in the coils and blowing water backwards through the boiler a few days later. Mixing the oil in and coating all the walls of the generator with it prevents the buildup of lime in general I have been told there has never been a problem with it in general by others who have worked with the Richard Smith Boilers.

Robert