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Re: Neander Motors - 10 years ago
Hello Jerry, Jerry, how does this uniclevis thing work? I came up with a good way to attach a piston rod to the cross slide for my "cross slide block" design, and again a way to attach the piston rod to the piston. The idea was to keep the weight down and the height as short as practical. Someone else coming up with the same thing wouldn't surprise me. I wasn't thinking of patby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Hello, I thought that the high temperature for oil or plastics like Peek was about 650 deg F. More than that and it will start to oxidize and break down, or carbonize. How many times through an engine, if the oil is reclaimed can it make the trip at high steam temperatures? Rolly are you indicating that oil injected directly into the steam is really insufficient lubrication? I have thouby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Karl, I appreciate your trying to protect Harry. Right now I imagine that he is frustrated. I have looked over some of Harry's patents and I consider him a very prolific and talented inventor. I also like him. That said, I agree that it is frustrating for some of us about getting good engineering information out of Cyclone. Now this thread is about , or has become, a concern of the mby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: Skinner/Fuller valve gear. - 10 years ago
Hello Stan, Do you know the rpm the engine on fig 16 was running at? Also was the poppet valve opening upward away from the cylinder and was it a tulip shaped valve common to IC practice? An upward opening tulip (more like a mushroom) valve has a way of getting in the way of it's own fluid flow. Interesting to see the pressure wave from the resonance and it's sine wave shape. It looks lby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Hi People, Anything left to talk about? Bill G.by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: US Land Steam Record!! - 10 years ago
Chuk, From the looks of the debris field, as I can count it the car must have rolled about 11 times over. Ouch! Really glad your head is not too damaged or neck. For the road car, maybe something like the little 1/4 ton truck I designed, the three cylinder double acting, cross slide block engine. 160 - 200 hp That's about all that is condensible on a hot day. That condensers radiaby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: US Land Steam Record!! - 10 years ago
Hi, Glad to hear you are doing OK Chuk. Was the old engine trashed, or are you looking for a bigger one? How long until you are, say, back to work or jogging or something? Back to normal? My Best to You, Bill G.by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Jim & Andy, "Bill, That was always the way I was taught too. Some people rely on delusion and fantasy in place of hard reality." Jim, Delusion and fantasy are indeed a lot harder to live with than reality. When the ice is thin delusion is deadly. Bill G.by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Hello Andy, Philosophy has borrowed some from thermodynamics and other engineering, especially the concept of entropy, both local and global. Information processes have borrowed also. Then there was something to do with black holes and information theory. It sounds important to say it, but don't ask for details. I realize that the entropy of the cylinder steam goes down if the heat isby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Andy, I disagree! The laws of thermodynamics do change. They get more complicated the further one studies them. But, steam is kinda simple, as long as one has steam tables and such, anyway. Stumph's old engines probably had a lot of entropy losses. There would then be an increase in entropy during expansion and another increase during compression. This would result in a sizable incby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Andy, I agree that we should keep the terminology as accurate as possible. It was bad enough when I misunderstood that the Stanley was not a uniflow. I see the exhaust process as isentropic for the residual steam in the cylinder as it is expanding and doing work pushing the exhaust out. I don't know what the end results would be for wet steam though. With wet steam in the mix it won'by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Sidrug, The Cyclone uses/used a tight fitting coil wound around the cylinder, to cool the cylinder and to pick up heat from the exhaust. Feed water ran through the coil. A feed water heater in itself is a form of re-generation using the exhaust from the engine. Picking up heat from the cylinder is a different type of re-generation. This takes heat from the steam as it is expanding. Thby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: Chuk Williams Accident at Bonneville, may be hurt - 10 years ago
Myles, Thanks for the story. We all care about Chuk. It sounds like there were some really nice people out there. Best Regards, Bill Gatlinby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Hello Andy, I hope the world is finding you well. Andy wrote: <Then the power balancing would then adjust the ending pressure to balance the stage powers. For an error margin it always has the lower stages using more steam then the previous by a fixed percentage parameter. > It looks like your compound engine needed make up steam for the lower pressure stages. Did I get that righby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: Skinner/Fuller valve gear. - 10 years ago
Hi Ken, How fast are you planning on turning that engine? Re-compression pressure should pop the valve up enough, but you might have to start throttle at lower pressure. There are just too very many ways to do anything! Jim, What do you think the results may have been, in retrospect, if you had used the Detroit Diesel instead? Best Regards, Bill G.by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Sidrug, Mine would use reheat after the first very high pressure stage. The "trick", as I see it, is to design the first stage to supply all of the steam to the lower two compound stages at a cruising speed for the car on the freeway. This is where the highest engine efficiency is appreciated. At full power it is only supplying about 10% of the steam that the lower two compound staby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: Skinner/Fuller valve gear. - 10 years ago
Ken, So this engine will be a counterflow, which should be a whole lot easier to do than any conversion of an IC engine to uniflow? The exhaust valve under low enough cylinder pressure at B.D.C. can open into the cylinder as standard IC practice, but then the inlet valve must open upward out of the cylinder? An easy way to do this and one I was thinking of for my three cylinder double aby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Stan, I'm not burying the compound for automotive use. That's all there is to it. And mine has reheat. We can agree to disagree, I guess. Best, Bill G.by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: Saturated steam to cool piston rings - 10 years ago
Kerry, A consideration. Abner Doble designed two engines, written about in the Doble papers, called the Super Max and the Ultra Max. (If memory serves a bit.) He ventured the idea of using steam at 1,500 deg F. and water cooling the cylinder walls, I believe with feed water. This is a little bit of re-generation. Saturated steam from the boiler would be a mix of water and steam by the tby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: Skinner/Fuller valve gear. - 10 years ago
Hi Ken, As I recall, I used 0.3" lift and higher accelerations. What was fun was to figure how long it would take using a cycloid curve at those accelerations to send a valve to the moon and back. Not long! Is this design for cam roller? For me, the design load given for the cam roller along with the steam pressure load determined the maximum accelerating force on the system. I cby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: Skinner/Fuller valve gear. - 10 years ago
Ken, If you consider the cycloid curve and look carefully you can notice that it can be broken down into three approximate parts. The first 1/4 of it is all acceleration and very little movement. The second 2/4 of it (the middle of the curve) is mostly movement and the last 1/4 is de-acceleration and again little movement. If there is much clearance in the valve train, such as in excessivby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: US Land Steam Record!! - 10 years ago
Chuk, Always wishing you the best. Any idea when you will be back yet? Bill G.by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: Chuk Williams Accident at Bonneville, may be hurt - 10 years ago
HI, I'm wishing you the very best Chuk, I didn't think anything would go wrong! A speedy recovery to you. Next year you WILL set the record to beat. Best, Bill G.by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: US Land Steam Record!! - 10 years ago
Hi Chuk, That's "Petal to the metal" Chuk. Best of luck. Since this is a possible attempt at a world record for steam can the Bonneville people roll the salt flat for you. I have seem movies of cars trying for the 200 mph mark and the salt left a rooster tail behind the car. Kicking up that much salt and a rough surface cost hp. What are the surface conditions? Bill G.by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Thanks for a little support Rolly. It is appreciated. Kerry, The compound I am talking about with 16 -40: expansion ratio is a two stage. That is two pistons, both unaflow in it's simplest form. The low pressure piston re-compresses as I said using the little receiver volume like a clearance. The pistons are 120 deg offset on the crank and the exhaust port of the first stage is 120 deg aby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Well People, Have we killed off the compound entirely? Will it remain dead for a modern steam car forever? Should we have a funeral and just bury the poor thing? This makes me laugh. Only a compound (at least a two stage one) can give the expansion ratios needed for high efficiency. Mediocre efficiency might be had with a properly designed single stage engine, but now thoughts go towarby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Hi, Jim, dynamic balance with the thing, of course. I was thinking that a difference of power output between the 2 stages wouldn't be too noticeable though. But, then the old Buick running on six out of eight cylinders did jump around a bit. I probably have enough cylinders for this to not be a problem. There is no way or reason for me to think of varying cutoff between stages as thereby Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 10 years ago
Hi Andy, you often have mentioned having equal power output per stage in a compound engine. Do you think it is really that important for engine balance? I'm still for the compound guys. Best, Bill G.by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff
Re: Lika accident and rebuild - 10 years ago
Hi' That's a cute little car. Glad you are putting the energy and time into rebuilding it. Good work. Best Regards, Bill G.by Bill Gatlin - SteamStuff